North America - California (Geographic Keyword)
301-318 (318 Records)
The Frank Palmer collections were the founding collections of the first museum in Los Angeles, the Southwest Museum, opened in 1914, and also for the Southwest Society’s exhibit in the Pacific Electric Building in downtown Los Angeles of 1907. Their profound importance to the individual founders of the museum, the Southwest Society and to the general populace of Los Angeles is well documented in meeting minutes, newspaper clippings and articles in magazines. The artifacts assembled by Frank...
An Update of the Prehistoric Native American Fishery of San Francisco Bay (2015)
It has been a decade since Gobalet et al. (2004: Trans. Am. Fish. Soc. 133:801-833) summarized the fishes found in archaeological sites on San Francisco Bay. Numerous additional excavations have been completed in the last ten years and this report adds 32,000 bones to the totals from 23 archaeological sites from seven counties. By number of specimens found at the sites collectively, bat ray, sturgeons, herrings and sardines, northern anchovies, salmon and trout, New World silversides,...
An Update on the Unidentified Persons Project, San Bernardino, California: The Good, The Very Good, and the Ugly (2015)
In 2014, the Unidentified Persons Project transitioned from being a small scale volunteer-based project to a twenty-three student forensic archaeology field school, allowing for the exhumation and DNA sampling of a much larger number of individuals than had been previously possible. This paper will summarize the opportunities and challenges associated with this transition from the perspectives of multiple stakeholders, and will discuss the evolution of the project’s research questions and...
Use of Archeological Districts in San Francisco (2015)
It is very probably the case that more archeology is done in San Francisco than in any other major city in the U.S. Yet this archeological work is done without the benefit of any archeological ordinance or adopted archeological guidance but rather through the City’s implementation of State environmental laws. To overcome the vagueness and generality of these regulations, the City Planning Planning Department has initiated an Archeological District Project (ADP), with the aim of creating...
Use of Faunal Resources as Trade Commodities During the Late Period - Evidence from a Stege Mound (CA-CCO-297) (2015)
Site CA-CCO-297 (a Stege Mound) is a prehistoric shell mound located on the northeastern margin of the San Francisco Bay. Recent archaeological investigations at CA-CCO-297 suggest that fish, water fowl and sea otters were exploited as commodities for exchange rather than purely subsistence items. Emphasized production of locally available resources for participation in inter-regional exchange systems appears linked to demographic pressures and reduced foraging efficiency. This paper explores...
The UseWear Analysis of the Blue Lake Museum Lithic Collection (2015)
This paper examines the usewear related modifications on an assemblage of North American lithic artifacts that is held by the Blue lake Museum. The collection consists of a variety of material and tool types. There are a number of flaked projectile points and scrapers, as well as groundstone tools. All pieces were acquired by the Blue Lake museum through donation by private individuals and not all of the pieces have a known context. There has not been any intensive analysis carried out on this...
Using Environmental DNA to Examine Human-Animal Interactions on the California Channel Islands (2016)
Conducting aDNA analyses can be limited by the preservation and availability of biological remains at archaeological sites. Soil can contain DNA (environmental DNA [eDNA]) from the animals and plants that were present In the landscape and provide a record of prehistoric plant and animal distributions. We designed and tested a protocol to capture DNA from several extinct and extant taxa from soil on the California Channel Islands as a potential tool for understanding the biogeography of island...
Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for Aerial Photogrammetry on the San Diego Coastline (2015)
Developments in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) over the past five years have allowed for their use among non-experts and the rapid development, at relatively low cost, of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UASs) or drones. UASs use the UAV platform to carry a variety of sensors. One of the most important developments coming from this technology is the ability to collect aerial photos for photogrammetry at relatively low cost. In an effort to better understand the uses, practical issues of operation, and...
The Viability of Long-Distance Acorn Transport in Eastern California (2017)
The ethnographically documented Mono Lake Paiute of Eastern California regularly crossed the Sierra Nevada to procure acorns from Yosemite Valley; a total journey of fourteen days. It is not clear whether such trips are economically efficient in their own right, or were undertaken as components of social excursions to visit and trade with the Yosemite Me-Wuk, or as journeys of necessity in years with poor piñon pine nut harvests. To evaluate the economic productivity of procuring acorns from...
