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Shell midden sites along the upper Gulf coast of Baja California contain abundant evidence of Indigenous subsistence practices and land use strategies reflecting the long history of local fisheries. Many of these sites contain well preserved faunal remains indicating people utilized a variety of littoral and marine habitats and exploited seasonal runs of the now endangered totoaba (Totoaba macdonaldi). We analyze totoaba otoliths recovered from eight archaeological sites along the upper Gulf coast with adjusted accelerated mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon date ranges spanning ~5700 to 125 cal BP. Integrating geochemical, biological, oceanographic, and archaeological datasets, this study investigates ~5700 years of Indigenous fishing practices and past marine environments by examining totoaba biogeography, population dynamics, season of harvest, and changes in water chemistry. Otolith morphometrics indicate that most (~78%) of the Indigenous catch consisted of yearlings and juveniles, reflecting more sustainable practices than commercial fisheries, which target larger, older, and more reproductively viable fish. Stable isotope results reveal slight oscillations in water chemistry between the Middle and Late Holocene and suggest shifts in salinity due to the extensive damming of the Colorado River in the past century. Our results contribute to regional paleoenvironmental reconstructions, the natural history of totoaba, and the growing body of data that suggest many Indigenous people engaged in localized sustainable fishing practices over thousands of years.

This study used photogrammetry to analyze digital video taken before and after a new moon perigean spring tide that caused extensive damage to archaeological sites along the Upper Gulf of Californi...

AMS radiocarbon dating of two modified pearls from the Covacha Babisuri site, Espíritu Santo Island, Baja California Sur, México, corroborates associated midden dates suggesting that traditional indigenous use and modification of pearls as items of adornment began at least 8,500 years ago. To our knowledge, these are the oldest modified pearls found in dated archaeological contexts anywhere in the world. The presence of similarly modified pearls in later components at Covacha Babisuri suggests that this custom continued throughout the Middle Holocene, and ethnohistoric accounts indicate that similar modifications of pearls continued up until the Historic Era. These data show a long history of cultural continuity in the region in pearl harvesting, modification, and use as adornment.

Inhabited by Native Americans for at least 13,000 years, California’s Channel Islands were isolated from the adjacent mainland throughout the Quaternary. A rich archaeological record demons...

Chemical analysis of archeological objects can provide important clues about their purpose and function. In this study, we used scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and chemical spectroscopy (SEM-EDS and XRD) to identify a white residue present on cylindrical rhizoliths from a component at an archaeological site (CA-SNI-25) on San Nicolas Island, California, dated ca. AD 1300 to 1700. The residue was found to consist of biogenic calcite and aragonite particles, different in composition and morphology from the CaCO3 particles in the rhizoliths, but identical to marine shell material. These results, together with observations of surface micro-wear patterning on fishhooks and rhizoliths, replicative experiments, in situ spatial analysis, and other archaeological evidence, show that rhizoliths were used as files in a larger tool kit for crafting shell fishhooks. Our findings shed new light on the technological innovations devised by Native Americans to exploit the rich marine resources surrounding the Channel Islands, and provide the first analytical evidence for the use of rhizoliths as a production tool.

The sea otter (Enhydra lutris) is a marine mammal hunted to near extinction during the 1800s. Despite their well‐known modern importance as a keystone species, we know little about historical sea otter ecology. Here, we characterize the ecological niche of ancient southern sea otters (E. lutris nereis) using δ13C analysis and δ15N analysis of bones recovered from archaeological sites spanning ~7,000 to 350 years before present (N = 112 individuals) at five regions along the coast of California. These data are compared with previously published data on modern animals (N = 165) and potential modern prey items. In addition, we analyze the δ15N of individual amino acids for 23 individuals to test for differences in sea otter trophic ecology through time. After correcting for tissue‐specific and temporal isotopic effects, we employ nonparametric statistics and Bayesian niche models to quantify differences among ancient and modern animals. We find ancient otters occupied a larger isotopic niche than nearly all modern localities; likely reflecting broader habitat and prey use in prefur trade populations. In addition, ancient sea otters at the most southerly sites occupied an isotopic niche that was more than twice as large as ancient otters from northerly regions. This likely reflects greater invertebrate prey diversity in southern California relative to northern California. Thus, we suggest the potential dietary niche of sea otters in southern California could be larger than in central and northern California. At two sites, Año Nuevo and Monterey Bay, ancient otters had significantly higher δ15N values than modern populations. Amino acid δ15N data indicated this resulted from shifting baseline isotope values, rather than a change in sea otter trophic ecology. Our results help in better understanding the contemporary ecological role of sea otters and exemplify the strength of combing zooarchaeological and biological information to provide baseline data for conservation efforts., We measured the dietary niche of modern and ancient Southern sea otters in California using stable isotope analysis. We find the size of the realized niche in southern California has decreased over time. These results should be considered for effective management and conservation efforts of this threatened species.

