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UC Merced Journal of and Great Basin Anthropology

Title The Challenge of Archaeological Research in the Colorado : Recent Approaches and Discoveries

Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/36z4d465

Journal Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology, 16(1)

ISSN 0191-3557

Author Schaefer, Jerry

Publication Date 1994-07-01

Peer reviewed

eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Joumal of California and Great Basin Anthropology Vol. 16, No, 1, pp. 60-80(1994).

The Challenge of Archaeological Research in the : Recent Approaches and Discoveries

JERRY SCHAEFER, Brian p. Mooney Associates, 9903-B Businesspark Ave., , CA 92131.

Colorado Desert archaeological studies over the last 20 years are reviewed to discuss how some of the trmjor research issues pertaining to the region have, or have not, been successfidly addressed. Regional culture history and adaptation to environmental change have been the particular focus of many studies that are not widely known outside the local CRM community. Among the key questions are defining an early man phase of occupation, characterizing the Paleoindian and Archaic period occupations, and interpreting Late Prehistoric adaptations to the infilling and final recession of Lake .

HLUNTER-GATHERE, R adaptations to one of to the north (Jaeger 1965). It is the most arid portions of the southwestern desert a mistake, however, to view these boundaries as region have been the subject of extensive absolute and thereby overlook the considerable archaeological investigations over the last 65 cultural ties to each of these neighboring areas. years. Several key research issues involving Bisecting the region is the , a chronology, adaptations to environmental great, tectonically active, alluviated rift valley diversity and change, and material culture that pushes elevations down to over 82 m. (273 studies have been substantially resolved or ft.) below sea level. The brought into clearer focus. Among the issues runs along the northeast side of the trough and discussed in this paper are the resolution of is partly obscured by the great Imperial or alleged pre-Paleoindian dates, excavations of Algodones (i.e. the Sand Hills). On the rare Archaic Period sites, and evidence for the east side, the Mountains and related diversity of adaptive patterns and chronology of chains form a low-lying basin-and-range prov­ occupation during the successive infillings and ince. On the west side, the sharp escarpments final desiccation of . As the title of the San Jacinto, Santa Rosa, and Laguna implies, the goal here is to highlight some of the mountains rise to between 2,100 and 3,000 m. advances in and frustrations of doing Colorado (7,000 to 10,000 ft.) above the desert floor and Desert archaeology. provide the closest access to upper Sonoran and The Colorado Desert is actually the mountain habitats. northwesterrunost portion of the Simply put, two dominant environmental Life Zone that extends east into and elements characterize this area: heat , and south into (Fig. 1). and aridity. The rainshadow effect of the This 10,000-square-mile area is bordered by the Peninsular Range keeps all but the largest to the east, the Gulf of Cali­ Pacific storms out of the area, and the effects of fornia to the south, the Peninsular Range and the Sonoran summer system are Pacific Coastal Plain to the west, and the minimal. Due to low elevation and aridity, this ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH IN THE COLORADO DESERT 61

