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ARCHAEOLOGY • HISTORY RABB, CASSIDY, YATSKO,
“California Maritime Archaeology is a landmark publication, one of the few occasions when a team of archae- AND HOWARD ologists has documented in a single volume an entire island history from its first ancient settlement to the historical era. This important book is, hopefully, but the beginning of generations of research on San Clemente that see the small populations that once lived far offshore as part of a much wider world. Like CALIFORNIA all cutting-edge research, these pages pose more questions than they answer, notably about the complexity and mainland ties of San Clemente communities, as they should.Above all, they highlight the importance of achieving a far closer understanding of ancient seafaring along the California coast, which apparently took canoes of some kind much farther offshore much earlier than we suspected.” —Brian Fagan, from the Foreword MARITIME
“A beautifully written synthesis of one of the most archaeologically fascinating places in western North CALIFORNIA MARITIME ARCHAEOLOGY America: San Clemente Island. From nearly two decades of intensive research on the island, the authors have established a cultural sequence that defies many long-standing assumptions about the prehistory of foragers in the northeastern Pacific. They show that the initial colonization of San Clemente Island was ARCHAEOLOGY considerably earlier than anyone thought possible twenty years ago, and argue convincingly that the early Holocene settlers were sophisticated maritime peoples with good woodworking and boatbuilding skills. From this improbable beginning, island societies progressed rapidly toward full sedentism at mid-Holocene and eventually became susceptible to extreme climate change during the late Holocene. L. Mark Raab, Jim Cassidy,Andrew Yatsko, and William J. Howard have compiled an outstanding book that should be required A San Clemente Island Perspective reading for anyone interested in the archaeology and prehistory of western North America.” —Terry Jones, California Polytechnic State University
“This important study offers new perspectives on maritime hunter-gatherers based on more than two decades of cutting-edge archaeological research. Synthesizing more than 9,000 years of history,the authors address some of the big issues in hunter-gatherer studies today: early seafaring, the timing of residential sta- bility, long-term human-environmental interactions, sociopolitical complexity, and colonial encounters. This provocative book will energize healthy debate about maritime societies in California for years to come.” —Kent Lightfoot, University of California, Berkeley
“This is a brilliant synthesis that places California’s San Clemente Island at the heart of current debates about the peopling of the Americas, the antiquity and nature of maritime adaptations, the rise of cultural complexity, the effects of European contact on Native Americans, and much more.” —Jon M. Erlandson, University of Oregon
San Clemente Island is a microcosm of California coastal archaeology from prehistoric through historic times—not only because of the extensiveness of its archaeological remains but because those remains have been so well preserved. In California Maritime Archaeology, the authors use the island as a platform to explore evidence of early seafaring, colonization, paleoenvironmental change, and cultural interaction along the California coast.They make a strong case that San Clemente Island should be seen as a kind of “California archaeological Galapagos,”offering an extraordinary variety of ancient life as well as surprising information about prehistoric hunter-gatherers of the northern Pacific.
L. Mark Raab is emeritus professor of anthropology, California State University, Northridge. Jim Cassidy is an environmental specialist with the United States Marine Corps. Andrew Yatsko is staff archaeologist with the U.S. Navy. William J. Howard is research associate at the Center for Public Archaeology at California State University, Northridge. L. MARK RAAB, JIM CASSIDY, ANDREW YATSKO,
For orders and information please contact the publisher AND WILLIAM J. HOWARD AltaMira Press A Division of Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. 1-800-462-6420 www.altamirapress.com CALIFORNIA MARITIME ARCHAEOLOGY
CALIFORNIA MARITIME ARCHAEOLOGY
A San Clemente Island Perspective
L. Mark Raab, Jim Cassidy, Andrew Yatsko, and William J. Howard
A Division of Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. Lanham • New York • Toronto • Plymouth, UK AltaMira Press A division of Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200 Lanham, MD 20706 www.altamirapress.com
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data California maritime archaeology : a San Clemente Island perspective / L. Mark Raab . . . [et al.]. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-7591-1316-9 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-7591-1318-3 (electronic) 1. Indians of North America—California—San Clemente Island. 2. Coastal archaeology—California—San Clemente Island. 3. Maritime anthropology— California—San Clemente Island. 4. Excavations (Archaeology)—California— San Clemente Island. 5. San Clemente Island (Calif.)—Antiquities. I. Raab, L. Mark. E78.C15.C296 2009 979.4’96—dc22 2009006738
Printed in the United States of America