Geomorphology and Prehistoric Site Distribution Near Hamilton City, California, and Their Implications for the Archaeological Record of the Sacramento Valley

Abstract

ABSTRACT Despite more than a century of investigations, archaeologists have found few prehistoric sites over 3,000 years old in California’s Central Valley. Yet, recent surface inventory, geoarchaeological trenching, and archaeological excavations along the Sacramento River near Hamilton City, California, identified 10 archaeological sites and 15 occupational components spanning the last 7,000 years. Half of these components occurred solely in buried contexts. Five were over 2,500 years old and include some of the earliest evidence for human occupation in the Sacramento Valley. Importantly, several key sites occur in contexts mapped as Pleistocene-aged, Modesto deposits. These results underscore the role discovery bias may play in structuring the archaeological record of the Sacramento Valley and the need for more careful assessment of the geomorphological setting and age of potential deposits when approaching archaeological investigations.