An Archaeological Cucurbit from Coachella Valley
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REPORTS An Archaeological Cucurbit cached by persons resident on the nearby shore of Lake LeConte, a large freshwater from Coachella Valley body which is thought to have dried some 400-500 years ago. PHILIP J. WILKE The specimen (Fig. 1) is 13.4 cm. long and about 8 cm. wide. The rind is about DOUGLAS N. FAIN 2.5 mm. thick, badly compressed out of shape, and tom in several places as an A small, modified bottle gourd rind, apparent result of the weight of the rocks Lagenaria siceraria Standi. (Mol.),' was re which concealed it. Further damage occurred cently found cached in a rockshelter (tenta through the gnawing of rodents. The peduncle tively designated site CV-107) 14 km. south (stem) has been carefuhy removed as if to west of Indio, Coachella Vahey, Califomia. form a small bottle-shaped container. The This shelter is located within 2 km. of the opening, which is not stoppered, is 15 mm. in historic Cahuilla rancheria of Toro (Toros, diameter, and the Hp is smoothed, suggestive Torres), and is also within 300 m. of the of much use. AU internal contents have also shoreline of former Lake LeConte. Recent been carefuhy removed. rockfall caused mnoff water from an adjacent Castetter and Beh (1951:116) note that slope to enter the shelter, with the result that among the Yumans when gourds were to be the contents, which may have previously been used for water containers it was essential to dry, were exposed to moisture, seriously thoroughly scrape out the interior "else the disturbed, and largely washed away. From contents would have a bitter taste." We these disturbed deposits were later recovered therefore suggest that the Coachella VaUey plain buff sherds, red-on-buff sherds, and a specimen represents a gourd container, al fragmentary ceramic pipe. In consideration of though not necessarily one for storage of these materials and the exceedingly low ceil water, given its small size. It is worth noting, ing of the shelter, it is doubtful whether it however, that ethnographic examples of was ever actually occupied, and it appears gourds in southern CaUfornia were usually more likely that it was a storage site. The manufactured into rattles, which would have gourd itself was cached under several small also required removal of the peduncle and rocks in a dry, protected crevice well above interior contents. Rattles were provided with the floor of the shelter, and escaped damage pebbles or seeds of the Washingtonia palm, by water and falling rock. Since it was not in and often a wooden handle; the rind was direct association with other materials of sometimes perforated with many small holes known or determinable age, the gourd may to improve resonance. Both gourd containers date from either the historic period, having and gourd rattles were sometimes decorated been cached in the shelter by CahuiUas, or by carving, scrapkig, or painting. The present from the prehistoric period, having been specimen was first thought not to have been AN ARCHAEOLOGICAL CUCURBIT 111 Comondii region of southem Baja California are assigned to the period A.D. 1697-1750 by the discoverer, WiUiam C. Massey (Whitaker 1957:144). This would be during the Mission Period, and the gourds are thought to have been derived from such missions as Comondii, San Xavier, or Purisima. The only other archaeological examples of gourds from southem California and Baja Califomia with which we are familiar are five specimens from San Diego County and north em Baja. These specimens are in the collec tions of the San Diego Museum of Man, and represent both containers and rattles, but are not from dated contexts, and have not been adequately described.^ The earhest observation of gourds in the southern Cahfornia-Baja Cahfornia area is apparently that of Alarcon on the lower Colorado River in 1540 (Hammond and Rey 1940:136; Castetter and Beh 1951:115).^ More than 200 years later Garces, with the Anza expedition in San Jacinto VaUey not far from the present town of San Jacinto, noted in 1774: Fig. 1. Rind of bottle gourd, probably used as a container, from Coachella Valley, California. Length: 13.4 cm. These Indians also use for their dance the calabash with pebbles inside, like the people of the [Colorado] river [Bohon 1930, II: decorated, but careful brushing revealed an 351]. apparently incomplete pattern wrought by incising and scraping. Part of the epidermis Elsewhere, Bolton (1930,1:100) and other also appears to have been removed in render later scholars have often cited the Anza ing the design. diaries as primary evidence that agriculture The presence of bottle gourds, a culti failed to extend beyond the Colorado River vated crop plant, in southern California is Agricultural Complex to interior southern usually attributed to trade with lower