Material conveyance in the Southern California Bight: Obsidian on Alta California's Channel Islands

Abstract

Inhabited by Native Americans for at least 13,000 years, California’s Channel Islands were isolated from the adjacent mainland throughout the Quaternary. A rich archaeological record demonstrates that island peoples thrived for millennia, with access to abundant marine and terrestrial resources. Exchange with mainlanders for various goods is well documented, with long-distance material conveyance occurring very early and intensifying later in time. Obsidian was one exotic material imported to the islands from distant quarries beginning at least ∼11,750 years ago and continuing until the collapse of native exchange networks after European contact. Geochemical sourcing shows that nearly 94% of obsidian artifacts found on the islands comes from the Coso Volcanic Field located ∼300 km or more from the islands, with smaller percentages originating from sources as much as >850 km from the islands. Hydration data generally support radiocarbon dates that show that islanders participated in long-distance conveyance networks for millennia. Using these obsidian data, we examine Channel Island conveyance networks through space and time. We argue that conveyance of goods between islanders and mainlanders was a by-product primarily of social networks that functioned as sources of information, innovation, marriage partners, and strategic alliances.

Keywords:

• North America
• Island Chumash
• Island Tongva
• volcanic glass

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Our research was supported by a James A. Bennyhoff Memorial Fund Award from the Society for California Archaeology (SCA) to K. Gill. We thank the Bennyhoff Award Committee, Torben Rick, John and Sarah Dietler for sharing data in advance of their final report on excavations at Avalon on Catalina Island, John Johnson and Ray Corbett at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History for help selecting samples from their collections for analysis, and Bill Kendig and Amira Ainis for providing notes and photographs of excavations at Tule Creek, San Nicolas Island. We are also grateful to Jason Laffoon, Lewis Borck, and Corinne Hofman for inviting us to contribute to this special issue, as well as Steve Shackley, an anonymous reviewer, and the editors for assistance in the review, revision, and publication of our paper.