The Journal of California Anthropology

This paper focuses on the spatial and temporal relationships between the culture types which existed during the span encompassed by the Early and Middle Horizons in the Central California area within the regions of the lower Sacramento Valley, San Francisco Bay, and the North Coast Ranges. It seems clear that a simple unilineal sequence of culture types does not provide an adequate model for understanding the changes which appear to have taken place within this area during this time period and that the transition from one culture type to another did not take place uniformly throughout the area, but rather took place in different regions at different times. Thus, the absolute dating of transitions from one culture type to another must be determined independently for each region. It is recommended that an understanding of the changes which occurred in each region be sought through examination of both technoenvironmental and sociohistorical factors. The relationships proposed here are based upon published and unpublished data from the North Coast Ranges, as well as similar data from San Francisco Bay and the lower Sacramento Valley.