We provide an update to the fossil avifauna of San Miguel and Santa Rosa Islands based on the identification of 3509 small bird bones recovered from fossil sites on Santa Rosa and from 3 archaeological-paleontological cave deposits and 20 fossil sites on San Miguel. This work adds 64 species to the fossil avian community of these 2 islands, increasing the previous total from 83 to 147 species, making this the richest Late Pleistocene–Holocene coastal avifaunal assemblage recorded for California. Of the 64 newly identified species, 62 are new additions to the Channel Islands fossil avifauna and 40 are new to the fossil avifauna of California. Twenty-two species were confirmed to have nested on San Miguel Island during the Holocene based on the identification of juvenile/immature bones. At least 4 land birds (Burrowing Owl [Athene cunicularia], Island Scrub-Jay [Aphelocoma insularis], Bewick's Wren [Thryomanes bewickii], and Spotted Towhee [Pipilo maculatus]) that nested prehistorically on San Miguel have disappeared from the modern record there. Island Scrub-Jay bones were identified from 3 fossil sites on San Miguel and 1 site on Santa Rosa, providing the first confirmation that this species lived on both islands during the Pleistocene and Holocene. Island Scrub-Jays disappeared from San Miguel Island sometime in the Late Holocene, but a small population may have lingered on Santa Rosa Island into historic times before dying out. Destruction of island scrub and woodland habitats following the introduction of livestock in the mid-19th century probably caused the extirpation of resident breeding populations of Bewick's Wren and Spotted Towhee from San Miguel Island and Island Scrub-Jay from Santa Rosa Island.

Elucidating the tools and production steps involved in manufacturing the characteristic circular shell fishhooks found on the California Channel Islands has been a long-standing problem in California archaeology. A prehistoric production site for shell fishhooks excavated on the most remote island, San Nicolas Island, has provided a rare opportunity to examine manufacturing sequences. We have previously employed a multidisciplinary research approach to demonstrate that fishhook production at this site involved using sandstone slabs as abraders, or “saws”. Here, we use chemical residue analysis, replicative experiments, and microwear patterns to show that fishhook production also involved the use of small pointed pieces of sandstone as reamers. These results bring us one step closer to understanding the complete prehistoric toolkit used for production of circular shell fishhooks.

Excavation of a cache feature eroding from a sea cliff on the northwest coast of San Nicolas Island produced two redwood boxes containing more than 200 artifacts of Nicoleno, Native Alaskan...

Archaeologically, the use of marine kelps and seaweeds is poorly understood, yet California's islands are surrounded by extensive and highly productive kelp forests with nearshore habitats containing more than 100 edible species. Historical accounts from around the Pacific Rim demonstrate considerable use of seaweeds and seagrasses by native people, but there has been little discussion of seaweeds as a potential food source on California's islands. This chapter summarizes the biology, diversity, ecology, and productivity of marine macroalgae and marine angiosperms in the California Bight, supporting the likely consumption of seaweeds in the past. The potential use of plentiful and nutritious seaweeds by California Island peoples has major implications for the perceived marginality of the islands.

Until recently, with a few exceptions, California Islands were believed to be relatively impoverished in high-quality materials for making stone tools. This chapter summarizes the distributions of known mineral resources on the islands, including numerous sources identified during recent geoarchaeology surveys. For islands occupied since the Terminal Pleistocene, the availability of such resources may have changed significantly through time due to sea level rise and coastal erosion. There is spatial variability in the distribution of mineral resources, but we show that such resources were relatively abundant on many of California's islands. This has implications for understanding the antiquity of initial colonization of the islands, the development of exchange networks, and the marginality of island mineral resources.

