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Public Archaeology & Climate Change is an urgent wake-up call about the significant, accelerating, and widespread threats that climate change poses for archaeological sites and other cultural herit...

The Farallon Islands are a cluster of small islands ∼32 km off the coast of San Francisco Bay. These islands total < 1 km2 in area and lack surface freshwater, but are home to scores of breeding se...

Archaeological sites represent long-term biological repositories, relevant for understanding ancient economies and ways of life that can provide historical baseline data for contemporary conservation biology, restoration ecology, and fisheries management. Small-scale excavations at nine archaeological sites within Point Reyes National Seashore, on the central California coast, led to the recovery of a large assemblage of fish remains from deposits dated from 800 to 770 cal BC to the historical era. These assemblages contained over 9000 fish remains identified to at least a family. Applying quantitative analysis and morphometric studies, these data suggest the indigenous fishery of Point Reyes in the homeland of the Coast Miwok people was directed toward the acquisition of mass-captured forage fish from the families Clupeidae, Atherinopsidae, and Engraulidae in addition to Embiotocidae. Perceived declines in contemporary forage fish populations within Point Reyes National Seashore, specifically Pacific herring (Clupea pallasii), an important keystone, indicator, and umbrella species, suggest further protections are needed to ensure continued ecosystem services and prevent ecological extinction.

Recent advances in mission archaeology advocate for studies beyond the mission church and quadrangle in order to better understand their spatial organizations and how they were embedded within the landscapes of indigenous populations. This raises the question of how to implement such studies in areas impacted for years by urban development, which has made it difficult to detect archaeological remains using standard pedestrian-survey methods. This article advocates for the use of geophysical survey as part of the mix of field strategies. Archaeologists undertook fieldwork at Mission San Francisco Solano in Sonoma, California, to assess the potential of employing geophysical-survey methods in contexts characterized by extensive post-mission reuse. The results indicate that ground-penetrating radar and resistivity surveys are capable of detecting earlier mission architectural remains that can be differentiated from the remains of post-mission urban development from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.Avances recientes en la arqueología de misiones abogan por estudios más allá de la iglesia y del patio interior de la misión con el fin de comprender mejor sus organizaciones espaciales y cómo fueron incrustadas en los paisajes de las poblaciones indígenas. Esto plantea la cuestión de cómo implementar dichos estudios en áreas afectadas durante años por el desarrollo urbano, que ha dificultado detectar restos arqueológicos utilizando métodos estándar de estudios peatonales. El presente estudio aboga por el uso de estudios geofísicos como parte del mix de estrategias de campo. Los arqueólogos emprendieron trabajo de campo en la Misión San Francisco Solano en Sonoma (California) para evaluar el potencial de emplear métodos de estudio geofísicos en contextos caracterizados por una reutilización post-misión extensiva. Los resultados indican que el radar de penetración terrestre y los estudios de resistividad son capaces de detectar restos arquitectónicos de misiones anteriores que pueden ser diferenciados de los restos del desarrollo urbano post-misión de finales del siglo XIX y principios del siglo XX.Les progrès récents en archéologie de mission défendent les études en dehors de l’église de la mission et du quadrilatère afin de mieux comprennent leur organisation spatiale et comment elle était intégrée dans les paysages des populations autochtones. Cela soulève la question de l'application de ces études dans les zones touchées pendant des années par le développement urbain, qui a rendu difficile la détection des vestiges archéologiques à l’aide de méthodes normalisées de sondages dans la rue. Cet article préconise l’utilisation d'un levé géophysique dans le cadre de la combinaison des stratégies de terrain. Les archéologues ont entrepris des travaux sur le terrain à la Mission San Francisco Solano, à Sonoma (Californie) pour évaluer la possibilité d’utilisation des méthodes de levés géophysiques dans des contextes caractérisés par une vaste réutilisation après la mission. Les résultats indiquent que les enquêtes de géoradar et les levés de résistivité sont capables de détecter des vestiges architecturaux de mission antérieurs, qui peuvent être différenciés des vestiges du développement urbain postérieur à la mission de la fin du 19e siècle et au début du 20e siècle.

