Western Stemmed Technology on California's Channel Islands

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Current Perspectives on the Western Stemmed Tradition-Clovis Debate in the Far West" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Paleocoastal sites on California's Northern Channel Islands have produced hundreds of stemmed points, crescents, foliate points or knives, and other bifaces dated between ~12,250 and 8200 years ago. Although uniquely maritime in nature, these island Paleocoastal assemblages are clearly related to the broader Western Stemmed Technology (WST) of American Far West. The Arlington Man remains from Santa Rosa Island, dated to ~13,000 years ago, show that the islands were settled by humans by Clovis times, but no diagnostic Clovis-like artifacts have been found on them and Clovis-like points are relatively rare in California. In this presentation, I will explore the potential origins and implications of early Paleocoastal WST assemblages on California's Channel Islands.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Current Perspectives on the Western Stemmed Tradition-Clovis Debate in the Far West   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 26186