Limuw as a Cultural Landscape: Precontact Sites on Eastern Santa Cruz Island

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Eastern Santa Cruz Island has a high density of archeological sites dating from 10,000 BP through historic contact, and at least seven associated Chumash place names. The area has freshwater seeps, abundant chert toolstone, and access to rich marine resources, including boat anchorages. At the time of historic contact, the largest Chumash village on the northern islands, Swaxel, was located at Scorpion Anchorage. The Late period microblade and related shell bead industry were prominent on Eastern Santa Cruz Island, where there is a high density of chert quarry sites. This paper addresses the results of intensive survey from 2020 to 2022 within the broader context of the island’s prehistory, including the distribution of sites through time and the mobility and settlement patterns of the Island Chumash.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 37383.0