This article advocates for archaeological investigation of sustained colonialism that examines the implications of Native American negotiations with multiple waves of foreigners over the course of many decades, if not centuries. The study of native confrontations with successive groups of intruders, who often represented a diverse range of colonial programs and interests, involves analyses of not only indigenous encounters with first-wave colonists but also their entanglements with later colonists, particularly settler colonists. This will provide the necessary diachronic approach to consider the cumulative effects and implications of multiple colonial intrusions on specific tribes and how tribal negotiations with earlier colonial enterprises may have influenced and shaped their responses to later settler colonists. This article presents a case study of one such approach for the study of sustained colonialism that examines native entanglements with mercantile and settler colonists in northern California.

Thin sections of a compact, internal structure projecting from the hinge region of the bivalve Mya arenaria reveal the presence of tidal and seasonal patterns. This is the first demonstration that microgrowth increments are formed in a stucture not associated with the growing edge of the shell. The clarity and simple orientation of these extensive patterns, combined with the hinge region to disturbance and damage, suggests that detailed examinations of internal shell structures will prove valuable in ecological, archaeological, and paleoecological studies.

This paper examines the hypothesis that human landscape modifications involving early agriculture contributed to greenhouse gas emissions in preindustrial times, a proposal that has significant implications for the timing of the Anthropocene era. In synthesizing recent papers that both advocate and challenge this hypothesis, we identify a major bias in the ongoing debate, which focuses on the land clearance practices of agrarian people, with insufficient consideration of a diverse range of hunter-gatherer societies who regularly utilized landscape-scale burning for various purposes. Employing California as a case study, we examine how the exclusion of hunter-gatherers from this debate may have shortchanged estimates of human biomass burning in preindustrial times. We also suggest that human population size may be a poor proxy for the degree of land clearance and anthropogenic burning, and we describe how previous approaches to these questions may have underplayed the importance of variation in the timing and magnitude of depopulation in different regions of the Americas.

This paper argues that European colonialism from AD 1500 to the early 1800s marked a fundamental transformation in human–environment interactions across much of the world. The rapid founding of various colonial enterprises, particularly mission and managerial colonies, unleashed mission agrarian systems, plantations, fur trade outposts, and commercial fishing and whaling ventures into various tropical and temperate ecosystems in the Americas, Oceania, India, Asia, and Africa, which had tremendous repercussions for indigenous faunal and floral populations. These colonial enterprises placed tremendous pressures on long-standing anthropogenic landscapes leading to significant modifications with the invasion of foreign species, the disruption of native habitats, the extermination of keystone species, and in some places, the loss of biodiversity. We conclude with a case study that considers how anthropogenic environments in Alta and Baja California created by native peoples over many centuries became entangled with mission ranching and commercial fur hunting. Our findings support a longer chronology for the Anthropocene than traditionally recognized.

The purpose of this special issue is to present the findings of a collaborative, interdisciplinary eco-archaeological project that is examining evidence for indigenous landscape management practices in central coastal California in Late Holocene and historic times. In this introductory paper, we provide some background about traditional resource and environment management (TREM) practices in California, discuss the goals of the eco-archaeological project, outline testable expectations for anthropogenic burning, and introduce the papers in the volume. The papers represent a coordinated suite of investigations that empirically evaluate the degree to which native people may have ignited fires in and around the Quiroste Valley Cultural Preserve near Point Ano Nuevo. Employing diverse lines of evidence derived from archaeology, silica phytolith research, palynology, plant population genetics, and dendroecology, the authors reconstruct past fire histories, faunal and floral resources, vegetation convers...

In this final paper, we summarize the results of the eco-archaeological project, address five research questions concerning anthropogenic burning on the central California coast in Late Holocene and early historical times, and outline plans for future research.

In this paper, we examine the curatorial and collections management-related efforts undertaken to establish the research value of an “old” archaeological collection housed in a museum in California...

