Santa Barbara Island: insights into the prehistory of California’s Channel Islands through its smallest island

Summary

As the smallest of California’s Channel Islands, isolated and impoverished Santa Barbara Island has received less scholarly attention than its well-known neighbors. Initially described as a "way station" to the other islands, subsequent archaeological expeditions have reinforced the interpretation that the island was only temporarily occupied in the Middle and Late Holocene. In 2012, an effort to rerecord the 19 known sites was undertaken. Subsequent surveys have increased the number of sites to 55 and radiocarbon samples to 20, dating between ~4100 and 600 cal. B.P. Spatial and temporal patterns have emerged from this comparatively more robust data set, allowing for better contextualization of the few previously excavated sites. Most of the island’s sites are small shell and lithic scatters, although some are larger shell middens with greater faunal and artifact diversity. Their locations and constituents indicate that the island not only served as a stopover during inter-island travel, but was also visited to target local resources such as sea mammal rookeries. Our recent research presents a unique opportunity to reevaluate the different roles that this island played in broader settlement and subsistence systems on the Channel Islands in the latter part of the Holocene.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 16364