Technological change and interior settlement on western Santa Rosa Island, California

Abstract

We use data on site distributions, chronology, and artifact assemblages from a large, flat upland landscape on Santa Rosa Island to better understand the relationship between coastal and interior settlement patterns on California’s northern Channel Islands. This region, Pocket Field, was an important hub of occupation during the late Pleistocene/early Holocene (before 7550 cal BP) and throughout the late Holocene (3600–168 cal BP). A radiocarbon chronology for the region suggests that settlement patterns are consistent with what has been observed in coastal locations, with an increase in site density throughout the late Holocene. Groundstone is an important component of the late Holocene archaeological record, although it decreases in importance following the droughts of the Medieval Climatic Anomaly (MCA; 1150–600 cal BP). Olivella biplicata shell bead production at dense midden sites indicates that occupation of the region was not just for access to terrestrial resources. An increase in sites with projectile points during the MCA may reflect an increase in interpersonal violence and indicate that increasing territoriality that occurred on the coast may have extended into the island interior. Our study demonstrates that interior sites were integral components of island settlement and subsistence patterns, even when diet is heavily marine-oriented.