Abstract
On California’s northern Channel Islands, marine erosion is actively destroying many archaeological sites, including large coastal villages and other permanent settlements. This permanently limits potential archaeological interpretations of the prehistoric maritime archaeological landscape. This chapter assesses the effects of two winters (rainy seasons) on 11 sites from four different locations on Santa Rosa Island, including the windward and leeward sides of the mountainous landform. This is done using GIS, site photography, and field measurements of specific points during the summers of 2013, 2014, and 2015. The erosion of sea cliffs from marine transgression occurs across the island, with midden deposits visibly eroding out of these coastal locations. Fluvial and eolian erosion are primarily related to site location, with those sites along the north and northwest coasts of the island eroding more extensively than those along the south and west coasts. Both of these factors are exacerbated by modern ranching that left the landscape denuded and unstable. Interpretations about differential site preservation and post-depositional processes provide important information that could influence the management and preservation of cultural resources in coastal locations.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
These data are available online from the Western Regional Climate Center of the Desert Research Institute (http://www.wrcc.dri.edu).
References
Agenbroad, Larry D., John R. Johnson, Don Morris, and Thomas W. Stafford Jr. 2005. Mammoths and Humans as Late Pleistocene Contemporaries on Santa Rosa Island. In Proceedings of the Sixth California Islands Symposium, ed. Dave K. Garcelon, and Catherin A. Schwemm, 3–7. Arcata, CA: Institute for Wildlife Studies.
Arnold, Jeanne E. 1992. Complex Hunter-Gatherer-Fishers of Prehistoric California: Chiefs, Specialists, and Maritime Adaptations of the Channel Islands. American Antiquity 57(1): 60–84.
Arnold, Jeanne E. 2001a. The Chumash in World and Regional Perspectives. In The Origins of a Pacific Coast Chiefdom: The Chumash of the Channel Islands, ed. Jeanne E. Arnold, 1–20. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.
Arnold, Jeanne E. 2001b. Social Evolution and the Political Economy in the Northern Channel Islands. In The Origins of a Pacific Coast Chiefdom: The Chumash of the Channel Islands, ed. Jeanne E. Arnold, 287–296. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.
Braje, Todd J., Jon M. Erlandson, and Torben C. Rick. 2013. Points in Space and Time: The Distribution of Paleocoastal Points and Crescents on the Northern Channel Islands. In California’s Channel Islands: The Archaeology of Human-Environment Interactions, ed. Christopher S. Jazwa, and Jennifer E. Perry, 26–39. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.
Cole, Kenneth L., and Geng-Wu Liu. 1994. Holocene Paleoecology of an Estuary on Santa Rosa Island, California. Quaternary Research 41: 326–335.
Corry, Patricia M., and A. Kathryn McEachern. 2009. Patterns in Post-Grazing Vegetation Changes among Species and Environments, San Miguel and Santa Barbara Islands. In Proceedings of the Seventh California Islands Symposium, ed. Christine C. Damiani, and David K. Garcelon, 201–214. Arcata, CA: Institute for Wildlife Studies.
Dincauze, Dena F. 2000. Environmental Archaeology: Principles and Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Erlandson, Jon M. 1984. A Case Study in Faunalturbation: Delineating the Effects of the Burrowing Pocket Gopher on the Distribution of Archaeological Materials. American Antiquity 49: 785–790.
Erlandson, Jon M. 1994. Early Hunter-Gatherers of the California Coast. New York: Plenum Press.
Erlandson, Jon M. 2002. Anatomically Modern Humans, Maritime Adaptations, and the Peopling of the New World. In The First Americans: The Pleistocene Colonization of the New World, ed. Nina Jablonski, 59–92. San Francisco: Memoirs of the California Academy of Sciences.
Erlandson, Jon M., Torben C. Rick, Terry L. Jones, and Judith F. Porcasi. 2007. One if by Land, Two if by Sea: Who Were the First Californians? In California Prehistory: Colonization, Culture and Complexity, ed. Terry L. Jones, and Kathryn A. Klar, 53–62. Landam, MD: Altamira Press.
Erlandson, Jon M., Torben C. Rick, Todd J. Braje, Alexis Steinberg, and René L. Vellanoweth. 2008. Human Impacts on Ancient Shellfish: A 10,000 Year Record from San Miguel, California. Journal of Archaeological Science 35: 2144–2152.
