Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology

Issues of arrow projectile point morphology, chronometrics, and time-space systematics for southern coastal California are addressed using data from the Newport Coast Archaeological Project and the Cypress College Archaeology Program. These data suggest temporal co-variation within the Cottonwood series, with the floruit of the leaf-shaped type preceding that of the triangular forms, but the data do not support the hypothesis that Cottonwood Triangular basal configurations are time-sensitive. Early Cottonwood Triangular and Leaf-shaped point forms in southern coastal California may have evolved as smaller versions of atlatl morphological types found on the coast, possibly preceding the appearance of the Cottonwood series in the Great Basin. Sonoran series points in Orange County appear to date no earlier than the latter half of the Late Prehistoric Period and offer evidence of a link between the Hohokam culture and the coast.