The Cross Creek site

Recent excavations at the Cross Creek site (CA-SLO-1797) on the central coast of California revealed a stratigraphically discrete midden component dating between ca. 8350 and 7700 cal B.C., making it the oldest mainland shell midden on the west coast of North America. A large recovery volume reveale...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:American antiquity 2002-04, Vol.67 (2), p.213
Main Authors: Jones, Terry L, Fitzgerald, Richard T, Kennett, Douglas J, Miksicek, Charles H, Fagan, John L, Sharp, John, Erlandson, Jon M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
California
Coastal archaeology
Historic sites
History
Human settlements
Primitive societies
Traditional societies
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Recent excavations at the Cross Creek site (CA-SLO-1797) on the central coast of California revealed a stratigraphically discrete midden component dating between ca. 8350 and 7700 cal B.C., making it the oldest mainland shell midden on the west coast of North America. A large recovery volume revealed an assemblage dominated by grinding implements (handstones and milling slabs) and crude core and flake tools typical of California's Milling Stone horizon, but the Cross Creek findings extend the antiquity of Milling Stone back to the terminal Pleistocene. The tools and associated faunal remains suggest a gathering economy profoundly different from the terminal Pleistocene big-game hunting of interior North America. This variation is difficult to reconcile as a simple adaptive outgrowth from late Pleistocene hunting and may reflect a separate coastal migration route into the New World.
ISSN:0002-7316
2325-5064