Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology

A recent review of Wilkeís well-known paper on bow stave procurement underscores the importance of bow technology in aboriginal western North America, and highlights its sophistication as well as the role played by specialists in trade over long distances, both resulting in greater morphological uniformity than would otherwise be expected.

In 1988, Wilke described juniper trees in the Great Basin from which bow staves had been removed, and suggested the method that had likely been employed to do so. Based upon our own knowledge of tree growth and responses to wounding, we question certain of his assumptions, and offer modifications to Wilkeís proposal as to how prospective staves might have been removed. Further research and experimentation is encouraged.

California recently experienced its first discovery of pre-contact ice-patch archaeology. In late 2014, a juniper bow stave was found partially embedded in remnant glacial ice at an elevation of over 3,700 meters. This stave is one of only a few juniper bow staves ever recovered from an archaeological context within the western Great Basin. The bow stave offers a unique insight into the bow manufacturing process, bow-stave tree selection, and variation in lateperiod bow technology. Combining the study of archaeologically recovered bow-staves with replicative studies, as well as a focused examination of bow-stave tree scarring, provides complementary data that could better detail the totality of pre-contact bow production. This should result in greater numbers of bow-stave trees being identified and a greater understanding of the human component, from tree selection to the patterning evident in remnant scarring.

Differences between the northern and western Great Basin have long been recognized, based on technological attributes such as lithic procurement networks and distinctive basketry traditions. A detailed look at knotted-net manufacture in the northern and western Great Basin is presented using archaeological samples from Nevada and Oregon museum collections, and drawing upon the ethnographic record to inform our analysis of net types and their uses. Metrics were recorded for 89 nets and net fragments to identify any apparent differences in construction and to investigate whether distinctive patterns in net-making might also distinguish these areas. Recorded metrics do indeed show a statistically significant difference in net construction between the northern and western Great Basin. Direct AMS dates are reported for sixteen of the sampled nets.

Tushingham and Christiansen (2015) recently reviewed data from 22 fish assemblages from coastal archaeological sites in northern California and southern Oregon. They characterized the assemblage from the Chetco Indian village of Tcetxo (35-CU-42) as dominated by nearshore littoral fish including rockfish, surfperch, and greenlings, drawing from Ricksí (2012) analyses reported in Minor (2012). Our recent analyses of fine-screened samples from Tcetxo reveals that both surf smelt and northern anchovies were abundant, but only in materials recovered using 1 mm. mesh screens. This demonstrates the importance of analyzing fine-screened materials to document Native American fishing practices along the Pacific coast, especially to find the remains of forage fish, which form the foundation of entire marine ecosystems. Overall, our data support Tushingham and Christiansenís thesis that Native Americans living along the coast of northern California and southern Oregon focused substantial fishing effort on mass-capture of smelt, anchovies, and other forage fish.

The C.W. Harris site, type site for the early Holocene San Dieguito complex in San Diego County, has a long history of investigation, much of it driven by culture-historical and typological questions. We deviate from this pattern by describing the Warren and True (1961) chipped stone assemblage and documenting the San Dieguito inhabitantsí organization of lithic technology. Technological and high-power usewear analyses reveal that the biface and flake tool dominated assemblage consists almost entirely of manufacturing rejects and/or unused specimens. This and other evidence indicates that C.W. Harris functioned primarily as a non-residential, special-purpose workshop for biface (mostly Type 1 bifaces) and flake tool (mainly scrapers) manufacturing, with a possible secondary campsite function. Bifaces and scrapers are common in toolkits used to kill and process game, and imply that as a lithic workshop C.W. Harris was a feeder for new tools critical to sustaining a mobile lifeway.

Two coprolites recovered from the excavations at Chapman Caves 1 (CA-INY-1534A) were analyzed to determine their origins, and if possible to obtain data on human resource use at the site. Both specimens were determined to probably be canid in origin, but their presence within the cultural deposit may suggest they were from dogs belonging to the human occupants of the site. In addition, the results of protein residue analysis from three other coprolites found on the surface of the site are reported.

Archaeologist Nels C. Nelson was active during much of the first half of the twentieth century. His career began in the heyday of ìmuseum anthropologyî and ended just at the dawn of the processual era. Typically acting on behalf of more senior figures, such as Alfred Kroeber and Clark Wissler, he had a deep personal involvement in the culture of American archaeology at a time of transition. The complex politics and personalities that shaped regional institutions, as well as Nelsonís own circumstances, are particularly well-documented in associated archival materials. This paper discusses these themes in the context of Nelsonís fieldwork in Southern California between 1908 and 1912, with reference to the longer arc of his engagement with the profession.

The function of pitted stones, one of the most common artifacts on the central coast of California, has never been clear. Suggested functions have included use as a hammer or anvil to crack nuts, process acorns, open shellfish, or reduce cobble cores, but most researchers favor a function related to processing coastal resources. Here we report multiple lines of evidence to suggest that the primary use of pitted stones along the coast was to crack open California sea mussels and occasionally turban snails. An evaluation of their spatial distribution showed that pitted stones are concentrated on open rocky coasts, and are under-represented inland and at estuaries. An experiment involving processing mussels with a hand-held stone and anvil showed a remarkable similarity between the experimental anvil and archaeological pitted stones. Finally, we point out that most accounts of food consumption in native California emphasize soups, gruels, and stews prepared for groups. Mass processing of raw mussels via a pitted stone produces a quantity of shellfish meat that could be readily used as part of a stew prepared for such groups.