Erlandson, Jon M., Torben C. Rick, Todd J. Braje, Molly Casperson, Brendan Culleton, Brian Fulfrost, Tracy Garcia, Daniel A. Guthrie, Nicholas Jew, Douglas J. Kennett, Madonna L. Moss, Leslie Reeder, Craig Skinner, Jack Watts, and Lauren Willis. 2011. Paleoindian Seafaring, Maritime Technologies, and Coastal Foraging on California’s Channel Islands. Science 441: 1181–1185.
Fischer, Douglas T., Christopher J. Still, and A. Park Williams. 2009. Significance of Summer Fog and Overcast for Drought Stress and Ecological Functioning of Coastal California Endemic Plant Species. Journal of Biogeography 36: 783–799.
Gill, Kristina M. 2013. Paleoethnobotanical Investigations on the Channel Islands: Current Directions and Theoretical Considerations. In California’s Channel Islands: The Archaeology of Human-Environment Interactions, ed. Christopher S. Jazwa, and Jennifer E. Perry, 113–136. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.
Gill, Kristina M. 2014. Seasons of Change: Using Seasonal Morphological Changes in Brodiaea Corms to Determine Season of Harvest from Archaeobotanical Remains. American Antiquity 79(4): 638–654.
Gill, Kristina M., and Jon M. Erlandson. 2014. The Island Chumash and Exchange in the Santa Barbara Channel Region. American Antiquity 79(3): 570–572.
Glassow, Michael A. 2013. Settlement Systems on Santa Cruz Island Between 6300 and 5300 BP. In California’s Channel Islands: The Archaeology of Human-Environment Interactions, ed. Christopher S. Jazwa, and Jennifer E. Perry, 60–74. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.
Glassow, Michael A., Todd J. Braje, Julia G. Costello, Jon M. Erlandson, John R. Johnson, Don P. Morris, Jennifer E. Perry, and Torben C. Rick. 2010. Channel Islands National Park Archaeological Overview and Assessment. Ventura, CA: Cultural Resources Division, Channel Islands National Park.
Gusick, Amy E. 2012. Behavioral Adaptations and Mobility of Early Holocene Hunter-Gatherers, Santa Cruz Island, California. Doctoral dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara.
Gusick, Amy E. 2013. The Early Holocene Occupation of Santa Cruz Island. In California’s Channel Islands: The Archaeology of Human-Environment Interactions, ed. Christopher S. Jazwa, and Jennifer E. Perry, 40–59. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.
Hochberg, M.C. 1980. Factors Affecting Leaf Size of Chaparral Shrubs on the California Islands. In The California Islands: Proceedings of a Multidisciplinary Symposium, ed. Dennis M. Power, 189–206. Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History: Santa Barbara.
Jazwa, Christopher S. 2015. A Dynamic Ecological Model for Human Settlement on California’s Northern Channel Islands. Doctoral dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park.
Jazwa, Christopher S., and Rod Mather. 2014. Archaeological Site or Natural Marine Community? Excavation of a Submerged Shell Mound in Ninigret Pond, Rhode Island. The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology 9: 268–288.
Jazwa, Christopher S., and Jennifer E. Perry. 2013. Introduction. In California’s Channel Islands: The Archaeology of Human-Environment Interactions, ed. Christopher S. Jazwa, and Jennifer E. Perry, 1–4. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.
Jazwa, Christopher S., Douglas J. Kennett, and Bruce Winterhalder. 2013. The Ideal Free Distribution and Settlement History at Old Ranch Canyon, Santa Rosa Island. In California’s Channel Islands: The Archaeology of Human-Environment Interactions, ed. Christopher S. Jazwa, and Jennifer E. Perry, 75–96. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.
Jazwa, Christopher S., Todd J. Braje, Jon M. Erlandson, and Douglas J. Kennett. 2015a. Central Place Foraging and Shellfish Processing on California’s Northern Channel Islands. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 40: 33–47.
Jazwa, Christopher S., Douglas J. Kennett, and Bruce Winterhalder. 2015b. A Test of Ideal Free Distribution Predictions Using Targeted Survey and Excavation on California’s Northern Channel Islands. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory. doi:10.1007/s10816-015-9267-6.
Jazwa, Christopher S., Christopher J. Duffy, Lorne Leonard, and Douglas J. Kennett. 2016. Hydrological Modeling and Prehistoric Settlement on Santa Rosa Island, California. Geoarchaeology: An International Journal 31: 101–120.
Johnson, Donald L. 1980. Episodic Vegetation Stripping, Soil Erosion, and Landscape Modification in Prehistoric and Recent Historic Time, San Miguel Island, California. In The California Islands: Proceedings of a Multidisciplinary Symposium, ed. Dennis M. Power, 103–121. Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History: Santa Barbara.
