California Prehistory Colonization, Culture, and Complexity EDITED BY TERRY L. JONES AND KATHRYN A. KLAR Published in Cooperation with the Society for California Archaeology A Division of ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS, INC. Lanham • New York • Toronto •Plymouth, UK CHAPTER 13 Prehistory of the Northern California Bight and the Adjacent Transverse Ranges MICHAEL A. GLASSOW, LYNN H. GAMBLE, JENNIFER E. PERRY, AND GLENN s. RUSSELL Tms CHAPTER PRESENTS THE PREHISTOU.Y OP THE of cultural resource management (CRM). Indeed, the Northern section of the California Bight and the adja­ bulk of re ea1·ch accomplished during the past 20 cent transverse ranges, which for convenience we shall years, includin,g much in academic contexts, has been refer to as the Northern Bight. Tl1is geographic area driven by the objectives of CRM. includes the coastline from Vandenberg Air Force Ba e Three broad realms of theory have characterized ar­ to tbe vicinity of Palos Verdes, as well as the anta Ynez chaeology in the Northern Bight over the past 20 years. Range, the Santa Ynez Valley, the Santa Monica Moun­ One of the e, with root extending back to the 1950s, tains and the Los Angeles basin. Lands at the northern consi ts of various ecological approache , including margin of Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties are optimal foraging theory, related economic theorie , included as well, but archaeological data are scant for and evolutionary ecological theory; all of these have these interior lands. Also included are the Northern been concerned mainly with aspects of ubsi tence Channel Islands. At the time of Spanish co.Ionization, change. The second realm of theory includes variou most of these lands were occDpied by the Central Chu­ social evolutionary per pectives on the development mash, and the eastern portion of this a.Tea, within the of sociopolitical and economic complexity. Archae­ Los Angeles basin, were occupied by the longva (Gabri­ ologists interested in both categoric have also been elino ). Chumash descendants are numerot1S in the area interested i:n the role of paleoenvironmental change today and have b en involved in cultural revitalization in altering the resource base of the prehistory of the throughout the twentieth century (Figure 13.1). Northern Bight. Although they are still sketchy, pa­ Researcl1 over the past 20 year , as well as the ap­ .leoenvironmental records coming into existence over plication of theoretical perspectives that have come the past 20 years have been actively applied to models to the fore over this period, have resulted in the ac­ of adaptive change, and there has been a good deaJ of quisition of a substantially increased knowledge base lively debate concerning the nature and magnitude for Northern Bight prehistory. Articles in prominent of the impact of environmental variabifay n hw11an journals and books published by well-known presses cultural sy tems. A third theoretical approach that has have brought national and international vi ib.ility t been slower to develop concerns the role of techno­ the region. Underlying this significant expansion of logical change in cultural evolution, even though tech­ knowledge is an increa in both the quantity and nological developments have often been highlighted quality of data derived from. the archaeological record, in arguments concerning subsi tence change. the dramatic i11crea e in the nw11ber of radiocar­ bon dates being arguably the most important. King's THE BEGINNINGS OF PREHISTORY (1990) chronological scheme, wb icb is still is widely The Northern Bight ha yielded some of the earliest used, has been refined based on patterning in the evidence of human occupation in California, which is distribution of radiocaTbon dates. Other important con idered in detail in Chapter 4 of this volume. Ar­ deve.lopments are more prevalent u e of eighth-inch lington prings Woman from anta Rosa I land ( Rl - mesb water screening, labo ratory sorting of all mate­ 173) is one of the earliest finds of human remains rial caught by screens, and flotation. As a result, sys­ in North America (Figure 13.2). Radiocarbon dates tematic recovery of small objects such a fi h bones, derived from human bones a well as rodent bones beads, and floral remains has opened new analytical from the deposit in the immediate vicinity of the vistas. As is true throughout California, much of this human remains have yielded dates of approximately expansion and refinement of the database is a result 11,000 cal a.c. (Johnson et al. 2002). On the coastal 191 l) of the Malaga Cove site (LAN-138) near Palos Verdes on the southern edge of the Los Angeles basin also is very early, perhaps coeval with the San Di­ eguito Complex in San Diego County (Moratto 1984:132; Wallace 1986:26). However, as