Society for California Archaeology 2010 Annual Meeting

Society for California Archaeology Annual Meeting 2010 81
Cal Poly Pomona,
BERRYMAN, Stanley
White Sands Miss Range
Foragers and Aridity in Southern California: A Trial GIS-Based Macro Analysis
• Orgqnized Poster Session 1 (Ben Lewis hall North); Thursday, 2:30 - 4:45 PM
For over half a century, California and Great Basin archaeologists have debated the relative
effects of two intervals of prolonged aridity on hunter-gatherer populations: the Altithermal and
the Medieval Climatic Anomaly (MCA). Growing paleoclimatic data suggests that climate was
unusually warm and/or arid during parts of both of these periods in western North America. Here
we present the results of a pilot study in which we employed GIS to examine settlement patterns
with 276 temporally controlled residential site components from southern California. Distanceto-coast
and elevation values show significant settlement shifts associated with the MCA, but
patterning associated with the Altithermal is less pronounced and more equivocal.
JONES, Terry L.
Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
The Prehistory of Sea Otters on the Central California Coast
• Symposium 1 (La Sierra); Thursday, 1:50 PM
Investigations of the timing and relative importance of marine mammal hunting along the
California coastal have in recent years been guided by optimization models that offer certain
predictions about the order of species exploitation and the likelihood of overharvest. A
substantial body of faunal data accumulated in the last two decades from the central coast
validates some hypotheses derived from these theoretical models and not others
JONES, Terry L.
Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
see CODDING, Brian F.
JONES, Terry L.
Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
see CERLES, Erica L.
JOSLIN, Terry
University of California, Santa Barbara
Oxygen Isotope Analyses from Central California Coast Red Abalone Middens:
Implications for Understanding Seasonal Foraging Strategies
• Organized Poster Session 1 (Ben H. Lewis Hall North); Thursday, 2:30 - 4:45 PM
Oxygen isotope determinations from two red abalone (Haliotis rufescens) middens provides valuable
insights on the seasonality of shellfish harvesting in a region were settlement strategies have not
been fully defined. This research incorporates new data to assist with our current knowledge on high
middle Holocene hunter-gatherer mobility, particularly in light of the sudden appearance of this
unique site type around 5200 calBP. The preliminary findings presented here, when used in
conjunction with substantially larger isotopic data sets, will assist with developing a more complete
picture of resource procurement scheduling and settlement patterns along the open Cambria
coastline.