Natural and Cultural History of the Obsidian Butte Source, Imperial County, California

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1080/1947461X.2019.1581977

ABSTRACT

Located in the Salton Basin of Imperial County in southeastern Alta California, Obsidian Butte was the major prehistoric obsidian toolstone source in southern Alta California and northern Baja California and is frequently referenced in the archaeological literature. Reported in detail geoarchaeologically by Richard Hughes in the 1980s, the study herein considerably amplifies his research in that it focuses on the natural (geological) and cultural (archaeological) history of this source and its impact on the prehistory and archaeological interpretations of the region. A thorough in-field examination of the source and analysis of over 500 obsidian artifacts from San Diego County and western Imperial County archaeological contexts enlarges the database of artifacts assigned to that source, as well as providing recent geochronological data in support of the cultural history. This study can be seen as a companion to the recent work on sources of archaeological obsidian in northern Baja California by Panich et al. (2012, 2015, 2017).

RESUMEN

Ubicada en la cuenca de Salton en el condado Imperial en el sureste de Alta California, Obsidian Butte fue la principal fuente de herramientas de obsidiana prehistórica en el sur de Alta California y el norte de Baja California y se menciona frecuentemente en la literatura arqueológica. Reportado en detalle geoarqueológicamente por Richard Hughes en la década de 1980, el estudio aquí amplía considerablemente su investigación en el sentido de que se centra en la historia natural (geológica) y cultural (arqueológica) de esta fuente y su impacto en la prehistoria y las interpretaciones arqueológicas de la región. Un examen minucioso en el campo de la fuente y el análisis de más de 500 artefactos de obsidiana de los contextos arqueológicos del Condado de San Diego y del Condado Imperial occidental amplía la base de datos de los artefactos asignados a esa fuente, así como el suministro de datos geocronológicos recientes en apoyo de la historia cultural. Este estudio puede verse como un complemento del trabajo reciente sobre fuentes de obsidiana arqueológica en el norte de Baja California por Panich et al. (2012, 2015, 2017).

KEYWORDS:

• Obsidian Butte
• Alta and Baja California
• Kumeyaay
• obsidian source provenance

Acknowledgments

I dedicate this study to Distinguished Emeritus Professor of Anthropology Joseph Ball, San Diego State University, who let me run with some of these ideas so many years ago, and has remained a good friend through the decades. Many thanks to the staff at the South Coastal Information Center at San Diego State University, particularly Eddie Perez and Jaime Lennox with Seth Mallios as Director, who are always helpful in providing site records and UTM locations as well as generally being excellent colleagues. Richard Hughes, friend and colleague, began the Obsidian Butte study many years ago, and we have collaborated off and on over the years. The same is true for Jon Ericson. This study is just an extension of their earlier work. Lee Panich, and Antonio Porcayo have spearheaded the sorely needed study of northern Baja California obsidian sources and have been a great help. Thanks to Kathy Butler for help in the field at Obsidian Butte with photography and copy editing. Finally, thanks to Axel Schmitt, Lee Panich, and two anonymous California Archaeology reviewers for suggesting changes that considerably improved the text and interpretations herein. My brother, Richard Shackley, and I crawled over much of eastern San Diego County in the late 1950s and early 1960s and visited many of these sites, an adventure that steered us to where we are today.

Notes

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1080/1947461X.2019.1581977

1 Lee Panich (personal communication 2018) noted that he and Antonio Porcayo have recovered artifacts produced from Obsidian Butte at sites in north-central Baja California in considerable numbers, mainly “in the Kumeyaay area,” some of which were discussed in Panich, Mondragón, and Michelini (2015). As Gay, Brito, and Weir (2017) noted, by the time Paipai territory is reached south of Kumeyaay territory, Obsidian Butte, at least in their sample, is no longer present, replaced by Tinajas, the opposite pattern farther north in Baja California and southern San Diego County Kumeyaay sites. That both the Kumeyaay and Paipai shared the Tinajas source suggests considerable interaction between the two Yuman-speaking groups, a relationship that certainly reaches well into prehistory, a pattern elucidated by Panich (2009).

2 Through early twentieth century informants, the ancestral Kumeyaay (Patayan) expressed the oral history of their occupation of Lake Cahuilla to Gifford (1931) in the late 1920s. Some of Gifford’s informants were at or near 100 years old. “A Kamia [Eastern Kumeyaay] origin tale refers to the Salton Sea [Lake Cahuilla] as existing at the time of the entry of their ancestors into Imperial Valley.” (Gifford 1931, 4, emphasis mine).

The Kamia ancestors [Patayan] camped on the eastern side of the Salton Sea [Lake Cahuilla], from which place they later scattered, some settling in Imperial Valley, others going to the mountains of San Diego County and becoming the Diegueño [Kumeyaay; see Hedges 1975, emphasis mine]. The story says there was water in Salton Sink at the time of entry, not merely low salt land (Gifford 1931, 12).

More recently, the Kumeyaay in Imperial Valley farmed corn, beans, and squash through floodwater irrigation along the New and Alamo rivers, flooded by the Colorado River in the spring, and exchanged those products with Kumeyaay relatives to the west (Gifford 1931, 4–6; Hedges 1975).