Johnson, Donald L. 1989. Subsurface Stone Lines, Stone Zones, and Biomantles Produced by Bioturbation via Pocket Gophers (Thomomys bottae). American Antiquity 54: 370–389.
Johnson, John R. 1982. An Ethnographic Study of the Island Chumash. Masters thesis, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara.
Johnson, John R. 1993. Cruzeño Chumash Social Geography. In Archaeology on the Northern Channel Islands of California, ed. Michael A. Glassow, 19–46. Salinas, CA: Coyote Press.
Johnson, John R. 2001. Ethnohistoric Reflections of Cruzeño Chumash Society. In The Origins of a Pacific Coast Chiefdom: The Chumash of the Channel Islands, ed. Jeanne E. Arnold, 21–52. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.
Johnson, John R., Thomas W. Stafford, Jr., H.O. Aije, and Don P. Morris. 2002. Arlington Springs Revisited. In The Fifth California Islands Symposium, David R. Browne, Kathryn L. Mitchell, and Henry W. Chaney, eds., 541–545. Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, Santa Barbara.
Jones, Terry L., and Al Schwitalla. 2008. Archaeological Perspectives on the Effects of Medieval Drought in Prehistoric California. Quaternary International 188: 41–58.
Jones, Terry L., Gary M. Brown, L. Mark Raab, Janet L. McVicar, W. Geoffrey Spaulding, Douglas J. Kennett, Andrew York, and Phillip L. Walker. 1999. Environmental Imperatives Reconsidered: Demographic Crises in Western North America during the Medieval Climatic Anomaly. Current Anthropology 40(2): 137–170.
Junak, Steve, Tina Ayers, Randy Scott, Dieter Wilken, and David Young. 1995. A Flora of Santa Cruz Island. Santa Barbara: Santa Barbara Botanic Garden.
Kennett, Douglas J. 1998. Behavioral Ecology and the Evolution of Hunter-Gatherer Societies on the Northern Channel Islands, California. Doctoral dissertation Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara.
Kennett, Douglas J. 2005. The Island Chumash, Behavioral Ecology of a Maritime Society. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Kennett, Douglas J., James P. Kennett, Jon M. Erlandson, and Kevin G. Cannariato. 2007. Human Responses to Middle Holocene Climate Change on California’s Channel Islands. Quaternary Science Reviews 26: 351–367.
Kennett, D.J., J.P. Kennett, G.J. West, J.M. Erlandson, J.R. Johnson, I.L. Hendy, A. West, B.J. Culleton, T.L. Jones, and Thomas W. Stafford Jr. 2008. Wildfire and Abrupt Ecosystem Disruption on California’s Northern Channel Islands at the Ållerød-Younger Dryas Boundary (13.0–12.9 ka). Quaternary Science Reviews 27: 2528–2543.
Kennett, Douglas J., Bruce Winterhalder, Jacob Bartruff, and Jon M. Erlandson. 2009. An Ecological Model for the Emergence of Institutionalized Social Hierarchies on California’s Northern Channel Islands. In Pattern and Process in Cultural Evolution, ed. Stephen Shennan, 297–314. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Muhs, Daniel R. 1987. Geomorphic Processes in the Pacific Coast and Mountain System of Central and Southern California. In Geomorphic Systems of North America, ed. William L. Graf, 560–570. Boulder, CO: Geological Society of America.
Perry, Jennifer E. 2003. Changes in Prehistoric Land and Resource Use among Complex Hunter-Gatherer-Fishers on Eastern Santa Cruz Island, California. Doctoral dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara.
Perry, Jennifer E. 2013. The Archaeology of Ritual on the Channel Islands. In California’s Channel Islands: The Archaeology of Human-Environment Interactions, ed. Christopher S. Jazwa, and Jennifer E. Perry, 137–155. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.
Perry, Jennifer E., and Colleen Delaney-Rivera. 2011. Interactions and Interiors of the Coastal Chumash: Perspectives from Santa Cruz Island and the Oxnard Plain. California Archaeology 3: 103–126.
Raab, L.Mark, and Daniel O. Larson. 1997. Medieval Climatic Anomaly and Punctuated Cultural Evolution in Coastal Southern California. American Antiquity 62(2): 319–336.
Reeder-Myers, Leslie, Jon M. Erlandson, Daniel R. Muhs, and Torben C. Rick. 2015. Sea Level, Paleogeography, and Archaeology on California’s Northern Channel Islands. Quaternary Research 83: 263–272.