A new method developed by Schweikhardt et al. (2011) for the geochemical analysis of bay mussels is applicable (when combined with radiocarbon assessments) for examining the seasonal construction patterns and growth cycles of coastal mound sites over time. Ideally suited for the analysis of mollusk fragments in museum collections, this method allows archaeologists to evaluate divergent models about the functions of mound sites, as well as the mobility practices and social organizations of the mound builders. In this case study, the method is employed to examine two adjacent mounds (Ellis Landing, Brooks Island) in the San Francisco Bay Area, California to assess whether their occupants may have participated in a broader multi-site community dating to the Late Period (1100–250 BP).

There has been little movement to systematically incorporate the study of indigenous landscape management practices into the method and theory of hunter-gatherer research in North American archaeology, despite a growing interest in this topic. The purposes of this article are twofold. One is to address why, until quite recently, archaeologists have been reluctant to engage in the current debate about the scale and ecological impact of these practices, particularly anthropogenic burning. We argue that this stems from a long tradition of viewing hunter-gatherers as passive, immediate-return foragers, as well as from the daunting methodological challenges of identifying landscape management activities using archaeological data. Our second purpose is to explore how archaeologists can make significant contributions to our understanding of past resource management practices through the creation of new kinds of collaborative, interdisciplinary eco-archaeological programs. Based on the current work of scholars in archaeological and environmental disciplines, as well as on our own implementation of such an approach in central California, we discuss the importance of maintaining mutual relationships with local tribes, the challenges of coordinating multiple data sets, and the process of rethinking our analytical methods and temporal scales for undertaking hunter-gatherer studies.

This article advocates for a comparative approach to archaeological studies of colonialism that considers how Native American societies with divergent political economies may have influenced various kinds of processes and outcomes in their encounters with European colonists. Three dimensions of indigenous political economies (polity size, polity structure, and landscape management practices) are identified as critical variables in colonial research. The importance of considering these dimensions is exemplified in a case study from California, which shows how small-sized polities, weak to moderate political hierarchies, and regionally oriented pyrodiversity economies played significant roles in the kinds of colonial relationships that unfolded. The case study illustrates how the colonial experiences of Native Californians differed from those of other tribal groups that confronted similar kinds of colonial programs involving Franciscan missionaries elsewhere in North America. The article stresses that the archaeology of colonialism is not simply an arcane academic exercise but, rather, has real-life relevancy for people who remain haunted by the legacies of colonialism, such as those petitioning for federal recognition in California.

Seasonal patterns of Native American residence and use of shell mounds of the San Francisco Bay area, California are of great interest. This work investigates seasonal occupation by means of a new method for interpretation of geochemical data from Mytilus trossulus specimens recovered from one of these structures, the Ellis Landing Shell Mound (CA-CCO-295). The approach, which is suitable for relatively small shell fragments from a variety of archaeological contexts, is used to infer the environmental conditions (temperature and salinity of ambient water) at harvest time, compared with average conditions for the period, and thus estimate the season during which the shells were harvested. This information, in turn, is employed to evaluate current models about the growth and construction of prehistoric shell mounds in San Francisco Bay. The method was applied to seven different lenses in the shell mound ranging in age from ∼240 cal yr BP to ∼3510 cal yr BP. We found that, although seasonal occupation varied over time, it generally was confined to summer through late fall, with little indication of winter gathering. Our findings suggest that California shell mounds, such as Ellis Landing, were constructed in a very different manner than some other mounded places used by contemporaneous hunter-gatherers elsewhere in North America.

This Perspective presents an overview of the archaeology of pluralistic colonies (approximately late 1500s–1800s) in North America. It complements the other special feature papers in this issue on ancient societies in Mesoamerica, the Near East, the Armenian Highlands, Peru, and China by presenting another body of literature for examining the dynamics of change in multiethnic societies from a different time and place. In synthesizing archaeological investigations of mercantile, plantation, and missionary colonies, this Perspective shows how this research is relevant to the study of pluralism in both historic and ancient societies in three ways. ( i ) It enhances our understanding of interethnic relationships that took place in complex societies with imposing political hierarchies and labor structures. ( ii ) It helps us to refine the methods used by archaeologists to define and analyze multiethnic communities that were spatially delimited by ethnic neighborhoods. Finally, ( iii ) it presents more than a half century of experimentation with various models (e.g., acculturation, creolization, ethnogenesis, and hybridity) that have been used to study the dynamics of culture change in multiethnic societies.