Understanding how human activities have influenced the foraging ecology of wildlife is important as our planet faces ongoing and impending habitat and climatic change. We review the canine surrogacy approach (CSA)—a tool for comparing human, dog, and other canid diets in the past—and apply CSA to investigate possible ancient human resource provisioning in an endangered canid, the California Channel Islands fox (Urocyon littoralis). We conducted stable isotope analysis of bone collagen samples from ancient and modern island foxes (n = 214) and mainland gray foxes (Urocyon cinereoargenteus, n = 24). We compare these data to isotope values of ancient humans and dogs, and synthesize 29 Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon dates that fine-tune the chronology of island foxes. AMS dates confirm that island foxes likely arrived during the early Holocene (>7300 cal BP) on the northern islands in the archipelago and during the middle Holocene (>5500 cal BP) on the southern islands. We found no evidence that island foxes were consistently using anthropogenic resources (e.g., food obtained by scavenging around human habitation sites or direct provisioning by Native Americans), except for a few individuals on San Nicolas Island and possibly on San Clemente and Santa Rosa islands. Decreases in U. littoralis carbon and nitrogen isotope values between prehistoric times and the 19th century on San Nicolas Island suggest that changes in human land use from Native American hunter-gatherer occupations to historical ranching had a strong influence on fox diet. Island foxes exhibit considerable dietary variation through time and between islands and have adapted to a wide variety of climatic and cultural changes over the last 7300 years. This generalist foraging strategy suggests that endemic island foxes may be resilient to future changes in resource availability.

Examining the ecology and archaeology of black turban snails (Chlorostoma [Tegula] funebralis), found along North America's Pacific Coast from British Columbia to Baja California, we present evidence for 12,000 years of human predation in Northern Channel Island shell middens. Often viewed as evidence for Late Holocene economic intensification along the southern California Coast, we identified black turban middens dated to the terminal Pleistocene, as well as the early, middle, and late Holocene. Despite their small size and lower ranking as a prey species, humans harvested black turban snails because of their abundance, aggregation, and accessibility during daily tidal cycles. Examining 19 discrete archaeological components (with a total MNI of ∼7,800) from San Miguel and Santa Rosa islands, we used a Shell Weight/MNI Index to document fluctuations in the mean size of black turban shells through time, identifying patterns attributed to a combination of environmental and demographic changes, inclu...

Excavations at the upper component of the Tule Creek site (CA–SNI–25), dating between approximately 600–350 cal BP, yielded numerous well-preserved sandstone abraders referred to as saws. Many of these tools show heavy use-wear and abundant white residue still adhering to the surface. We used X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis to characterize the residue from two of the abraders, which identified the mineral phases calcite and aragonite (both CaCO 3 ), albite (NaAlSi 3 O 8 ), and quartz (SiO 2 ). A scanning electron microscope (SEM) equipped for Energy Dispersive X-Ray (EDS) analysis identified the elements C, Ca, S, Na, and Al in the samples, confirming the XRD results. Albite, quartz, and calcite in the scrapings are consistent with the mineralogy of sandstone, though the presence of calcium carbonate in the form of calcite and aragonite suggests marine shell is also present in the residue samples. XRD and SEM analysis of a modern red abalone ( Haliotis rufescens ) shell indicates that the inner-layer (nacre) consists mostly of aragonite phase calcium carbonate, whereas the outer layer (epidermis) is made up mostly of calcite phase. SEM images revealed that calcite and aragonite from the archaeological residues display similar morphologies as the material from a modern abalone sample, and a greater presence of aragonite over calcite suggests the abraders were primarily used to work the inner layer of the abalone shell. These results provide a functional linkage between sandstone saws and shell fishhook production at CA–SNI–25.

Archaeologists analyzing shell middens typically focus on larger (>2 cm) mollusks to examine subsistence practices, impacts on littoral habitats, and paleoenvironmental conditions as well as a host of other natural and cultural phenomena. Small (

Tarring pebbles have been used by Native Americans of southern California for thousands of years to melt, apply, and spread asphaltum. Although tarring pebbles are frequently observed in the archaeological record, they are seldom analyzed. In this study, we use size to construct a classification and typology of tarring pebbles found at three archaeological sites on San Nicolas Island, California. Three separate tarring pebble clusters exhibit particular characteristics that are distinct from one another. Our research suggests that tarring pebbles with specific attributes were being targeted for distinct purposes, allowing us to construct a classification based on pebble size.