Reitz, Elizabeth J., and Elizabeth S. Wing. 1999. Zooarchaeology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Rick, Torben C. 2009. 8000 Years of Human Settlement and Land Use in Old Ranch Canyon, Santa Rosa Island, California. In Proceedings of the Seventh California Islands Symposium, ed. Christine C. Damiani, and David K. Garcelon, 21–32. Institute for Wildlife Studies: Arcata, CA.
Rick, Torben C., Jon M. Erlandson, and René L. Vellanoweth. 2001. Paleocoastal Marine Fishing on the Pacific Coast of the Americas: Perspectives from Daisy Cave, California. American Antiquity 66(4): 595–613.
Rick, Torben C., Jon M. Erlandson, René L. Vellanoweth, and Todd J. Braje. 2005. From Pleistocene Mariners to Complex Hunter-Gatherers: The Archaeology of the California Channel Islands. Journal of World Prehistory 19: 169–228.
Rick, Torben C., Jon M. Erlandson, and René L. Vellanoweth. 2006. Taphonomy and Site Formation on California’s Channel Islands. Geoarchaeology: An International Journal 21(6):567–589.
Rick, Torben C., Jon M. Erlandson, Todd J. Braje, James A. Estes, Michael H. Graham, and René L. Vellanoweth. 2008. Historical Ecology and Human Impacts on Coastal Ecosystems of the Santa Barbara Channel Region, California. In Human Impacts on Ancient Marine Ecosystems, ed. Torben C. Rick, and Jon M. Erlandson, 77–101. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Rick, Torben C., Jon M. Erlandson, Nicholas P. Jew, and Leslie A. Reeder-Myers. 2013. Archaeological Survey, Paleogeography, and the Search for Late Pleistocene Paleocoastal Peoples of Santa Rosa Island, California. Journal of Field Archaeology 38(4): 321–328.
Schiffer, Michael B. 1987. Formation Processes of the Archaeological Record. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.
Schoenherr, Allan, A., C. Robert Feldmeth, and Michael J. Emerson. 1999. Natural History of the Islands of California. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Stine, Scott. 1994. Extreme and Persistent Drought in California and Patagonia during Medaeval Time. Nature 369: 546–549.
Stright, Melanie J. 1990. Archaeological Sites on the North American Continental Shelf. In Archaeological Geology of North America, ed. Norman P. Lasca, and Jack Donahue, 439–465. Boulder, CO: Geological Society of America.
Timbrook, Jan. 1993. Island Chumash Ethnobotany. In Archaeology on the Northern Channel Islands of California, Michael A. Glassow, ed., 47–62. Coyote Press, Salinas, CA.
Timbrook, Jan. 2007. Chumash Ethnobotany: Plant Knowledge among the Chumash People of Southern California. Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, Santa Barbara.
Watts, Jack, Brian Fulfrost, and Jon M. Erlandson. 2011. Searching for Santarosae: Surveying Submerged Landscapes for Evidence of Paleocoastal Habitation Off California’s Northern Channel Islands. In The Archaeology of Maritime Landscapes, ed. Ben Ford, 11–26. New York: Springer.
Winterhalder, Bruce, Douglas J. Kennett, Mark N. Grote, and Jacob Bartruff. 2010. Ideal Free Settlement on California’s Northern Channel Islands. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 29: 469–490.
Wood, W. Raymond, and Donald L. Johnson. 1978. A Survey of Disturbance Processes in Archaeological Site Formation. Advances in Archaeological Method and Theory 1:315–381.
Yatsko, Andrew. 2000. From Sheepherders to Cruise Missiles: A Short History of Archaeological Research at San Clemente Island. Pacific Coast Archaeological Society Quarterly 36(1): 18–24.
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank Channel Islands National Park, including Kelly Minas, Don Morris, and Ann Huston, for help with this project. This research was supported by Channel Islands National Park (135414, P11AC30805), the National Science Foundation (BCS-1338350), and Pennsylvania State University. Sarah Mellinger, Kyle Garcia, Michelle Wilcox, Amber Marie Madrid, Terry Joslin, Blaize Uva, Hugh Radde, Stephen Hennek, Nathan Beckett, Henry Chodsky, Mike Price, and Kyle Jazwa assisted with fieldwork. I would also like to thank Alicia Caporaso for inviting me to be a part of this volume and for her helpful comments on this manuscript. Ben Ford also provided helpful comments on a draft of this paper.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Jazwa, C.S. (2017). Coastal Erosion and Archaeological Site Formation Processes on Santa Rosa Island, California. In: Caporaso, A. (eds) Formation Processes of Maritime Archaeological Landscapes. When the Land Meets the Sea. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-48787-8_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-48787-8_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-48786-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-48787-8
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)