UC Berkeley

This dissertation is a contribution to the scientific study of prehistory in Baja California Sur, Mexico. In 2008, test excavations at Cueva Santa Rita resulted in the recovery of a rich and diverse artifact assemblage. The large, dry rockshelter is located in the southern Sierra de la Giganta of Baja California Sur, Mexico. The shelter formed in the volcanic breccias of the Comondú Group, part of a larger volcanic arc and forearc basin formed during the Oligocene to Middle Miocene. Drawing from geoarchaeological methods and ethnohistoric accounts, I combine analysis of both the cultural and non-cultural to discuss regional prehistory. Artifact analysis includes an examination of Olivella shell bead and textiles recovered during excavations. The findings of the project indicate that the site has been occupied for at least the late Holocene.