Channel Islands Geophysical Surveys

Over the last several years my students and I have conducted geophysical surveys on the Channel Islands, including San Clemente, Santa Rosa, and Santa Cruz. The purpose of this research is to better understand the development of archaeological shell middens. We have worked with Dr. Mark Raab, California State University, Northridge, on San Clemente Island at Ele Point. We assisted Dr. Jeanne Arnold, UCLA, in her field school operation on Santa Cruz at a very intersting residential site with house pits. We also conducted similar work for Dr. Doug Kennett on Santa Rosa Island; at that time he was at UCSB. In the next few months we will work with Dr. Michael Glassow at a deep stratified site on the west end of Santa Cruz. Planned test excavation will be conducted at all the sites that we surveyed with our geophysical instruments.

We have also found geophysical methods useful at small but unusually dense and stratigraphically complex residential sites of hunter-gatherer groups in southern California. The dense midden deposits characteristic of many coastal Chumash sites range from 1 to 5 m deep and are packed with well-preserved marine food refuse, many artifacts, and very little soil. Contents include masses of fish, bird and mammal bone, shells, grinding implements, flaked debitage and tools, shell ornaments and beads, bead-making refuse, fishing gear, woven bags and mats, bone tools, asphaltum, and much more.

In our article published in Antiquity , my co-authors and I have advocated the use of geophysical techniques in the study of prehistoric coastal sites. Specifically, we argue that all excavation should be preceded by ground penetrating radar studies and cesium vapor magnetometer studies. This contribution is significant in that Antiquity is perhaps the most read journal of any publication in our field. It is also strongly international in its presentations. The editor and reviewers felt that this contribution was extremely significant and published it very quickly. They also felt that our methods may revolutionize the way archaeological field research is conducted in the future. We hope that this type of research will lead to a clarification of the causes of culture change during the Middle-Late Period transition, the focus of our debate in American Antiquity (see above).