Cache Cave in Context: Unveiling New Discoveries in South Central California

This symposium presents the findings from two seasons of fieldwork at the site of Cache Cave, which contains the largest known assemblage of perishable artifacts yet recorded within the larger Chumash linguistic area or that of its immediate neighbors. While cache sites were once relatively ubiquitous across the greater Chumash area, due to antiquarian and other looting activities, no major cache site has ever been studied using modern archaeological techniques. Field work in 2012 at Cache Cave uncovered not only a cache cave site having remarkable preservation with material in context, but one that dwarfs any previously known site in the sheer quantity of its assemblage. Subsequent work in 2014 has defined and documented the extent of the cave complex, explored in detail some of the cave deposits, and further refined our knowledge of site structure and chronology. This allows not only the first in depth, systematic analysis of any kind on this important site type, but an investigation of the largest cache cave ever discovered in the region. Papers presented here offer our initial views of the site and its assemblage in various contexts, as well as findings from habitation and special-use sites in the cave's vicinity.