Current understanding of the shell mounds of the San Francisco Bay Area, now almost completely destroyed due to urban expansion, is summarized. After interpretations of how and why coastal hunter-gatherers created these sites are discussed, salient characteristics of shell mounds from the area are outlined. Because core questions concerning the meaning and function of these sites remain unresolved, a new project that integrates the results of re-analyses of older museum collections with archival records and CRM work is discussed, an approach that may have applicability in other developed coastal areas. Results of a regional analysis that relies on an assessment of site type drawn from many site records are then presented. First-time discovery of site type throughout the past 100 years is then analyzed across 20 topographic quadrangles; we conclude that the region's earliest archaeologists captured a surprising range of site type diversity, especially with respect to shell-bearing sites. A north-s...

The maritime fur trade propelled Russian expansion into the North Pacific in the 18th and 19th centuries. The mercantile legacy of Russian colonization is evident in the rapid founding of settlements across an immense region, the corporate hierarchy of the colonial administration, and the policies and practices for the treatment of indigenous peoples. Russian fur merchants transported to North America colonial practices that originated in Siberia. In contrast to American and British merchants on the Northwest Coast who relied on commodity exchange with autonomous native hunters for furs, Russians forced native hunters to work directly for their companies, initially by military force and the taking of hostages to insure tribute payments and later by mandatory conscription. While relatively few Europeans immigrated to Russian America, colonial administrators relocated scores of native and “mixed blood” workers to new colonies. What emerged was a different twist to the colonial encounters that unfolded among indigenous populations and “colonists.” Rather than confronting successive waves of European immigrants, local peoples interacted primarily with other natives from homelands dispersed across the North Pacific. Historical archaeology has much to contribute to understanding the long-term impacts of “native-to-native” interactions in pluralistic colonial communities.

This paper offers a new perspective for the study of prehistoric Pueblo political organization in the American Southwest. In reviewing salient developments in Puebloan archaeology over the last 20 years, we discuss shortcomings in previous studies that argued for either “simple” or “complex” societies without recognizing the potential for hierarchy and equality to coexist simultaneously in all human societies. An alternative approach is outlined that considers corporate and network strategies of political action as a continuum for examining the organizational structure of Southwestern societies. Consideration of the corporate-network dimension is not seen as a replacement for the dimension of hierarchy, but as an analog to it. We consider the utility of this approach in analyzing the community organization of historic Pueblos and argue that the corporate-network continuum may have “deep” time depth in the broader region of the Desert West. Our findings suggest that a diverse range of corporate and network strategies were employed among residents of pithouse villages (A.D. 200-900) and that the pithouse-to-pueblo transition (ca. A.D. 700-1000) marked a significant organizational shift to more corporate forms of political action that also characterize historic and modern Pueblos.

To complement the growing literature on magnetic prospection in historical archaeology, the practical aspects of magnetometer selection and survey design need to be explored. Based on a test case from the Petaluma Adobe State Historic Park in northern California, two readily-available magnetometers are compared with respect to instrument type (alkali-vapor versus proton precession), sensor configuration and number (total field versus vertical gradient), sensor height, intensity of data collection, and basestation correction procedures. These variables are then considered in light of survey speed, labor input, and monetary cost. Results indicate that the alkali-vapor gradiometer is better suited for historical archaeological research based on survey speed and efficiency, volume of data collected, temporal and spatial intensity of station readings, and sensor sensitivity. In addition, the data reconfirm the importance of sensor height, gradiometer configuration, and basestation correction in obtaining high-quality magnetic data.