Asphaltum, often referred to as bitumen, is a naturally occurring form of petroleum that was used by ancient cultures for thousands of years. Asphaltum deposits are found throughout the world and occur both on land and submerged under water. Ethnohistoric accounts of native Californians suggest that asphaltum from terrestrial seeps was shaped by hand into cakes and traded throughout Southern California and was the only grade of asphaltum used to manufacture plank-canoes. While there are no terrestrial seeps on the California Channel Islands, drift asphaltum exuded from submarine seeps can frequently be found washed up on the shore. It remains unclear to what extent prehistoric island populations relied on this drift asphaltum and whether or not they acquired terrestrial asphaltum through trade. This study combines gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) and liquid chromatography coupled with carbon isotopic analysis in an effort to identify the sources of six archaeological bituminous mixtures from San Nicolas and San Miguel islands. We compare the archaeological asphaltum to four modern samples collected from marine tarballs and a mainland terrestrial seep. Further, we compare our results to a USGS chemometric database to determine if our archaeological samples match extant sources. Our results show that prehistoric peoples on the Channel Islands utilized drift asphaltum from submarine seeps in a variety of technological applications throughout the Holocene. The methods used in our study are globally applicable and can be used to address a variety of broad anthropological questions.

A cache feature salvaged from an eroding sea cliff on San Nicolas Island produced two redwood boxes containing more than 200 artifacts of Nicoleno, Native Alaskan, and Euro-American origin. Outside the boxes were four asphaltum-coated baskets, abalone shells, a sandstone dish, and a hafted stone knife. The boxes, made from split redwood planks, contained a variety of artifacts and numerous unmodified bones and teeth from marine mammals, fish, birds, and large land mammals. Nicoleno-style artifacts include 11 knives with redwood handles and stone blades, stone projectile points, steatite ornaments and effigies, a carved stone pipe, abraders and burnishing stones, bird bone whistles, bone and shell pendants, abalone shell dishes, and two unusual barbed shell fishhooks. Artifacts of Native Alaskan style include four bone toggling harpoons, two unilaterally barbed bone harpoon heads, bone harpoon fore-shafts, a ground slate blade, and an adze blade. Objects of Euro-American origin or materials includ...

The translocation and extinction of animals and the role humans played in shaping island ecosystems has become a topic of great interest in island and coastal archaeology (Grayson 2001; Matisoo-Smi...

Driven to the brink of extinction during the nineteenth century commercial fur and oil trade, northern elephant seal (NES, Mirounga angustirostris) populations now exceed 100 000 animals in the northeast Pacific from Alaska to Baja California. Because little is known about the biogeography and ecology of NES prior to the mid-nineteenth century, we synthesize and analyze the occurrence of NES remains in North American archaeological sites. Comparing these archaeological data with modern biogeographical, genetic, and behavioral data, we provide a trans-Holocene perspective on NES distribution and abundance. Compared with other pinnipeds, NES bones are relatively rare throughout the Holocene, even in California where they currently breed in large numbers. Low numbers of NES north of California match contemporary NES distribution, but extremely low occurrences in California suggest their abundance in this area was very different during the Holocene than today. We propose four hypotheses to explain this discrepancy, concluding that ancient human settlement and other activities may have displaced NES from many of their preferred modern habitats during much of the Holocene.

To investigate potential human impacts on California Channel Island shellfish stocks over the past 10,000 years, we measured 1718 owl limpet shells from 19 archaeological components on San Miguel Island. Inhabiting the middle intertidal zone of Pacific Coast rocky shores, owl limpets are slow-growing mollusks that can live for 30 years and reach lengths of over 100 mm. Recent ecological studies indicate that owl limpets are highly susceptible to heavy human predation, which results in reduced mean shell sizes among Lottia populations along the coasts of Alta and Baja California. On San Miguel Island, we identified a significant trans-Holocene reduction in mean owl limpet size, beginning more than 6500 years ago and accelerating at least 4400 years ago. Fluctuations in limpet size show no clear correlation with changes in sea surface temperature and marine productivity, suggesting that increased predation by growing human populations was primarily responsible for the reduction in Lottia size over time. Our results provide further evidence that prehistoric peoples significantly influenced nearshore fisheries long before the development of the commercial and industrialized fisheries of historic times.

