The Prehistoric Fishery of San Clemente Island
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7 The Prehistoric Fishery of San Clemente Island Roy A. Salls Introduction habitat analysis and, based upon the empirical identification of the piscine remains, proposes the San Clemente Island is the southernmost of the probable fishing technologies which were employed. California Channel Islands and has been divided into The methodology of this research incorporates the six topographic or geomorphic zones (Yatsko Chapter many selective processes responsible for these fishing 3). Two of these zones were selected for ichthyofaunal methods and provides a view of local restrictions for analysis due to the abundance of fish elements and the fishery. fishing artifacts observed during the surface surveys and preliminary testing. The analyzed sites are located In developing an interpretive framework based on the on the Coastal Terrace and the Plateau. ecofact, artifact, and habitat analysis, the proverbial argument “what is a sufficient sample?” must be The Eel Point Sites SCLI-43B and C, although addressed. Archaeology itself is a sampling procedure situated on the Coastal Terrace, are within a sand and a complete recovery of any cultural or biological dune. Big Dog Cave (SCLI-119) is located on the sample from the past is impossible. In part, this debate Coastal Terrace but within a quarter km from a sandy stems from the fact that a fossil fauna assemblage beach and accompanying dune area. The Columbus passes through several stages before it reaches the Site (SCLI-1492) is located on the northern section of analyst (Klein and Cruz-Uribe 1984:3): the island’s Upland Plateau and the Nursery Site 1) The life assemblage: the community of live (SCLI-1215) is at the head of a fault valley which animals in their “natural proportions.” provides easy access to the well-protected landing at 2) The death assemblage: the carcasses that are Wilson Cove on the northeast shore (Figure 7.1). available for collection by people, carnivores, or any other agent of bone accumulation. The objective of this study is to develop an interpretive 3) The deposited assemblage: the carcasses or framework for the reconstruction of prehistoric portions of carcasses that come to rest at a fisheries on San Clemente Island. This model includes site. the biological and physical conditions of the marine 4) The fossil assemblage: the animal parts that environment which impose adaptive constraints on survive in a site until excavation or collection. fishing cultures. No attempt is made to reconstruct the 5) The sample assemblage: the part of the fossil prehistoric diet of the island’s marine-adapted popula- assemblage that is excavated or collected. tion. This survey of aboriginal fishing regimen investigates the native fisheries through site marine Pacific Coast Archaeological Society Quarterly, Volume 36, Numbers 1 & 2, Winter & Spring, 2000 The Prehistoric Fishery of San Clemente Island 53 Fig. 7.1 San Clemente island. The faunal sample from each of the five sites varied in fauna. These column samples were processed through relation to the total volume of the excavation. Large a series of U. S. Standard Laboratory screens in an fish faunal assemblages, such as Eel Point (with over a effort to recover the elements of the smaller species million elements) and the Nursery Site, were analyzed such as sardines (Sardinops sagax) and anchovies through a randomly selected, reduced sample. The (Engralus mordax). The column samples yielded the faunal collections from the smaller excavation volume same species that had been recovered by standard sites, such as Columbus and Big Dog Cave, were screening to 1/8 inch. analyzed from the total midden volume excavated, thereby processing the complete ichthyofaunal The bones were analyzed, whenever possible, by using assemblage. Column samples (15x15 cm) were taken a comparative collection of fish skeletons which had from the sidewalls of each unit analyzed for ichthyo- been acquired from the offshore area adjacent to the PCAS Quarterly, 36(1), Winter 2000 54 Salls site being investigated. The comparative collection identified with the assistance of ichthyologists at the was procured by underwater spearfishing, trawl nets, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. seine nets, and rod-and-reel fishing. This reference collection was obtained during different seasons of the Island Resource Zones year in order to provide osteological seasonality infor- mation for the site species. Additional comparative Ichthyofaunal communities (life assemblages) require material was borrowed from the Ichthyology Section certain types of habitats (Allen 1985). Allen’s habitat of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles types are grouped under two major categories based County. on