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Fig. 1. The Colorado Desert area, with sites discussed in the text: 1) Blyth geoglyphs (Dora et al. 1992); 2) quarry complex (Schaefer 1986b; Shackley 1988); 3) Dunaway Road site (Schaefer 1986a); 4) Dry Lake (Eighmey and Cheever 1992); 5) East Mesa complex (von Werlhof et al. 1979; Gallegos 1980, 1986; von Werlhof and McNitt 1980); 6) Fish Creek (Clewlow et al. 1992); 7) In-ko-pah Gorge complex (Shackley 1984); 8) Indian Hill rockshelter (Wilke et al. 1986; McDonald 1992); 9) Indian Wells complex (Everson 1992); 10) IT site (Phillips 1982); 11) La Quinta site complex (Sutton and Wilke 1988; Arkush 1990; Yohe 1990; Sutton 1993); 12) Myoma Dunes (Wilke 1978); 13) Obsidian Butte (Dominici 1984; Hughes and Tme 1985; Hughes 1986); 14) Picacho Basin site complex (Pendleton 1984); 15) San Sebastian marsh complex (von Werlhof 1980; Schaefer et al. 1987); 16) Tahquitz Canyon (Schaefer 1992a, 1992b); 17) Toro Canyon (Ferraro and Schaefer 1990; Schaefer et al. 1993); 18) Trigo Mountains cache (Shelley and Altschul 1989); 19) Trackhaven burial (Taylor et al. 1985); 20) Yuha burial (Childers 1974); 21) Yuha Wash site (Shackley 1984). is a zone dominated by creosote-bursage scrub only limited human existence were it not for the and desert riparian habitats that would support life-sustaining waters of the Colorado River, the 62 JOURNAL OF CALIFORNIA AND GREAT BASIN ANTHROPOLOGY intermittent New River and more reliable Alamo the Lower Colorado River. The most important River that run through the , environmental fluctuations for human subsis­ seasonal streams that run out of the Peninsular tence therefore centered on precipitation in the Range, a number of widely dispersed springs, Rocky Mountains and that palm oases, and seasonal tanks, and some produced the life-giving spring floods of the ephemeral water sources. This area bears a set Colorado River. It is thus clear that the of cultural contexts and research domains that prehistoric occupants of the Colorado Desert were first promulgated by Malcolm Rogers were confronted with broadly similar climatic (1939, 1945, 1958, 1966) and in subsequent and vegetative regimes, as is presently found. overviews of the area (Weide and Barker 1974; What cannot as yet be determined is the degree Crabtree 1981; McGuire and Schiffer 1982; of microenvironmental variability and the timing Warren 1984). More than 10,000 years of of short-term fluctuations in the Prehistoric cultural development are represented in the Period that may have influenced hunter-gatherer prehistoric remains of this region, defined by settlement and subsistence strategies. the Paleoindian, Archaic, Late Prehistoric, and Ethnohistoric periods. EARLY MAN: ANON-PERIOD? Evidence of Pleistocene environmental The issue of a pre-Paleoindian occupation in conditions are very limited. Pollen-bearing the Colorado Desert has been largely laid to stratified deposits from caves or lake beds are rest. Very suspect dates of over 23,000 years not as common or well studied in the Colorado B.P. were obtained in the 1970s from radio­ Desert as they are in the Great Basin, where carbon-dated caliche at the Yuha inhumation and most climatic reconstructions are based. Very aspartic acid racimization dated bone from the recent data, however, indicate that the area was Truckhaven inhumation. Such dates were used already approaching modern desert conditions by Childers (1974, 1977, 1980) to identify a by the beginning of the Holocene and the advent dubious early man lithic assemblage in the Yuha of the earliest well-documented cultural remains. Desert. Begole (1973, 1981) also attempted to Cole (1986) examined radiocarbon-dated Neo- apply Rogers' (1939) Malpais Period construct toma midden deposits along the lower Colorado to similar varnished and crude stone stools, rock and Gila rivers at elevations below 30 m. (900 rings, and other features in the Anza-Borrego ft.). He found that creosote scrub habitat was Desert. Begole (1973, 1981) asserted dates of established here as early as 14,000 years ago. 32,000 to 70,000 years B.P. In a classic case Additional evidence was derived in 1989 from of cloak-and-dagger, before more reliable dating investigation of a rockshelter cache and Neo- methods could be applied, the Yuha skeleton toma deposits in the Trigo Mountains (Shelley mysteriously vanished and has never been re­ and Altschul 1989). Here, lower Sonoran scrub covered, despite an FBI investigation. The pollen and macrofloral remains extended back to thieves missed some small fragments, however, at least 11,000 years ago. The Trigo Mountain that were eventually dated by accelerator mass study also demonstrated the presence of impor­ spectrometry (Taylor et al, 1985). The Yuha tant mesquite thickets on the margins of the inhumation was firmly placed in the Archaic Colorado River where today none exist. Lower Period at 1,650 to 3,850 years old. The Truck- elevations appear to have provided a refugium haven inhumation was found to be less than 500 for Lower Sonoran desert scrub vegetation years old (possibly in error). Numerous other during the Late Pleistocene. Evidence for an alleged pre-Paleoindian burials from coastal extremely dry Altithermal period is lacking for California were similarly re-dated, indicating ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH IN THE COLORADO DESERT 63 that the aspartic acid racimization dating and when extended to trails, cleared circles, technique on bone is inappropriate or requires rock rings, and lithic scatters on desert new calibration formulae (Bada 1985; Taylor et pavements, may open a whole new chapter in al. 1985; Taylor 1991). The entire concept of Colorado Desert research. early man in the Colorado Desert thereby Malcolm Rogers (1966) postulated three remains extremely speculative. chronological phases of the San Dieguito Com­ plex in the Central Aspect, that is, the area of PALEOINDIAN PERIOD: THE NEED the Colorado and Mojave , and the west­ FOR CHRONOLOGICAL CONTROL ern Great Basin. Each phase is characterized by Efforts to understand the nature of Paleo­ the addition of new, more sophisticated tool indian Period occupation, defined in this region types in the already existing tool kit. No one, as the San Dieguito cultural pattern, has been however, has yet substantiated the validity of thwarted by a lack of diagnostic artifacts and Rogers' phase designations as chronologically reliable dates. Most sites assigned to this period successive changes in the tool kit of a long-lived consist of cleared circles, rock rings, some culture. Begole (1973, 1981) applied Rogers' geoglyph types, and heavily varnished simple typology to date rock rings and cleared circles stone tools (Rogers 1966). All occur on the in the Anza Borrego Desert based on associated surface of stabilized desert pavements that offer tools and degree of varnish, but he provided no few opportunities to establish either relative or objective, independent, corroborative evidence, absolute dates. For stratified Paleoindian and lengthened the dates of each phase until the deposits, one must go to either coastal San San Diego I extended back to 22,000 to 32,000 Diego County (Warren 1966; Carrico et al. years B.P. Indeed, these phase distinctions may 1991) or Ventana Cave in Arizona (Haury likely be due to economic specialization at 1950). To help resolve these basic dating specific site loci, or even due to sampling error issues, Colorado Desert archaeologists have whereby later phase diagnostic artifact types are anxiously observed over ten years of research not represented in specific archaeological collec­ on cation ratio dating of desert varnish (Dorn tions. and Oberlander 1981; Dorn 1982; Dorn et al. For now, the San Dieguito cultural pattern 1986; Watchman 1992), Accelerator radio­ can best be defined as a hunter-gatherer adapta­ carbon dating of minute amounts of organic tion based on small, mobile bands exploiting matter extracted from under the varnish may small and large game and collecting seasonally help to calibrate the cation ratios. The available wild plants. The absence of milling technique was recently applied to the famous equipment from the complex has been seen as anthropomorph and zoomorph Blythe geoglyphs reflecting a lack of hard nuts and seeds in the and resulted