The Lang Ranch Sites: New Data on the Early to Middle Period Occupation of the Inland Ventureño Chumash in Alta California

ABSTRACT

A suite of newly obtained archaeometric data broadens the contextual background for a widespread Early to Middle period Ventureño Chumash occupation of the Lang Ranch sites. Combined applications of accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon dates, X-ray fluorescence obsidian source evaluations, neutron activation analysis, and lithic and faunal analyses confirm and illuminate an Early to Middle period occupation ranging between 7,526 and 552 BCE (calibrated).

RESUMEN

Un conjunto de datos arqueométricos recién obtenidos amplía el fondo contextual de una ocupación extendida de los sitios de Lang Ranch por los chumash ventureño en el período Temprano a Medio. Las aplicaciones combinadas de fechamientos de radiocarbono por la espectrometría de masas con acelerador (AMS), las evaluaciones de las fuentes de obsidiana por fluorescencia de rayos X, el análisis de activación de neutrones y los análisis líticos y faunísticos confirman e iluminan una ocupación del período Temprano a Medio que se extiende entre 7526 y 552 a.e.c. (calibrado).

KEYWORDS:

• Archaeometry
• ventureno chronology
• southern California interior
• faunal

Acknowledgments

All radiocarbon calibrations and maps were provided by Gary Boyd, RPA. The services of the University of Missouri Research Reactor and Jeffrey R. Ferguson are acknowledged, with partial funding of NSF Grant #BCS1621158. We also thank Gary M. Brown of the National Park Service, Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area; Robert Lopez, Curator, Ventura County Archaeological Society; Don Morris, retired Curator at the Stagecoach Inn Museum in Newbury Park; Maria Enriqueta Lopez for the Spanish translation of the abstract; and Sandy Hildebrandt, who facilitated access to the collections from 2012 to 2016. Thomas Wake of the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at the UCLA Zooarchaeology Lab graciously allowed access to museum specimens. Our thanks are extended to the California Archaeology editors and the anonymous reviewers whose feedback has enhanced this article.