Colo California groups such as the Cahuilla. Since rado agriculturalists (e.g., Kroeber 1908:62). the Anza explorations of 1774-75 and How long gourds and other crops were grown 1775-76 were the first European expeditions on the lower Colorado is not known, but to traverse interior southern Cahfornia, the Wasley and Johnson (1965:Figs. 55, 58b, 63) supposed lack of mention of crop-growing or illustrate what appear to be bottle gourd crop plants has been viewed as decisive proof effigy ceramic vessels from the Gila Bend that interior groups were non-agricultural. region of southwestern Arizona, dated at A.D. Lawton and Bean (1968:19) challenged this 900-1150. Archaeological specimens from a view by pointing out that both Anza expedi cave designated Loreto-I (B.C. 100) in the tions on their westward passage and return 112 THE JOURNAL OF CALIFORNIA ANTHROPOLOGY journeys crossed mountain Cahuilla territory ture has produced an abundance of data during months when crops would not nor bearing heavily in the direction of aboriginal mally have been grown. Apparently, the agriculture, at least on a small scale, among above reference to calabash gourd rattles in some of the Indian groups of ulterior south the Anza diaries has also been overlooked. ern Califomia and Baja (Lawton and Bean The gourd rattles reported near San Jacinto 1968; Bean and Lawton 1973; Wilke and by Garces must have been either trade items Lawton n.d.). Irrespective of the general from the Colorado River groups or locally problem of the possible existence of an grown. None of the wild indigenous species agricultural complex, it seems certain that {Cucurbita foetidissima HBK, C palmata among the later ceramic-using groups of Wats., or C digitata Gray) are satisfactory southern Califomia and Baja Cahfornia the gourd rattle materials, nor do they fit Garces' use of gourds as storage contamers would description of calabash rattles, Lagenaria sp., have largely given way to use of ceramic Hke those of the Colorado River. vessels. And while gourds may have been used In 1845, Wilkes (1845:186) observed of a for cooking with hot stones, their use (if they group of Indians in the San Joaquin Valley: were available) in this capacity would also have been replaced at an early date. If gourds They do not appear to pay any attention to were ever used as food in aboriginal CaU cultivation, and the only appearance of it fornia, most likely only the seeds were con was in a species of Cucurbita (mock orange) planted near their village; but what use they sumed, and these rarely (Cutler and Whitaker made of this was not learned [italics ours]. 1961:483). Thus the demand for gourds for whatever use in southem CaUfornia was prob The term "mock orange" usuaUy refers to ably never sufficient to warrant large-scale wild species of Cucurbita, such as C foetidis production, and those that were utUized for sima, seeds of which are edible (Bean and containers and rattles no doubt lasted a long Saubel 1972:57). Whether it was actually one time.* Castetter and BeU's (1951:115) of the wUd species WUkes observed cannot be Yuman informants probably summed up the determined, but the "mock orange" was so situation accurately when they indicated ubiquitous in early Cahfornia that it seems (1951:115) that "on the lower Colorado . unlikely Indians would have bothered cultivat only very small numbers of gourds were ing it. If the plants in question were domesti grown in early times, actually about three cated Cucurbita, then they were probably C. hills by a famUy and even this only in moschata Duchesne or C pepo L., both of occasional years."* which were widely cultivated for food along with beans and maize in the Southwest. University of California Alternatively, they may have been the bottle Riverside gourd, Lagenaria siceraria, typically grown for Indio, California non-food use in much the same manner as tobacco was grown by various Indian groups. NOTES These and other references to gourds in ethnographic hterature for southern Cah 1. The identification was made by Thomas W. Whit fornia remain difficult to evaluate as to aker, U. S. Department of Agriculture, La Jolla, whether trade items from the lower Colorado California. The specimen is now in the archaeological are represented, or whether they were grown collections of the Torres-Martinez Band of Cahuiha indigenously. Careful combing of early litera Indians. AN ARCHAEOLOGICAL CUCURBIT 113 2. Personal communication from Ken Hedges, Cura the Pacific Coast, 1769-1774. Berkeley: tor of Archaeology, San Diego Museum of Man. A University of California Press. description of this material is desirable and forth 1930 Anza's California Expeditions. Vol. I-V. coming (Whitaker and Hedges, in preparation). Berkeley: University of California Press. 3. During the march of the Portola expedition of Castetter, Edward F., and Willis H.