in plausible dates between 1,060 ± diet, as well as a cultural marker separating the 65 and 1,195 ± 65 years B.P. (Dorn et al. San Dieguito Culture from the later Desert 1992). Although some recent results in the Culture (Rogers 1966; Warren 1967; Moratto Mojave Desert and Australia seem promising, 1984). Portable manos and are increas­ the technique is still fraught with problems ingly recognized at coastal sites that radiocarbon (Bamforth and Dorn 1988; Nobbs and Dorn date in excess of 8,000 B.P., and in association 1988; Dorn et al. 1992; Bierman and Gillespie with late assemblages 1994). However, it will continue to be applied (Kaldenberg 1976; Bull 1984; Gallegos 1987), at geoglyph sites in the Colorado Desert (Jay With regard to the Colorado Desert, Pendleton von Werlhof, personal communication 1993), (1984:68-74) noted that most ethnographically 64 JOURNAL OF CALIFORNIA AND GREAT BASIN ANTHROPOLOGY documented mortars for processing hard seeds, evolved from adaptations to a changing environ­ honey mesquite, and screwbeans were made of ment. The Early Archaic phases (dated to wood and do not preserve well in the archaeo­ 8,000 to 4,000 B.P. on the San Diego coast) logical record, although pestles and manos that are well-represented in southwestem Cali­ should be preserved. fornia and southwestern Arizona appear to be Numerous cultural resource management missing from the Colorado Desert archaeolog­ (CRM)-generated settlement pattern studies also ical record. This has led Julian Hayden (1976) indicate some basic elements of what is now and others to cite Antevs' (1948, 1952) Alti­ imprecisely recognized as the San Dieguito thermal period of a hot, dry climate in the Great Culture. Sites are characteristically located on Basin and Sonoran Desert as a probable cause. flat areas but the largest aggregations occur on Evidence for severe environmental conditions in mesas and terraces overlooking larger washes. the Colorado Desert are lacking. The Early Ar­ These are zones where a variety of plant and chaic, as indicated by stone circles and sparse animal resources could be located and where remains on desert pavements, was characterized water would at least be seasonally available. by very low population density and forager Regional climatic reconstructions would cause (residential) strategies. This, like the Paleo­ one to assume that at the beginning of the indian Period before, has left little signature in Holocene, these areas were somewhat more the archaeological record of the Colorado suitable for habitation, although the Neotoma Desert. During a transitional Middle Archaic in midden studies demonstrate that the early San Arizona, population density appears to have Dieguito inhabitants were already confronted increased and there is some indication of mixed with arid conditions on the Lower Colorado forager-collector strategies. Shackley (1986, River, although to what extent we do not know. 1990) concluded from obsidian studies and Pendleton (1984) made a case, based on artifact morphology that territorial ranges of ethnographic analogy from Colorado River- social groups were being defined at this time, based tribes, that the San Dieguito occupation in possibly as a result of population increase and the Colorado Desert was focused on the river competition for resources (Wills 1988). The floodplain. Surrounding desert areas may have extent to which these concepts are applicable to been used only to a limited degree for special the Colorado Desert remains to be seen. resource exploitation within a foraging radius of The Late Archaic in California (4,000 to logistically organized collecting groups. She 1,500 years B.P), as currenfly defined by the tested her model with one of the largest late Pinto and Gypsum cultural patterns, is investigated arrays of sites and data sets in the represented by remains of diversified hunters Picacho Basin of southeastern Imperial County. and gatherers who adapted to drier and warmer Among her findings was the fact that the many Holocene conditions, specifically at the higher cleared circles recorded during the survey phase elevations of the Mojave Desert and Great of the project bear no cultural associations or Basin. As reconstructed in these areas, the patterning and may as likely have been produced Archaic pattern focused on the opportunistic by wind action on creosote bushes. exploitation of large and small animals, with a greater emphasis on milling tool food processing ARCHAIC PERIOD: technology to exploit seasonally available seeds ROCKSHELTER RESEARCH and nuts. Based on ethnographically derived Implicit in early research into Archaic models, flexibility of group size and mobility Period hunters and gatherers was a culture that were used to schedule activities to take advan- ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH IN THE COLORADO DESERT 65 tage of seasonally abundant resources. Both Indian Hill and Tahquitz Canyon occur The only well-documented and substantial at the juncture between mountain and low Archaic Period component in the Colorado desert. So where are the lowland Archaic Desert derives from Indian Hill Rockshelter in Period sites? Some are probably masquerading Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, examined by as so-called San Dieguito sites on undatable Wallace and Taylor (I960), Wallace et al. desert pavements. Some, in optimal habitats of (1962), Wilke et al. (1986), and McDonald the Imperial Valley and Colorado River Valley, (1992). The Early Archaic was missing, as have been either buried under many meters of usual, but Late Archaic remains were found to alluvium or long plowed asunder. Some sites a depth of almost 1.5 m. underneath extensive may still be accessible, buried under alluvial Late Prehistoric Period components. These in­ fans or in deep rockshelters, but they are largely cluded 11 rock-lined cache pits, numerous invisible from the surface. Both Indian Hill and hearths, 21 Elko Eared dart points, other flaked the Tahquitz Canyon rockshelters bore no sur­ stone and milling stone tools, and three inhuma­ face indications of an Archaic component. An­ tions, one of which was radiocarbon dated to other example is a single component, erosion- 4,070 ± 100 years B.P. The quantity and var­ exposed deposit along San Felipe Creek near the iety of remains, with evidence of extensive junction of Grapevine Canyon. A radiocarbon storage, led McDonald (1992:155) to conclude date of 4,980 + 100 years B.P. was obtained that this was the "home base" or "hunting from that site (McDonald 1992:16). camp" of late Archaic hunters and gatherers. A rockshelter in Tahquitz Canyon near Palm LATE PREHISTORIC PERIOD: Springs produced only the second Colorado EMERGING APPRECIATION OF Desert occurrence of rock-lined cache pits in HUNTER-GATHERER COMPLEXITY association with what appear to be cached AND FLEXIBILITY manos and metates and an array of lithics asso­ Some of the most productive research has ciated elsewhere with an Archaic occupation, come from the study of Late Prehistoric and but no temporally diagnostic artifacts or radio­ ethnohistoric sites associated with Lake Cahuilla carbon dates (Schaefer 1992a). Low artifact and its final recession. A large and well-pre­ variability and density at Tahquitz Canyon in­ served data base now exists for testing very dicate a much less intensive occupation than at specific propositions regarding hunter-gatherer Indian Hill. The site was used primarily for adaptation to profound environmental change. caching by people whose residence was located The cultural pattern in this period is elsewhere, and probably within the context of a defined by desert and riparian oriented mobile very mobile settlement strategy; this is a well- groups living in dispersed seasonal settlements. documented pattern throughout the Southwest The pattern first developed on the Colorado (Wilke and McDonald 1989). Other inhuma­ River around A.D. 500, presumably from a tions in the Colorado Desert can also be added desert Archaic tradition and influenced by the to the Indian Hill Rockshelter corpus, now that agricultural-based culture on the the Yuha cairn burial makes sense. All these upper . The nonperishable Patayan remains indicate a low population density of material culture complex includes buff ware highly mobile hunters and