Archaic California (pre 1492)

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I.  Archaeologists believe Archaic California was settled in many waves.

A.  Most believe that Indians came by Siberian Land Bridge.

1.   Sinodonty  describes dental characteristics Indian people share.

a.  occurance.

i.  found in teeth from Northern China at 20,000 BP.

   aa.  suspected at least 40,000 BP.

ii.  found in oldest and current American populations.

iii. now found in Japanese population.

b.  features of sinodonty -

i.  shoveled incisors.

ii.  single-rooted upper first premolars.

iii.  triple-rooted lower first molars.

2.  Beringia.

a.  glaciation lowered sea level.

i.  Alaska and Siberia were opposite ends of same land surface.

B.  California Archaeology is young.

1.  Newcomers unearthed many artifacts, burials, etc.  Few whites cared, if they knew.  Much was looted and sold or "collected" by museums and wealthy individuals.

2.  California Arch starts in 1898 AD when Paul Schumaker of the Peabody Museum came to collect. 

3.  Stephen Bowers visited Channel Islands.

4.  Stephen Powers visited Channel Islands.

5.  By 1900 Alfred Kroeber was turning the focus to living folks, not just burials.

II.  Earliest evidences of humans in California.

A.  PaleoIndian Culture  Map of paleoIndian areas  

1.  Clovis best known of fluted-point making cultures extended from Great Plains south to Guadalajara; one true site is documented north of the San Francisco Bay area.

a. 11,200 BP beautiful stone points  and scrapers.

i.  this defies Beringia migration dates.

ii.  Clovis culture practices

aa.  rehafted broken spears, rechipped points.

bb.  carried cores with them.

cc.  carried tool kits with projectile points, butchering tools, knives, scrapers.

b.  big game extinction caused change in fluted point making cultures including Clovis

i.  mammoths, sloths, horses, camels, saber-tooth tigers

ii.  overkill as extinction theory

iii.  extinction from spreading aridity and shrinking habitats

iv.  extreme mean temperature variation reduced survival of young

aa.  for young who gestate long and born at fixed times of year like large mammals

bb.  These last two may be caused by the wobbly rotation of the earth on its axis.

2.  Desert tradition begins in CA  11,000 BP

a.  occupation remains centered in caves and rock shelters, at least those we can find.  Soils very alkaline in CA.

i.  Del Mar and La Jolla 7,000 BP

aa.  bones only in Del Mar but milling stone complex remains in La Jolla.

ii.  Santa Barbara Channel Islands 10,000 BP.

aa.  Clusters of pit houses w/ stone hearths.  Carved steatite or soapstone models of canoes, necklaces, beads, pipes (one 11 lbs.), bowls (one 2' dia.), sea-life effigies,  asphaltum adhesive, shell disc bead decorations.

iii.  Windmiller 4,500 - 500 BP.

aa.  Intensive use of river-delta resources.  Well-developed flaked and ground-stone industries, extensive trade, and a mortuary complex w/ shell and stone artifacts.  This site, near modern day Sacramento, is more than a dozen miles wide.

iv.  Tommy Tucker Cave, CA 4,500 BP

aa.  Found baskets, nets, duck decoys, sandals, mats, mummies, canoes, grinding tools, gaming sticks, arrrowshaft w/point in place, wooden knife handle, fiber cloth.

b.  Many more sites are submerged due to rising sea levels.  They await excavation.

III.  How do Native Californians believe they came to California?

A.  Many say they were created here by the Creator.

1.  Remembered in story, song, and visual arts.

B.  Some believe they migrated here.

1. Oral tradition provides evidence.

C.  Many anthro and archaeos refused to believe oral tradition.

1.  Ethnologists trained to record from Native point of view.