their fish assemblages: those zones associated with soft substrate and those associated with rocky sub- The archaeological skeletal remains were compared to strate. These defined habitats have been employed for the osteological characteristics displayed by contem- this study and include the rocky substrate habitats of: porary related genera and species. If a specimen’s Kelp Bed (KB); Shallow Rocky Reef (SRRF); Deep bony attributes, characteristic of a taxonomic family, Rocky Reef (RRF) and Intertidal (IT). The soft could not be identified to the level of species, it was substrate habitats include: Bay and Estuary (BE); catalogued to a family. An unidentified surfperch Open Coast Sandy Beach (OC); Harbor/ Nearshore element, for example, was recorded taxonomically to Soft Bottom (H/NSB); Nearshore Midwater (MW); its family Embiotocidae only after all available com- and Offshore Soft Bottom (SB) (Figure 7.2). parative species of surfperches had been eliminated. If an unknown element failed to match any species Allen has plotted the ten most numerous species, or within the total comparative collection, or if the life assemblages, for each type of southern California element was so poorly preserved as to preclude any nearshore habitat. “The resultant curves served to type of order or genera classification, it was then illustrate relative dominance and equitability within catalogued as an unknown Osteichthyes (bony fish) or the ichthyofauna of the various habitat types” (Allen unknown Elasmobranchi (shark or ray). Unusual 1985:136). The nearshore environment has been elements or specimens from anomalous species were divided into nine major habitats (above) which are occupied by 17 piscine groups or life assemblages. These assemblages are derived through cluster Table 7.1. Ichthyofaunal abundance by resource area habitat. analysis utilizing the Bray-Curtis index of dissimilar- ity (Allen 1985, Fig. 4). The presence of particular life Resource Total Elements per assemblages of ichthyofauna within an archaeological Site Area Elements cubic meter site matrix reflects the past fish communities, as well Columbus K9B/SRRF 798 22 as their habitats. (SClI-1492) Nursery K3B/SRRF 1127 77. The ecological resource zones of San Clemente Island (SClI-1215) available to the occupants of the sites analyzed for this Big Dog Cave K4B/SRRF 847 36 (SClI-119) report apparently did not change to any great degree as Eel Point B the species cluster index is almost identical from Eel K7B/SRRF 1357 20 (SClI-43B) Point B, dated at 9775 ±165 BP, to the historic Eel Point C KB/SRRF/ 270679 1087. occupation at Big Dog Cave (Table 7.1). There was, (SClI-43C RRF however, an expansion into different nearshore marine T2otal: 25192 Avg: 392. habitats at the end of Eel Point B time. These changes PCAS Quarterly, 36(1), Winter 2000 The Prehistoric Fishery of San Clemente Island 55 Fig. 7.2. Nearshore marine habitats of Southern California. correspond to the appearance of the single-piece shell logical samples were then analyzed and the prehistoric fishhook and the exploitation of deeper water (RRF) habitats were defined (cf. Allen 1985:137). Habitat environments for rockfish (Sebastes sp.). changes between the contemporary site resource zones and those indicated by the archaeological sample were The determination of the resource zone for each site recorded. The final determination of the prehistoric required the consideration of several factors. First, the site resource area was refined from the total evidence underwater habitats within the site resource zone were provided by the ichthyofaunal sample as well as other investigated. The resource zone was delineated by artifactual, ecological, and geological data from the using Vita-Finzi and Higgs’ (1970) method for scaling site. zones within the zone in terms of their relative importance. The value of a habitat is weighed in Factors In Aboriginal Fishing relation to its distance from the site. For example, a reef located within one kilometer of the site may have The analysis of a site’s environmental resources is an a weight of 100 per cent, whereas a reef ranging 15 essential aspect to be considered in the study of km away may have a weight of only 10 per cent. aboriginal fishing adaptations. A resource area Associated factors involving the richness of underwa- incorporates the dynamics of distance and energy ter habitats, canoe speeds, and wind and water expenditure and usually represents the resource zone currents were combined to establish a marine resource situated within reasonable walking or canoe time, zone for each site. Fish specimens were captured, rather than distance from the site (Flannery 1976:92; when possible, from each site’s resource area, as Vita-Finzi and Higgs 1970). This definition of site reference species for comparison studies. The archaeo-