gatherers who shared ceramics from lowland sedimentary clay a tradition of styles and adaptive sources, micaceous brown wares from upland strategies that encompassed all of southern residual and sedimentary sources, clay figurines California to the coast and western Arizona. and pipes, small triangular, side-notched, and 66 JOURNAL OF CALIFORNIA AND GREAT BASIN ANTHROPOLOGY serrated projectile points, portable stone manos, more on wild foods (Castetter and Bell 1951; metates, pestles, and mortars, bedrock grinding Hicks 1963). The prehistoric Patayan world slicks and mortars, soapstone arrowshaft was multicultural and inter-cultural, representing straighteners and figurines, pumice abraders, many dynamic adaptive strategies and social widely traded shell beads, worked bone tools, systems but sharing common elements of burials, rock art, and geoglyphs. technology, material culture, and ideology. They erected rock-outlined jacal structures, Long-range travel to special resource col­ semi-subterranean earth houses, simple ramadas, lecting zones, trading expeditions, and possibly or rock-lined brush huts, depending on the some warfare are reflected by the numerous season and function of the settlement. Storage trail systems throughout the Colorado Desert; was an important aspect in seasonal subsistence trail systems that are associated with accum­ strategies. The more sedentary groups also built ulated ceramic "pot-drops," trail-side shrines, elevated granaries and all groups cached food rock art, and other evidence of transitory and other items in ceramic ollas. activities (Johnston and Johnston 1957; Johnston Malcolm Rogers (1945) first defined the 1980; Waters 1982a, 1982b; Schaefer 1985; von pattern as the Yuman complex, dividing it into Werlhof 1988; McCarthy 1993). One of the three chronological phases. Although the as­ most impressive trails, currently under investi­ semblage does characterize the probable proto- gation by Jay von Werlhof and the Imperial Yuman ancestors, the pattern was indeed readily Valley College Museum, is through Indian Pass adopted or had already been acquired by the in the Chocolate Mountains. Malcolm Rogers Cahuilla (a Takic group) who settled into the previously investigated shrines along this trail and Santa Rosa Mountains. (Waters 1982c), and it was undoubtedly one of Ethnographic sources also indicate many shared the main routes for people travelling between elements of cosmology and ceremonialism be­ the Colorado River and Lake Cahuilla. Some tween different groups, probably as a result of of these trails probably were in use well before trade and cultural interaction. A wide diversity the Late Prehistoric Period. The widespread of adaptive patterns and setUement strategies occurrence of obsidian from the Obsidian Butte was practiced by peoples who possessed the source at the southern end of the is Patayan material culture assemblage, if the yet another indication of extensive exchange ethnographic present is any indication. Patterns networks (Dominici 1984; Hughes and True of mobility, degree of reliance on , 1985; Hughes 1986). Shell beads in the desert nominal size of economic units, kinship sys­ from Pacific Coast and tems, alliance patterns, and other social- sources are yet another indication of established economic factors between groups varied with trade systems that extended in all directions. habitat range. For example, compare the In periods of Colorado River flood failure mobile hunter-gatherer oriented strategy among or washouts, wild plant and animal resources the to the more sedentary, agricultur­ were relied upon to avoid starvation. Even in ally oriented and Mohave. Individual the best of times, wild foods are estimated to groups also shifted settlement and subsistence have accounted for 40 to 70 percent of the diet patterns to adapt to localized environmental (Castetter and Bell 1951; Driver 1957; White changes. Environmental perturbations might 1974; Kroeber 1980). The higher elevations cause larger groups to segment into small served as upland desert resource collection economic units, to become more mobile, and in zones for Colorado River and desert-based the case of the Colorado River area, to rely Patayan groups. Of particular importance were ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH IN THE COLORADO DESERT 67 riparian wash legumes, seed-producing species, for shellfish, fish, waterfowl, cattail reeds, and plus cactus and . Many Patayan groups in other economically important resources for the the western Colorado Desert apparently did not local inhabitants (Wilke 1978). The lakeshore adopt agriculture until historic times, except attracted people from the Colorado River, the possibly the ancestors of the Kumeyaay Mojave Desert, and the Peninsular Range, and (Kamia), who probably maintained cultivated they all left their remains on the relic shoreline. fields in the Imperial Valley after the desiccation There is also evidence that at least four major of Lake Cahuilla (Gifford 1931). Unfortu­ lacustrine intervals, lasting 100 to 250 years nately, sites relating to the reoccupation of the each and separated by very short or incomplete Salton Trough along the New and Alamo rivers interlacustrine periods in the Late Prehistoric were destroyed in the great flood of 1905-1906 Period, affected human settlement patterns or by later agriculture. Patayan sites in upland (Waters 1983). The Colorado River finally re­ regions consist of caches, rockshelters, open air turned to its original course as a result of residential sites, and specialized resource tectonic forces, base-level changes accompanied exploitation localities. Territoriality was also a by deltaic alluvial deposition, or a large flood factor in determining adaptive foci. Upland re-routed most of the flow back into the Gulf of Patayan whose main base camps were not on the California about A.D. 1580 (Waters 1983:375). Colorado River relied more on wild resources Evaporation caused the shoreline to gradually than Lowland Patayan, who spent a greater recede, drying up the littoral marshes and portion of their schedule on or near the flood- embayments. By about A.D. 1540 to 1600, the plain (Gifford 1931; Hicks 1963). No sub­ water became too saline to support much wild­ stantial Late Prehistoric sites have been life or had dried up entirely, and most of the investigated on the lower Colorado River flood native human population would have eliminated plain because they have all been obscured by the lacustrine environment from their seasonal alluvium or recent agricultural developments. rounds to focus on other parts of their territories Investigations have therefore focused on the in the Peninsular Range and on the Colorado smaller temporary camps in the desert areas or, River, or established new settlements along more intensively, on Lake Cahuilla-associated springs, rivers, or walk-in wells in the Imperial sites. and Coachella valleys. Approximately 1,200 years ago, the Colo­ Hundreds of sites remain along the relic rado River broke through its natural deltaic cone beachline at the maximal 12-m. Holocene lake above the Gulf of California and turned north level. Most surface sites have been dated to the into the Salton Trough (MacDougal 1914; Sykes final maximal lacustrine interval between about 1937). For the next 450 years, the river poured A.D. 1430 and A.D. 1580. Earlier sites from into what is now Imperial and Coachella valleys three prior intervals have been found buried in to produce a 184-km. long, 54-km. wide, and the beach sands and are much less common. 96-m. deep lake. The present Salton Sea is an Among the most interesting recent finds by artificial, accidentally made, miniature version Everson (1992) is a Sedentary Period Hohokam of what was once one of the largest freshwater jar with crushed phyllite temper, found in a lakes in North America. An -like sand in Indian Wells, which was radio­ lacustrine environment then developed around carbon dated to 900 + 80 years B.P. (dendro- the shoreline, at about 12 m. above mean sea calibrated date A.D. 1022 to 1280). The vessel level. A string of shoreline marshes and shape conforms to the low-shouldered jars of embayments ringed the lake, supporting habitats the Sacatan Phase recorded at Snaketown 68 JOURNAL OF CALIFORNIA AND GREAT BASIN ANTHROPOLOGY