Erlandson (1994:224) points out, the dating of the earliest deposits at the Malaga Cove site is un­ clear. They could be as early as 8000 cal B.c., but it seems just as likely that they date after 7000 cal B.c. Coastal sites of the California Bight dating earlier than 7000 cal B.c. have been included in the Paleo-Coastal Tradition (Glassow 1996a:SO), tenta­ Figure 13.1. Chumash house constructed for the 1923 Ventura county tively defined by Moratto (1984:104). fair by Chumash descendants. Identities of men in the photograph are However, sites of this age are too few unknown. (Printed with permission of the Department of Anthropology, and their contents too scanty to pro­ Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, photo no. (P)NA-CA-CH-71.) vide a meaningful regional picture of mainland opposite Santa Rosa Island, archaeological human activities. It is apparent, none­ site SBA-1951 yielded a basal corner of a Clovis point theless, that shellfish were acquired as food resources, (Erlandson et al. 1987), which may indicate mainland and data from Daisy Cave on San Miguel Island indi­ occupation of comparable age (see Chapter 5). Evi­ cate that fishing with gorge and line was practiced by dence of occupation approximately 1,500 years later about 7800 cal B.c. (Rick et al. 2001). Milling imple­ has come from excavation at Daisy Cave (SMI-261) on ments were not used in the Northern Bight during San Miguel Island (Erlandson et al. 1996). The earli­ these early times. Because population probably was est deposits at the site appear to date as early as 9500 at very low density and quite mobile, most or all sites cal B.c. (see Table 4.1, Chapter 4), and shallower strata would be expected to be small and to have minimal date between 7000 and 8000 cal B.c. (and younger). archaeological deposits (Erlandson 2000:22). Further­ On Santa Rosa Island a buried midden exposed along more, sites of this antiquity would be most subject to the face of a sea cliff dates to 7300 cal B.c. (Erlandson the ravages of time, including destruction by coastal et al. 1999). These finds hint at occupation of the erosion as sea level continued to rise relatively rapidly Northern Bight coeval with the Paleo-Indian manifes­ at the end of the last Ice Age and burial under alluvial tations elsewhere in North America, but their scarcity or aeolian deposits. Because the archaeological record and limited cultural context indicate that a good deal for this earliest period is so minimal at present, little more work must be accomplished before this stage of can be concluded regarding continuity between these prehistory can be properly understood. early cultures and those after 7000 cal B.c., which are On the mainland, the Surf site (SBA-931) over­ much better documented. looking the mouth of the Santa Ynez River has a basal stratum associated with a suite of radiocarbon dates THE EARLIEST WELL-ESTABLISHED OCCUPATION: indicating occupation between ca. 8000 and 7500 cal THE MILLINGSTONE HORIZON B.c. (Glassow 1996a:71-85). Despite deposits of this Sometime between about 7000 and 6500 cal a.c. the age being mixed with later deposits, the data show that population of the Northern Bight, as well as of the inhabitants of the site collected shellfish 10,000 years whole southern California coast, began expanding. ago, but the importance of other kinds of food sources, Because sites of this age typically contain abundant such as terrestrial mammals, is still unknown. The metates and manos, Wallace (1954) named this period kinds of tools used at this time are also unknown, but the Millingstone Horizon, which includes manifes­ the recovery of debitage indicates that they included tations from San Diego through the Santa Barbara flaked tools made of the local chert. A number of ar­ Channel. Wallace's original term has endured, with chaeologists have proposed that the lowest level (Level many archaeologists referring to these manifestations 192 MICHAEL A. GLASSOW ET AL. Poim Conception Santa Barbara Channel SCRl- SMl- 277 SCR~ :s1 SMl-87 .f- SCRI- 4231507 re SMl-261 , -603 SCRI- 333 - 240 • ,••seRl-751 _ l\"eSRl-6 • SC..JlliY - San ,~li\!Uel SRl·3 SRl-173 ..--649 Island Santa Cruz Island Santa Rosa Island ~ 10 15 20Miles 0 4 8 16 24 32 ~ • • Kilometers Figure 13.2. Archaeological sites and locations of the Northern Bight region. as either the Mmingstone Horizon or the Millingstone bioturbation, particularly gopher: or ground squirrel Period. Various end date are given for the Milling­ burrowing. Not taking this into account ha led to a stone Horizon, often as late as 3500 cal a.c. However, number of misinterpr tatioos of a rte' archaeological for several reasons, we use an end date of approx:i­ record, ome of wbicb have been identi.fied (Erlandson mately 5000 cal .o.c., which i.s somewhat earlier than et al.