The island fox (Urocyon littoralis) is one of few reportedly endemic terrestrial mammals on California's Channel Islands. Questions remain about how and when foxes first colonized the islands, with researchers speculating on a natural, human-assisted, or combined dispersal during the late Pleistocene and/or Holocene. A natural dispersal of foxes to the northern Channel Islands has been supported by reports of a few fox bones from late Pleistocene paleontological localities. Direct AMS14C dating of these “fossil” fox bones produced dates ranging from ∼ 6400 to 200 cal yr BP, however, postdating human colonization of the islands by several millennia. Although one of these specimens is the earliest securely dated fox from the islands, these new data support the hypothesis that Native Americans introduced foxes to all the Channel Islands in the early to middle Holocene. However, a natural dispersal for the original island colonization cannot be ruled out until further paleontological, archaeological, and genetic studies (especially aDNA [ancient DNA]) are conducted.

Recent archaeological excavations on San Nicolas Island, located off the coast of southern California, revealed the remains of a double dog burial interred sometime during the 13th and 14th centuries. Two carefully laid to rest and possibly sacrificed juvenile, female domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) between the ages of 1 and 6 months were found within a Native American village. Digestive tract residues include burned and unburned fish and marine mammal bone that suggest scavenging behavior or direct feeding by humans. Breed classifications place it between the Short-Nosed Indian dog and the Plains-Indian dog, likely representing a cross between those and other varieties of North American dogs. Comparisons with other dog burials from archaeological sites across southern California suggest commonalities and possible cultural linkages.

Archaeologists have made significant contributions to our understanding of ancient island environments, including the timing and implications of the introduction of non-native animals (pigs, chickens, rats, etc.) by humans. Here, we focus on the historical ecology and biogeography of domestic dogs ( Canis familiaris) on California's Channel Islands during the Holocene. Dogs are the only animal known unequivocally to have been introduced by Native Americans to the islands, but relatively little is known about their distribution, antiquity or influence on native island fauna and flora. We identified a minimum of 96 dogs from 42 archaeological sites on six of the eight islands. Dogs were present for at least 6000 years and appear to have increased in abundance through time. Our analysis suggests that dogs, along with humans and island foxes ( Urocyon littoralis), would have had an impact on native animals and ecosystems, especially breeding birds and marine mammals. Dogs and island foxes likely competed with one another for food, however, and the impacts of dogs on island ecosystems may have been reduced by the presence of island foxes and the symbiotic relationship between dogs and humans. Dogs have been removed from all but one of the islands today, eliminating one of the few terrestrial carnivores present for most of the Holocene.

We use measurements of more than 11,000 marine shells from 41 archaeological components to construct a 10,000 year record of human impacts on ancient mussel and abalone stocks on San Miguel Island, California. General reductions in the mean size of mussel and abalone shells gathered through time are attributed to growing human population and predation pressure. Based on comparison with historically documented changes in shellfish communities caused by the local extinction of sea otters in the 19th century, changes in mean shell size and the abundance of other shellfish species may have been facilitated by Native American predation on sea otters as early as 7500 years ago. Despite having measurable impacts on local ecosystems, Native Americans on San Miguel harvested huge quantities of shellfish throughout the Holocene. Such long-term harvests appear to have been sustained by an early emphasis on fishing at lower trophic levels, by periodically shifting village locations, and by intensifying the use of finfish and sea mammals through time. This pattern of “fishing up the food web” contrasts with many modern fisheries, suggesting that the study of ancient fisheries can help us better manage our own endangered coastal ecosystems.

For decades, researchers have been interested in archaeological sites on California's Channel Islands that contain large concentrations of red abalone ( Haliotis rufescens) shells. Known as red abalone middens and dated to between about 7500 and 3500 years ago, these sites have been used to understand broad subsistence patterns, provide chrono-stratigraphic control, and investigate past environmental changes in the region. Most detailed studies have focused on red abalone middens from Santa Cruz Island, with comparatively limited data from other islands. Analysis of a red abalone midden sample excavated from a large dune site on San Miguel Island illustrates the diversity of the red abalone site type and associated human behaviors. Rapid changes in the primary midden constituents, from California mussels ( Mytilus californianus) and sea mammals to red abalones, demonstrate the complexities of differentiating between the effects of environmental change, human food choices, and ecological changes associated with human impacts on local environments.