(Haury 1976:206). This was precisely the dynamic environmental situation. As one might period of increasing westward expansion of expect, what was originally developed as a Hohokam culture, extending as far as Gila Bend rather simple model has been shown to be much (Vivian 1965; Wasley and Johnson 1965). more complex. Recent studies in Arizona have indicated The first significant study of prehistoric substantial Hohokam-Patayan interaction, much Lake Cahuilla adaptations was conducted by of which may have been in the realm of esoteric Wilke (1978). With an explicit focus on paleo- knowledge, in addition to utilitarian items and ecology and diet, Wilke examined floral and exotic trade goods (Shaul and Andresen 1989). faunal remains from midden deposits and well- Too few early Patayan sites that predate Lake preserved coprolites at Myoma Dunes, Wadi Cahuilla or identified Hohokam artifacts have Beadmaker, and other sites along the north been found in the Colorado Desert to adequately shore of Lake Cahuilla. In what is the most assess the extent of cultural interaction or authoritative work on Lake Cahuilla cultural influence that Lake Cahuilla may have had ecology, Wilke (1978) demonstrated that people between people on either side. Parallels were exploiting a wide array of lacustrine between Hohokam and Patayan figurine styles littoral resources: cattail and bulrush (or tule); provide one research orientation, but this is aquatic birds, including mudhen and eared hampered by the paucity of examples from dated grebes; Anodonta mussels; and several Colorado archaeological contexts (Hedges 1973). Some River fish species, including humpback sucker, recent finds demonstrate that styles shared by bonytail chub, and striped mullet. Added to the Patayan and Hohokam, and possibly asso­ this list was the typical array of desert plants ciated esoteric knowledge, continued well into and animals, including screwbean, honey the 18th and 19th centuries, long after the mesquite, grass seeds, cactus, lagomorphs, Hohokam ceased to exist as a cultural entity. rodents, and desert tortoise. Gobalet (1992) Eighmey and Cheever (1992) reported a Hoho- provided a synthesis of fish studies in Lake kam-like steatite reptilian figurine from a Cahuilla and suggested that additional species cremation burial on a recessional shoreline of and hybrids may also be detectable. Lake Cahuilla that radiocarbon dated to 250 + Wilke (1978) used several lines of evidence 50 years B.P. Schaefer (1992b) documented a to conclude that these sites represented year- cache of figurines, one with Hohokam-like round residential bases of Late Prehistoric coffee eyes and the others of the tubular Period peoples who permanently moved out of variety more typical of central California and the surrounding deserts and mountains to the the Great Basin, All the figurines and the 12-m. shoreline, although he did not discount vessels were made from the same unusual clay the possibility of other settlement types also source and were probably made by a single occurring. Seasonally specific resources ap­ artisan. They were found in association with peared to cover almost the entire annual round, miniature vessels in a burnt house in Tahquitz although winter resources were definitely under- Canyon that dated to the mid-19th century. represented, with the exception of Dicoria seeds Sites can also be found below the 12-m. (Wilke et al. 1979). Stored foods would have high stand; remains of camps that followed the supplemented the diet unfil late spring. Pinyon receding waters to elevations beyond 240 m. nut hulls were also found, indicating collecting below sea level. At least a dozen major survey trips to upland resources, a pattern well-doc­ and data recovery projects have shed significant umented for the desert Cahuilla. Furthermore, light on how Patayan peoples adapted to this Wilke (1978) agreed with Aschmann (1959) that ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH IN THE COLORADO DESERT 69 the final recession caused major population sustained permanent habitation or significant adjustments in neighboring areas as the Lake permanent population shifts. Only small, Cahuilla populations established new residential seasonal, temporary camps were possible, and bases in the Peninsular Range foothills, and the final recession only caused shifts in seasonal presumably, along the Colorado River. Wilke scheduling and not wholesale population dis­ (1978) cited reports of increased site density in placements and re-adaptations. areas surrounding the Salton Basin, as well as The debate between Wilke and Weide has his own collaborative efforts at Perris Reservoir greatly influenced the course of subsequent (Wilke 1974:28-29). Applying Weide's (1974) research. Several important advances have been calculated evaporation rates for the Salton Sea made, particularly with regard to chronology and other inland water bodies, Wilke (1978) and more explicit definitions of hunter-gatherer postulated a rapid and continuous desiccation settlement and subsistence systems in the Colo­ that lasted some 60 years, with the receding rado Desert. The first problem was to establish waters eventually becoming too saline to support if permanent residential bases actually existed any aquatic resources, which would have on the Lake Cahuilla shoreline. Wilke (1978) destroyed the optimal marsh habitats at a very published only the results of the fecal studies, so early point in the recession. the range of behavior reflected by his database Wilke (1978:39) used Weide's (1974) cal­ was very restricted. Fundamental models and culations of the hydrological regime of Lake observations now have to be made that accu­ Cahuilla to reconstruct a stable lacustrine littoral rately characterize the seasonality, scheduling environment during the high stands at the 12-m. strategies, social group size, and range of shoreline, which fluctuated only two or three behavior that the appearance and final recession feet. Weide (1974) concluded that with con­ of Lake Cahuilla affected. This requires ex­ tinuous normal Colorado River inputs of 16.96 plicit and comparable measures for group size, million acre feet per year, the Salton Basin settlement strategies, and duration of occupa­ would have filled to the maximum 12-m. level tion. This is a challenging task, as those who within four to five years. In addition, a have applied forager-collector models to the relatively balanced ratio between hydrological archaeological record have learned (Binford input from the Colorado River and output from 1980, 1982). Variables to be considered for evaporation would have been attained under determining residential bases include site size, conditions of known low inflow. Weide (1974: midden thickness or depth, artifact density, 15) continued by questioning the stability of artifact variability, presence of multiple Lake Cahuilla shoreline habitats, given expected or designated cremation grounds, fluctuafions in the shoreline. These were of presence of ceremonial artifacts, and variability unknown duration and periodicity but are of features or other evidence of site complexity certainly evidenced by numerous recessional and expected at a residential base of collector- processional shorelines and by complex beach oriented hunters and gatherers. Site morpho­ and lake stratigraphy. Weide (1974) suggested logy should also be compared to ethnographi­ that inland spring-fed streams and desert cally documented residential base and temporary riparian habitats provided more reliable staple camp sites. These are often overlooked obser­ plant resources than the shoreline ever could. vations or are not explicitly addressed when Weide and Barker (1974:106-107) continued the assigning site types to surface assemblages and argument, suggesting that fluctuating lake levels when interpreting both survey and excavation provided too unstable a habitat to support data. 70 JOURNAL OF CALIFORNIA AND GREAT BASIN ANTHROPOLOGY