This paper presents an archaeological approach to the study of culture change and persistence in multi-ethnic communities through the study of daily practices and based on a crucial tenet of practice theory-that individuals will enact and construct their underlying organizational principles, worldviews, and social identities in the ordering of daily life. The study of habitual routines is undertaken in a broadly diachronic and comparative framework by examining daily practices from a multiscalar perspective. The approach is employed in a case study on the organization of daily life of interethnic households composed of Native Californian women and Native Alaskan men at the Russian colony of Fort Ross in northern California. Recognizing that different opportunities and choices existed for household members in this colonial setting, we explore how they constructed their own unique identities by examining the spatial layout of residential space, the ordering of domestic tasks, and the structure of trash disposal. We argue that trash deposits and middens in built environments, which often accumulate through routinized tasks, present great promise for examining the processes of culture change and persistence in archaeology. Este articulo presenta un metodo arqueolkgico para estudiar el cambio cultural y la persistencia de comunidades multiktnicas a traveis del estudio de prdcticas cotidianas. El mitodo se construye sobre un principio crucial de teoria de prdctica-que individuos promulgardn y construiradn sus principios de organizaci6n subyacentes, perspectives del mundo e identidad social en sus acciones de vida diaria. El estudio de rutinas habituales se emprende en un marco ampliamente diacronico y comparative al examinar las prdicticas diarias desde una perspectiva de multiples niveles. Este mitodo se emplea en un caso prdctico que estudia la organizaci6n de la vida diaria de unidades familiares intertnicas integradas por mujeres nativas de California y hombres nativos de Alaska en la colonia rusa de Fort Ross en California. Tomando en cuenta que existieron diferentes oportunidades y opciones para los miembros defamilias en este ambiente colonial, exploramos c6mo construyeron sus identidades propias anicas examinando el esquema espacial del espacio residencial, la manera de organizar las tareas domisticas, y la estructura de disposici6n de basura. Argiiimos que depositos y montones de basura en ambientes construidos, que a menudo se acumulan a medio de rutinas cotidianas, presentan una gran oportunidad para examinar los procesos de cambio cultural y la persistencia en la arqueologia.

Most archaeological studies of frontiers and boundaries are informed by a colonialist perspective of core-periphery relationships. In this review, we identify three problems with colonialist models of territorial expansion, boundary maintenance, and homogeneousc olonial populations. These problems are (a) insular models of culture change that treat frontiers as passive recipients of core innovations, (b) the reliance on macro scales of analysis employed frontier research, and (c) the expectation of sharp frontier boundaries visible material culture. In the final section, we reconceptualize frontiers as zones of cross-cutting social networks based largely on our research on fur-trade outposts in western North America. Our approach considers the study of diverse and overlapping segmentary or factional groups that cross-cut traditionally perceived colonial-indigenous boundaries on the frontier at different spatial and temporal scales of analysis.

Archaeology is poised to play a pivotal role in the reconfiguration of historical anthropology. Archaeology provides not only a temporal baseline that spans both prehistory and history, but the means to study the material remains of ethnic laborers in pluralistic colonial communities who are poorly represented in written accounts. Taken together, archaeology is ideally suited for examining the multicultural roots of modern América. But before archaeology’s full potential to contribute to culture contact studies can be realized, we must address several systemic problems resulting from the separation of “prehistoric” and “historical” archaeology into distinct subfields. In this paper, I examine the implications of increasing temporal/regional specialization in archaeology on (1) the use of historical documents in archaeological research, (2) the study of long-term culture change, and (3) the implementation of pan-regional comparative analyses.

The Pacific coast of North America is ideally suited to the study of long-term developments in complex hunter-gatherer societies. This paper synthesizes current research in California and the Northwest Coast on three related research problems. The first concerns the timing, spatial distribution, and economies of the earliest coastal peoples in the region. The second problem involves the growth and florescence of complex Pacific hunter-gatherer societies. What constitutes archaeological evidence of hunter-gatherer complexity, when and where it occurs, and the interpretations proposed to account for it are reviewed. The final problem addresses how complex hunter-gatherer peoples responded to European exploration and colonization, and how these early encounters affected the Pacific coast societies recorded in early ethnohistoric accounts and later studied by ethnographers.