Water Wars: The St. Francis Dam Disaster and Resource Competition in the American West (2017)
Euro-American experience in the western states has been profoundly shaped by the fight for resources, among which water ranks extremely high. Traditional histories of such struggles focus on policy, macroeconomics, and large-scale social transformation. Historical archaeology, in contrast, offers the opportunity to emphasize the quotidian manifestations of these conflicts, particularly as they shaped the lives (and deaths) of local residents. Current fieldwork conducted by California State...
We Travel Together: A New Archeology that Blends Western Science with Native American Perspectives and Values (2017)
After 45 years of doing archeology in both an academic and CRM context, I have come to the conclusion that archeology as I have been practicing it simply no longer works for me. For the last 15 years my archeology has been with and for Native Americans, and this collaboration has lead me to many wonderful insights and has enriched the archeology I have come to practice. This new approach is not a rejection of Western science but the blending of the best that we both have to offer. This new...
We Want In on This: Contemporary Queer Archaeology and the Preservation of Queer Cultural History (2015)
This research will address how contemporary archaeology can be used to explore notions of identity, gender expression and self-determination, community belonging, and the value of queer cultural heritage, with an emphasis on the experiences and engagement of queer and trans youth. Queer and trans youth are organizing in their schools and communities to create change that affects their lives and the lives of their friends and families. They are creating new language for queer and trans identities...
Weaving the Strands of Evidence: Multifaceted Confirmation of Textile Production and Use at Mission Santa Clara de Asis (2017)
Mission Santa Clara de Asίs, founded in 1777, is one in a chain of twenty-one Spanish Colonial missions established along the coastal region of Alta California. Recent excavations within Santa Clara's Native American Rancherίa have revealed a plethora of objects directly and indirectly associated with textile production and use within the colonial setting. Indigenous practices from ethnic regions of California and Mexico are reflected within the assemblage of sewing/weaving tools, adornments,...
What’s in the Oven? Specialized Processing, or Mixed Food Preparation in the Chumash Kitchen (2015)
The distinction between generalized hunter-gatherers and economic specialists has long interested archaeologists reliant on faunal and floral remains. Resource-processing features provide another line of evidence to address the topic, though specialized facilities do not necessarily imply patterns of specialized subsistence. Chumash inhabitants of the Santa Monica Mountains provide a case in point. Earth ovens interpreted as specialized resource-processing facilities are commonly excavated, yet...
When Smuggling Sailors met the First Angelinos: Material Messages from Forgotten Santa Catalina Island, California (2017)
A colonial archaeological assemblage from Santa Catalina Island, California contains both "traditional" native materials and substantial Euro-American trade goods. Archival sources and artifacts suggest that the native islanders, known as the Pimu Tongva people, opportunistically acquired trade goods from Euro-American seafarers for close to 300 years. Although the bulk of the trade items appear to be European in origin, recent insight suggests that some of the materials have associations with...
The WHY and HOW of integrating archaeological findings into wildlife management efforts (2015)
The relevancy of archaeology to contemporary social issues has become a topic of concern for many in the discipline. Zooarchaeologists in particular have focused some effort in highlighting how archeological interpretations can assist with wildlife management and conservation biology. While this work helps to amplify the social value of archaeology, the approach to date has been somewhat disparate. In order to implement the vision of integrating archaeological findings to wildlife management and...
Why Did Paleocoastal People Settle California’s Islands? (2015)
Islands have long been viewed as marginal habitats compared to mainland regions where terrestrial resources are generally more abundant and diverse. We examine this concept of island marginality by reviewing evidence for Paleocoastal settlement of islands off the Pacific Coast of Alta and Baja California. If the islands were marginal, we should expect human settlement to occur relatively late in time and early use of the islands to be sporadic and specialized. For the Northern Channel Islands...
zooarchaeology and historical archaeology: a case study of the leland stanford mansion (2015)
Investigating the socioeconomic status of occupants in 19th century historical sites has long been a goal of archaeological investigations; more recently, analyses of the animal bones preserved in these sites (zooarchaeology) have been used to compliment conclusions drawn from other lines of evidence. Following in this tradition, we will use faunal remains to examine changes in socioeconomic status of the inhabitants of the Stanford Mansion in Sacramento, California. The Stanford Mansion was...