The idea of permanent residential bases on and Rosenthal 1989; Arkush 1990; Ferraro and the Lake Cahuilla shoreline would seem intu­ Schaefer 1990; Goodman 1990; Yohe 1990; itively attractive given the large amount of fresh Cerreto 1991; Jertberg and Rosenthal 1992; water in the middle of the desert. Surface Schaefer et al. 1993). surveys in the late 1970s and early 1980s by the Ceramic assemblages at a significant number BLM, Westec Services, the Imperial Valley of sites in the La Quinta area and all of the College Museum, Wirth Associates, Cultural Toro Canyon area are dominated by Tizon Systems Research, and others in Imperial Brown Ware, a ceramic type made from resid­ County showed the pattern is not so simple (see ual clays in upland areas. This is very sug­ Gallegos 1980). Sites were found to be un­ gestive of a seasonal round from base camps in evenly distributed along the shoreline, and their transitional or upland areas, where the Tizon geomorphology showed a very diverse range of Brown Ware was made, to temporary camps in desert-lacustrine interfaces. Many areas of the vicinity of Lake Cahuilla, where the long, straight beachline with shallow contours was transported, used, and eventually discarded. would not have been conducive to the develop­ Cahuilla ethnographic sources also support this ment of marshy habitats, and these areas are model (Schaefer et al. 1993). Of excavated usually site-poor. Sites instead are concentrated sites, the average midden thickness at Lake along embayments and sandy spits, where major Cahuilla sites is only 5 to 10 cm. with artifact washes empty into Lake Cahuilla, and where densities of 16 to 100 items per m^ Compare parallel dune areas developed that supported this to the Tahquitz Canyon residential base economically important mesquite groves. where midden thickness is anywhere from 10 to Areas where mountains or alluvial fans 50 cm. and artifact densities range from 100 to came abruptly down to the shoreline also 400 items per m". Rare exceptions occur and offered very different environmental effects these require additional investigations and from fluctuating lake levels. These zones explanation. Sutton and Wilke (1988) found 30- appear to have the greatest concentrations of fish cm. thick midden deposits extending down to traps, particularly where alluvial cones extend over 50 cm. below the surface at CA-RIV-1179 from nearby canyon mouths to the lakeshore. in La Quinta. This site may have been part of The areas of Myoma Dunes, Indian Wells, and a major residential base complex from which La Quinta at the northwest end of the lake may both Lake Cahuilla and terrestrial desert appear to contain larger and more densely resources were exploited. Yet, based on spaced site clusters, but they in no way seasonality of ecofacts, Sutton and Wilke (1988) characterize much of the south and eastern sides interpreted the site as a temporary camp and not where sites are more widely distributed and a permanent village. Sutton (1993) proposed a typical of seasonal temporary camps. Recent spring-summer occupation focus based on diet data recovery projects in Riverside and Imperial and seasonality inferences from coprolite and counties by the University of California, midden contents. This conclusion parallels Riverside, and CRM firms have consistently results from Imperial County sites. Sutton displayed shallow midden development, low suggested a settlement model that is transitional artifact quantity, and minimal numbers of between Wilke's lacustrine-based village model cremation burials compared to sites in upland and historic Cahuilla settlements near permanent areas (von Werlhof et al. 1979; von Werlhof water, but exploiting terrestrial habitats. and McNitt 1980; Gallegos 1984a, 1984b, 1986; Located nearby is a major cairn complex (at Shackley 1984; Sutton and Wilke 1988; Breece CA-RIV-2823) which Sutton and Wilke (1988) ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH IN THE COLORADO DESERT 71 suggested was used to drive . It In a related project undertaken by Schneider is possible that the site also had ceremonial (1993), six milling equipment quarries were connotations. intensively examined in the Lower Colorado Additional evidence that Lake Cahuilla River and Lower Gila River areas. These lacustrine resources were not necessarily specialized quarry sites were found within the primary to the Late Prehistoric occupancy was contexts of both mobile hunters and gatherers found in excavations at and more sedentary mixed horticulturalists. (Schaefer 1988). Here, over a mile from the Schneider interpreted these sites as functioning shoreline, was found a large array of temporary within a primary procurement strategy in her camps around ephemeral pans. Radiocarbon examination of the social, economic, and tech­ dates, fish bone, and ceramic types demon­ nological factors of milling tool production and strated contemporaneity with Lake Cahuilla, but use. the focus was clearly on the Atriplex sp., As a result of easier access to more favor­ wolfberry, and other halophytic plants around able, contiguous, terrestrial habitats, whole these seasonal water sources. Among the many families would establish temporary camps on the hearth features were workshops for the west and north sides, leaving behind a more production of sandstone metates, as well as varied assemblage of artifacts and features. chalcedony, obsidian, quartz, and metavolcanic Sites on the eastern shore, however, contain projectile points. Lake Cahuilla fish bones have fewer features and tool types indicative of also been found at other interior sites, including special purpose visits. These differences are Indian Hill Rockshelter, Toro Canyon, and reflected in very different arrays of ceramic Tahquitz Canyon. The shoreline thus was not types, lithic materials, and flora and fauna that the only optimal habitat but just one in what was differentiate the north, south, east, and west a seasonal round. How the shoreline was quadrants of the Lake Cahuilla shoreline. East scheduled into that round was determined by the and west shoreline topography were also quite culturally relevant topographic associations different. The gradual slope and broad indenta­ between desert and lakeshore. On the west tions of the west shoreline meant more extreme side, a more diverse resource base was available fluctuations in shoreline locafion as water levels due to proximity to the Peninsular Range and retreated through evaporation and advanced with the wide variety of elevation-specific resources flood period recharges. On the east side, pre­ and riparian habitats within a relatively short vailing westerly winds, unimpeded by the distance. On the east side of Lake Cahuilla, no Peninsular Range, blew the beaches into steeper optimal habitats existed on the long trek between berms that formed long sand spits and embay­ the Colorado River and the shoreline. The ments that were less affected by lake level Imperial Sand Dunes were an obstacle for fluctuations (Gallegos 1980, 1986; von Werlhof Colorado River peoples, with only the Glamis personal communication 1993). and Buttercup passes for access. Passes through A more complex picture has also emerged or around the Chocolate Mountains were also for the final recession. No longer can a required, with extensive evidence found of lithic continual, 60-year, linear retreat from the quarrying at the southern end of the Chocolate maximum 12-m. shoreline be supported. Mountains, probably conducted within an Excavations at the Dunaway Road site in embedded resource collection strategy of people southeast Imperial County revealed a substantial travelling between the river and Salton Trough recessional shoreline site on a 3-m. high beach (Schaefer 1986b; Shackley 1988). berm at about sea level elevation (Schaefer 72 JOURNAL OF CALIFORNIA AND GREAT BASIN ANTHROPOLOGY