Inhabited by humans for over 12,000 calendar years, California's Channel Islands contain thousands of archaeological sites, ranging from dense shell middens and villages to small lithic scatters and camps. Similar to many islands around the world, the Channel Islands have a dearth of burrowing animals and limited historical development leading to generally good preservation of archaeological constituents and relatively high stratigraphic integrity. Despite these favorable preservation conditions, numerous natural and cultural processes have impacted the island's archaeological record. Channel Islands archaeologists, however, have given relatively limited attention to the effects of taphonomic and formation processes. The authors provide an overview of taphonomic and formation processes affecting Channel Islands archaeology, illustrating the importance of regional taphonomic syntheses in the management, preservation, and interpretation of archaeological sites. These data also demonstrate the significance of detailing formation processes in islands and other areas where burrowing rodents and other disturbances are thought to be absent or limited. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Archaeologists have long recognized the problem of the “old wood” effect in radiocarbon dating charcoal and wood samples, the age of which may be hundreds of years older than their use by humans. Such problems have resulted in significant changes in how most researchers select wood and charcoal samples for 14 C dating, with many now using relatively short-lived carbonized materials for dating. Despite the significant strides made in our understanding of the potential biases of the “old wood” effect, little emphasis has been placed on the possible impacts of dating “old shell” in archaeological deposits. The use of marine shell for 14 C dating is widespread in coastal areas around the world, including a growing emphasis on the dating of individual shell artifacts via Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS). In dating shell artifacts, we have obtained several dates older than associated 14 C dates for short-lived subsistence remains from the same deposits, including great disparities (>10,000 years) and more subtle differences (≥100 years). These discrepancies appear to be due to the use of old shells by humans to make beads and other artifacts, including shells collected from fossil deposits, older archaeological sites, and beaches. The problems caused by the use of old shells to make beads and other artifacts are surmountable through careful sample selection, analysis of multiple 14 C dates on a variety of materials, and proper calibration procedures.

California’s Channel Islands were home to some of the most distinctive Native American peoples along the Pacific Coast. Never connected to the mainland during the Quaternary, the Channel Islands have an impoverished terrestrial flora and fauna, but some of the richest and most productive marine environments in the Americas, including diverse kelp forest, intertidal, and offshore marine habitats. Native Americans occupied the Channel Islands for roughly 13,000 calendar years until the early nineteenth century, providing one of the longest and best preserved records of maritime hunter-gatherers in the Americas. We provide an overview and analysis of Channel Islands archaeology, from the relatively mobile peoples who colonized the islands during the Late Pleistocene to the complex hunter-gatherers documented by early Spanish explorers. Our analysis demonstrates the importance of Channel Islands archaeology for enhancing knowledge on a number of broad anthropological issues, including coastal and aquatic adaptations, seafaring, cultural complexity, trade and exchange, and ancient human impacts on the environment.

A buried archaeological site at Tecolote Canyon provides an ideal case study for relating past human land use patterns to changes in coastal paleogeography. Postglacial sea level transgression, erosion, and other marine and fluvial processes form the context for examining two deeply buried archaeological components excavated at CA-SBA-72. Archaeological shellfish assemblages provide proxy data for evaluating the evolution of local marine environments. Pismo clams dominate shellfish assemblages dated to 5800 cal yr B.P., suggesting the presence of a broad and sandy, high-energy beach environment. At 5500 cal yr B.P., the almost exclusive use of California mussels by humans signals the development of rocky intertidal habitats. During the late Holocene, estuarine species dominate the marine mollusk assemblages at CA-SBA-72, reflecting the development of local estuarine conditions or trade with nearby Goleta Slough villages. The buried components at Tecolote Canyon appear to have served as temporary camps for shellfish harvesting and processing. While general changes in coastal paleogeography and human subsistence have been reconstructed for the Santa Barbara Coast, high resolution ecological data from Tecolote Canyon suggest that Native peoples also adapted to localized and shorter-term shifts in intertidal habitats, changes not evident in most larger or more disturbed surface sites in the region. Linking these changes with shifts in human land use patterns highlights the interaction between humans and a dynamic coastal system. These data demonstrate the importance of small, buried sites in understanding the full spectrum of human subsistence and settlement choices and local environmental change. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Recent excavations at Cave of the Chimneys (CA-SMI-603), located on San Miguel Island, revealed well-preserved sea grass knots, twined cordage, Olivella spire-ground beads, and a bone gorge. The assemblage, dated to roughly 8000 years ago, is dominated by S-twist cordage and includes an assortment of strands, loops, and knotted pieces. Wrapped sea grass knotted balls, including some stained red, suggest they may have had a decorative function. Unique among Paleocoastal assemblages of the area, these artifacts offer a rare glimpse into the non-lithic technologies of early Native Americans on the Pacific Coast of North America.

