THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF CA-LAN-192: LOVEJOY SPRINGS AND WESTERN MOJAVE DESERT PREHISTORY Barry A. Price, Alan G. Gold, Barbara S. Tejada, David D. Earle, Suzanne Griset, Jay B. Lloyd, Mary Baloian, Nancy Valente, Virginia S. Popper, and Lisa Anderson Prepared By Applied EarthWorks, Inc. Fresno, California Submitted To County of Los Angeles Department of Public Works 900 South Fremont Avenue Alhambra, CA 91803 March 2009 CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION..............................................................................................................1 1.1 REGIONAL ENVIRONMENT...............................................................................1 1.2 THE SITE AND ITS SETTING..............................................................................5 1.3 PALEOENVIRONMENTS .....................................................................................6 2 HISTORY OF RESEARCH AT CA-LAN-192...............................................................9 3 FOUNDATIONS OF RESEARCH ................................................................................17 3.1 IMPORTANT RESEARCH TOPICS ...................................................................17 3.1.1 Chronology, Settlement Characteristics, And Cultural Affiliation............17 3.1.2 Changes In Ground Stone Morphology And Function..............................19 3.1.3 Development Of Semi-Sedentary Village Settlement ...............................19 3.1.4 Development and Decline of Inter-regional Exchange..............................20 3.1.5 Development and Distribution of Ground Stone Exchange ......................21 3.1.6 Continuities and Changes in Artifact Types and Subsistence ...................22 3.1.7 Local Desert Floor Settlement and Medieval Climatic Anomaly..............23 3.1.8 Late Prehistoric Settlement And Cultural Affiliation ................................23 3.1.9 Ceramic Usage...........................................................................................24 3.1.10 Protohistoric And Historic Occupation......................................................25 3.1.11 Evolution Of Social Complexity Among The Serrano..............................25 3.2 ETHNOGRAPHIC OVERVIEW ..........................................................................26 3.2.1 Linguistic And Sociopolitical Landscape ..................................................26 3.2.2 Patterns Of Land Use.................................................................................29 3.2.3 Hereditary Positions And Titles.................................................................30 4 GROUND STONE ARTIFACTS ...................................................................................33 4.1 INTRODUCTION TO THE GROUND STONE ANALYSIS .............................33 4.2 LOCAL GEOLOGICAL CONTEXT....................................................................34 4.3 METHODS ............................................................................................................35 4.4 TECHNOLOGICAL ANALYSIS.........................................................................35 4.4.1 Raw Material Types...................................................................................36 4.4.2 Ground Stone Descriptive Nomenclature ..................................................36 4.4.3 Use Wear....................................................................................................37 4.4.4 Primary and Secondary Use.......................................................................38 4.5 STUDY RESULTS................................................................................................38 4.5.1 Unprovenienced Materials.........................................................................39 4.5.2 Bob Wubben Collection.............................................................................40 4.5.3 Archaeological Survey Association 1954 Excavation...............................40 4.5.4 UCLA 1968 Salvage Project......................................................................41 The Archaeology of CA-LAN-192 iii 4.5.5 Cerro Coso College 1989 Field Class........................................................42 4.5.6 Pyramid Archaeology 1990-9 Monitoring.................................................42 4.5.7 Antelope Valley College 1994-96 Monitoring ..........................................47 4.5.8 Applied EarthWorks Testing and Monitoring ...........................................49 4.6 DISCUSSION OF RESULTS................................................................................52 4.7 REGIONAL COMPARISONS AND IMPLICATIONS.......................................54 4.8 CONCLUSIONS....................................................................................................59 5 PROJECTILE POINTS ..................................................................................................61 5.1 DESERT SIDE-NOTCHED SERIES....................................................................63 5.2 COTTONWOOD SERIES.....................................................................................64 5.3 SARATOGA SPRING SERIES ............................................................................66 5.4 ROSE SPRING SERIES........................................................................................67 5.5 HUMBOLDT SERIES...........................................................................................67 5.6 ELKO AND PINTO SERIES ................................................................................69 5.7 GYPSUM SERIES ................................................................................................72 5.8 LARGE LANCEOLATE CONCAVE BASE .......................................................72 5.9 DISCUSSION........................................................................................................73 6 OTHER FLAKED STONE ARTIFACTS.....................................................................74 6.1 METHODS OF FLAKED STONE ANALYSIS...................................................74 6.2 THE ASSEMBLAGE ............................................................................................75 6.2.1 Obsidian .....................................................................................................76 6.2.1.1 Bifaces and Bipolar Cores ............................................................76 6.2.1.2 Projectile Points ............................................................................77 6.2.1.3 Uniface..........................................................................................77 6.2.1.4 Drill...............................................................................................77 6.2.1.5 Simple Flake Tools .......................................................................78 6.2.2 Non-Obsidian Tools...................................................................................78 6.2.2.1 Heat Treatment..............................................................................78 6.2.2.2 Projectile Points ............................................................................79 6.2.2.3 Formed Flake Tools ......................................................................79 6.2.2.4 Drills .............................................................................................79 6.2.2.5 Pick ...............................................................................................79 6.2.2.6 Unifaces ........................................................................................79 6.2.2.7 Bifaces...........................................................................................80 6.2.2.8 Cores .............................................................................................81 6.2.2.9 Core Tools.....................................................................................81 6.2.2.10 Simple Flake Tools ......................................................................82 6.3 PROCUREMENT AND REDUCTION PATTERNS...........................................83 6.3.1 Obsidian .....................................................................................................83 6.3.2 Igneous Stone.............................................................................................83 6.3.3 Chert...........................................................................................................84 6.4 DISCUSSION........................................................................................................85 iv Lovejoy Springs and Western Mojave Desert Prehistory 7 LITHIC DEBITAGE.......................................................................................................86 7.1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................86 7.2 ANALYTIC METHODS AND PROCEDURES ..................................................86 7.3 SITE SUMMARY .................................................................................................87 7.3.1 The Analytic Samples................................................................................87 7.3.2 Material Types ...........................................................................................87 7.3.3 Size Distributions.......................................................................................88 7.3.4 Technological Distributions.......................................................................89 7.4 DEBITAGE ANALYSIS PROTOCOLS ..............................................................95