1986a). Thousands of fish bones were found, along desiccated embayments after A.D. 1500 including the usual suckers, bonytail, and that may have also been supported by late par­ mullet, but also previously unreported tial infillings. Recessional beachlines in many specimens of the large machete or tarpon and areas have been destroyed by natural erosion or the Colorado squawfish (Roeder and Sails agricultural development. In northem San 1986). Among the striped mullet were many Diego and southern Riverside counties, lines of small- and medium-sized examples. Since this fish traps remain from continued exploitation of species spawns only in the Gulf of California the receding shoreline to an elevation of almost and then returns to the Colorado River, and also 30 m. below sea level (Wilke 1978:101, 1980). fails to reproduce in the Salton Sea, the A fifth infilling also may have been of short occurrence of immature mullet suggests that enough duration to escape notice by the Ofiate they were washed in from a recharge of the expedition of 1604 and by Eusebio Kino in 1700 Colorado River and not from a temporary halt (Bolton 1916, 1948; Hammond and Rey 1958). in the recession. Large amounts of mesquite This infilling, or a similar event, may have been pollen also suggest at least a springtime known to some early travellers between 1706 occupation when blossoms were harvested and and 1760, and explains why a map published by cooked. This infilling was of sufficient duration Rocque from this period shows the combined to create a 1-m. high beach berm, to put small flow of the Colorado and Gila rivers terminating amounts of cattail pollen into the record, and to in an inland sea (Sykes 1914:15; Wilke 1978: provide hunter-gatherer groups with resources to 53). Smaller seasonal infillings continued to continue an opportunistic lacustrine exploitation. occur during Colorado River flood stages Radiocarbon dates from the site indicate that a throughout the subsequent centuries (Sykes fifth partial infilling occurred between 330 ± 60 1914:19, 1937:39, 43). radiocarbon years B.P. (dendrocalibrated to Something did happen to the Colorado A.D. 1516 and 1659). Unfortunately, this and Desert after A.D. 1600. Many surveys and other late dates of less than 400 years in age do excavations throughout the western edge of the not carry high confidence levels because of Colorado Desert have documented high site significant natural '''C variations (Taylor densities in the Late Prehistoric Period (Wilke 1987:35). Ceramic finds, however, corroborate and Lawton 1975:19; Wilke 1978:114-119). As an intermediate Patayan ll-Patayan III date, as predicted, recent excavations at Tahquitz does the geographic location of the recessional Canyon did indeed show a considerable beachline. population influx after this time, but particularly Other recessional shoreline sites at about the in the 1700s and 1800s, well after the final same elevation have been excavated by Shackley desiccation (Schaefer 1992a), There also seems (1984) at Yuha Wash, by Phillips (1982) at the to be an intensified use of some resources. For IT site, and by Clewlow et al. (1992) near Fish example, Shackley (1984) excavated more than Creek and San Felipe Wash. All of these pro­ a dozen baking pits in the eastern flanks duced evidence of small temporary camps tenta- of the Peninsular Range near In-ko-pah Gorge. fively dated to around A.D. 1600 to 1650, with At least a third of the pits are contemporary all the midden characteristics, artifact densities, with the third or fourth lacustrine intervals, and and artifact diversity typical of the loci of the suggest regular, broad-spectmm subsistence larger sites on the 12-m. shoreline. On the practices in this period, as do the occupational eastern shore of Lake Cahuilla, Gallegos (1986) remains from the upper levels of Indian Hill also found evidence of continued occupation Rockshelter (McDonald 1992). There does ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH IN THE COLORADO DESERT 73 seem to be intensified use of these agave Atriplex spp. harvest. In winter, the population cooking features in post-Lake Cahuilla times, shifted to foothill and upland areas for the but with the greatest intensification in the 19th pinyon harvest and mountain sheep hunts, and and early 20th centuries. A much larger sample in early spring, descended to the foothills for and resolution of radiocarbon dating problems the agave harvest. During the winter and early will be required, however, to determine if a spring periods, the San Sebastian complex region-wide intensification actually took place would have been populated only by the old, following the final recession. There may well weak, and others unable to make the ascent to have been significant population growth and the winter camps. Such a complex may provide concomitant adjustments in settlement and sub­ a clearer picture of a residential base (i.e., sistence after A.D. 1600, but what role, if any, "village") and in comparison may be used to the final recession of Lake Cahuilla played in more accurately characterize Late Prehistoric that growth remains unclear. This is certainly sites, particularly for a more accurate an issue requiring additional serious attention. assessment along the Lake Cahuilla shoreline. One of the most impressive and well- Similar patterns were also evident at the documented examples of a major residential ethnohistoric Cahuilla settlements at walk-in base established on the dried bed of Lake wells and springs to the north, along the base of Cahuilla after the final recession is the the Santa Rosa Mountains, as recently docu­ settlement of San Sebastian. It is associated mented by Bean et al. (1991). Changes in the with a complex of springs, marshes, and social structure and political affiliation of these mesquite dunes on San Felipe Creek (Lebo et al. communities that resulted from disease-induced 1982). Von Werlhof (1980) conducted the first depopulation in historic times is poignantly clear reconnaissance to establish the perimeter of the from their study, as is the complexity of largest site within the complex. Three sections Cahuilla ethnogeography. were later systematically investigated by Wilke (1978:8) was indeed careful to point Schaefer et al. (1987), who found one of the out that a range of settlement modalities highest site densities documented anywhere in probably existed along the shoreline. As more the Colorado Desert. Important descriptions of data have accumulated, we have learned that the settlement were made by several of the Anza settlement along the Lake Cahuilla shoreline expedition members between 1774 and 1776 was not uniform, but was quite variable depend­ (Coues 1900; Bolton 1930, 1931). Combined ing on the geographical and ecological relation­ with other ethnohistoric sources, ethnographic ship of water, marsh, lowland desert, and literature, and interviews, a very large site mountain habitats. As is becoming increasingly complex of seasonal temporary camps was obvious in the archaeological record, variability defined, whose population size and demographic and flexibility in the face of changing circum­ composition shifted with the seasons, political stances are probably the main principles that conditions, and localized environmental governed the Late Prehistoric Period human dynamics. Sites were distributed around the ecology of the area. Similar conclusions are largest settlement at the main spring and the being derived from the debate between adjoining mesquite woodland habitat. A second "limnogood" and "limnobad" models of cluster occurred north of San Felipe Creek and adaptations in the Great Basin adjacent to mesquite dune fields (Schaefer et al. (Bettinger 1993). 1987). Population size increased during late The key concept characterizing Late Pre­ spring and early summer for the mesquite and historic adaptations in the Colorado Desert is 74 JOURNAL OF CALIFORNIA AND GREAT BASIN ANTHROPOLOGY

