Style, identity, and resource competition on the border: The incised stones of the Sacramento River Canyon

Abstract

In this paper, we look at the emergence of territorial behavior through the lens of ritual and stylistic expression. Our task is made approachable by an extraordinary Archaic-age collection of over 1500 incised stones recovered from the Sacramento River Canyon in northern California. This location marks a major ecological boundary where quintessential Californian food staples, such as oak, grey pine, and salmon, abruptly become much more discontinuous and less productive. We position the incised stones in terms of their signaling potential, particularly their role in ritual behaviors that promoted in-group cooperation and solidarity that, in turn, were crucial for the defense and territorial control of these productive resource tracts. The appearance of such ritual expression at approximately 6000 to 5000 years ago may mark a fundamental transition in demography, land-use, and social complexity observed throughout much of California at this time.