Forty Years Later: What Have We Learned about the Earliest Human Occupations of Santa Rosa Island, California?

Abstract

California's Channel Islands have emerged as an important location for documenting the cultures and lifeways of the earliest peoples who settled the Pacific Coast of North America. Much of this began with Phil Orr's archaeological, paleontological, and geological research on Santa Rosa Island from the 1940s to 1960s. Generating several controversial theories, including the possibility of mammoth hunters on the islands over 40,000 years ago, many of Orr's interpretations have not stood the test of scientific scrutiny. However, much of what we know about the island today is based on Orr's extensive archaeological survey and excavation work. Here we provide an overview and analysis of Orr's research on the earliest peoples of Santa Rosa Island and update what has been learned in the 40 years since Orr's (1968) Prehistory of Santa Rosa Island was published. In 1968, Orr tentatively identified seven archaeological sites dating to the terminal Pleistocene and Early Holocene, all located on the northwest coast of Santa Rosa. Today, at least 18 sites are known to date within this same time range and their distribution has been expanded to other areas of the island. Current data show that Santa Rosa Island has one of the longest records of coastal occupation in the Americas, beginning at least 13,000 calendar years ago and extending into historic times.