flexibility. A diversity of adapfive strategies REFERENCES and settlement patterns typifies Late Prehistoric occupation around Lake Cahuilla. The basic Antevs, Emst 1948 The Great Basin, with Emphasis on socioeconomic unit was manifested in the sea­ Glacial and Post-glacial Times, Climatic sonal temporary camp, a site type that occurs Changes and Pre-white Man. Bulletin of not only on the maximal shoreline but also on the University of 38(20): 168-191. inland and recessional shorelines as people took 1952 Climatic History and the Antiquity of advantage of short-term habitats wherever they Man in Califoraia. Berkeley: University could. The changes that occurred after the final of Califoraia Archaeological Survey Reports 16:23-31. recession thus appear to be more of readjust­ Arkush, Brooke S. ment than mass exodus. 1990 An Archaeological Assessment of 1280 Acres of Land Located South of Indio in CONCLUSION Central Riverside County, Califoraia. Report on file at the Eastem Information It is clear what challenges lay ahead for Center, University of Califomia, River­ investigations of each period of Colorado Desert side. prehistory. More convincing means of identify­ Aschmann, Homer ing and dating early hunter-gatherer sites will be 1959 The Evolution of a Wild Landscape and its Persistence in Southem Califomia. required to formulate more sophisticated ques­ Association of American Geographers tions and derive more definitive answers into the 40(3):34-57. nature of early settlement and subsistence. Bada, Jeffrey Also, for both early and late periods, we need 1985 Aspartic Acid Racimization Ages of Cali­ to develop more explicit interpretive models of foraia Paleoindian Skeletons. American the relationship between the archaeological Antiquity 50(3):645-647. record and the human behavior that produced it. Bamforth, Douglas B., and Ronald I. Dorn 1988 On the Nature and Antiquity of the Manix Lake Industry. Jouraal of Califoraia and ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Great Basin Anthropology 10(2):209-226. My thanks to Claude N. Warren, whose invita­ Bean, Lowell John, Sylvia Brakke Vane, and tion to deliver a paper at the session entitled Jackson Young "Archaeology and Prehistory of Westem North 1991 The Cahuilla Landscape, The Santa Rosa America," at the Society for American Archaeology and San Jacinto Mountains. Menlo Park: aimual meeting in St. Louis, culminated in this Ballena Press Anthropological Paper No. expanded version. Special thanks are due Jay von 37. Werlhof of the Imperial Valley College Museum. Begole, Robert S. His many thoughtful and informed comments ensured 1973 An Archaeological Survey in the Anza- that 1 said what I meant and meant what I said. Meg Borrego Desert State Park: 1972 Pre­ McDonald provided both critical peer review and much needed editing. 1 am also indebted to peer liminary Report. Pacific Coast Archaeo­ reviewers Philip Wilke and Steven Shackley, whose logical Society Quarterly 9(2):27-55. comments helped me clarify my arguments. Don 1981 1978-1980 Investigations in the Anza- Laylander of Caltrans, District 11, also provided a Borrego Desert State Park. Pacific Coast critique of Lake Cahuilla chronology, for which I am Archaeological Society Quarterly 17(4): 1- grateful. Christy Rust and Tom Cherry are credited 38. with deciphering my handwriting to prepare the map. Bettinger, Robert L. Finally, thanks to Brian F. Mooney Associates and 1993 Doing Great Basin Archaeology Recently: John R. Cook for providing me with the time and Coping with Variability. Jouraal of facilities to undertake this review. Archaeological Research l(l):43-66. ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH IN THE COLORADO DESERT 75

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