During the Late Holocene, a number of new technologies (single-piece fishhooks, toggling harpoons, plank canoes, etc.) are thought to have significantly enhanced the fishing capabilities of California coastal peoples. The single-piece fishhook, perhaps the most common of these artifacts, appears to correlate with a regional intensification of marine fishing and a period of increased population growth. Determining the antiquity of the single-piece fishhook has been complicated by a variety of taphonomic and methodological factors. Consequently, age estimates for the initial appearance of these artifacts range from about 5500 to 2500 cal- bp . To help clarify the chronology of this important artifact type, we had eight of the potentially oldest shell fishhooks in the region AMS radiocarbon dated. These dates indicate that the single-piece shell fishhook appeared throughout the southern and central California Coast by at least 2500 cal- bp . Our data illustrate the utility of direct AMS dating of individual artifacts as a method of documenting site disturbances (bioturbation, historical land use, etc.) and refining artifact, site, and regional chronologies.

Analysis of over 27,000 fish bones from strata at Daisy Cave dated between about 11,500 and 8500 cal B.P. suggests that early Channel Islanders fished relatively intensively in a variety of habitats using a number of distinct technologies, including boats and the earliest evidence for hook-and-line fishing on the Pacific Coast of the Americas. The abundance of fish remains and fishing-related artifacts supports dietary reconstructions that suggest fish provided more than 50 percent of the edible meat represented in faunal samples from the early Holocene site strata. The abundance and economic importance of fish at Daisy Cave, unprecedented among early sites along the Pacific Coast of North America, suggest that early maritime capabilities on the Channel Islands were both more advanced and more variable than previously believed. When combined with a survey of fish remains from several other early Pacific Coast sites, these data suggest that early New World peoples effectively used watercraft, captured a diverse array of fish, and exploited a variety of marine habitats and resources.

Direct AMS radiocarbon dating can be used effectively to examine the stylistic evolution of shell beads and ornaments. Requiring only a small amount of shell, this technique has the potential to test and refine bead chronologies that were developed before radiocarbon dating. As an example, eight Olivella Grooved Rectangle (OGR) beads, collected from archaeological sites throughout western North America, were dated using the AMS technique. The results produced a consistent suite of dates, clustering between 4400 and 5400 cybp. Most OGR beads come from the California Channel Islands, where they are found in a variety of contexts and exhibit a high degree of stylistic variation. On the mainland, they are found most commonly in large coastal villages and in sites along natural corridors through the Transverse Ranges and the Great Basin. OGR beads are recovered almost exclusively within the historic territories of Uto-Aztecan speaking peoples, which may indicate possible ethnic or linguistic connections. This example serves to illustrate how AMS radiocarbon dating can be used to test and refine artifact typologies and classificatory schemes.

A deeply buried shell midden (CA-SRI-6) on Santa Rosa Island, California appears to have been a residential campsite occupied about 9300 years ago. Although few artifacts were recovered from this Early Holocene component, faunal remains suggest a heavy reliance on marine resources, probably supplemented by terrestrial plant foods. Dietary reconstructions suggest that shellfish (especially abalone) provided about 85% of the estimated meat yields, fish about 14%, with birds and sea mammals each contributing less than 1 %. These data suggest that Early Holocene adaptations on the Channel Islands were distinct from the coastal mainland in many ways and that maritime hunter-gatherers had adapted to a variety of Pacific Coast habitats by this early time.