Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology

Our purpose here is to provide detailed documentation of these rituals for the contemporary and historical Kaibab and San Juan communities, while at the same time shedding light on the historical intra- and interregional relationships that have influenced change and persistence in ritual practice among the Southern Numic peoples in general.

The primary purpose of this study is to describe these specimens and discuss their cultural associations, temporal placement, and the possible agents and routes of trade for the exotic effigies. Set against the near absence of Late Prehistoric anthropomorphic figurines from elsewhere in Orange County, these dozen artifacts, as well as figurines of the Northern Tradition found at CA-ORA-58, have important implications for the political and economic role of the Banning-Norris site, as well as its identification with the historically recorded village of Genga (Koerper et al. 1996).

This paper provides a brief outline of the current understanding of the prehistory of the Mojave Desert, a broad framework of culture history, an outline of diachronic environmental change, and a summary of some of the research directions in Mojave Desert archaeology.

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.

This report synthesizes the distributional data on Lovelock wickerware basketry types around the peripheries of Pyramid Lake and Winnemucca Lake (playa) in western Nevada. At present, there are seven radiocarbon dates on Lovelock wickerware from the Lower Truckee Basin, ranging in age from 580 ± 100 RCYBP to approximately 3,270 ± 180RCYBP (Taylor et al. 1994). The only known vessel form employing this kind of weaving is a conically shaped carrying basket. In the specimens of this kind of plaiting from Pyramid Lake, two almost complete conical baskets show refurbishing and reuse, and most of the rest show evidence of repair.

In this paper, the age and context of two distinctive shell beads recently found at the DJ Ranch site in south-central Oregon are discussed. These beads, which almost certainly originated on the southern California coast, clearly indicate the existence of extensive trade networks during the Middle Holocene. Such beads have also been identified as evidence of an early cultural interaction sphere linking the southern Channel Islands and adjacent mainland coast with peoples of the western Great Basin. The examples from the DJ Ranch site significantly extend the spatial distribution of such beads. Archaeologists working throughout the Great Basin and California should be aware of these distinctive beads and their potential implications.

Recent archaeological investigations on San Nicolas Island resulted in the discovery and analysis of 14 abraded cherty shale bifaces from CA-SNI-214. Because of their atypical material, forms, and manufacturing technique, these bifaces represent a unusual artifact association (at least three point types). Several explanations for the occurrence and function of the bifaces are explored.

The Ohlone Past and Present: Native Americans of the San Francisco Bay Region. Compiled and edited by Lowell John Bean. Ballena Press Anthropological Papers No. 42, 1994, xxxii -b 373 pp., 44 figs., 26 tables, bibliographies, $29.95 (hard cover), $22.95 (paper).

Sandspit: A Redwood Northcoast Notebook, Book I. Francesca Fryer. Self Published, 1995, viii -b 292 pp., 3 maps, 13 figs., $21.50 (paper).

A Time of Little Choice: The Disintegration of Tribal Culture in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1769-1810. Randall Milliken. Ballena Press Anthropological Papers No. 43, 1995, xvi -l- 364 pp., 17 figs., 5 maps, 12 tables, and 4 appendices, $32.95 (hard cover), $24.95 (paper).

The Archaeology of CA-MNO-2122, A Study of Pre-Contact and Post-Contact Lifeways Among the Mono Basin Paiute. Brooke S. Arkush. University of California Anthropological Records, Vol. 31, 1995, X -b 199 pp., 75 figs., 41 tables, 4 appendices, $40.00 (paper).