House Pits and Middens: A Methodological Study of Site Structure and Formation Processes at CA-ORA-116, Newport Bay, Orange County, CaliforniaDonn R. Grenda, Christopher J. Doolittle, Jeffrey H. Altschul ORA-116 is one of many coastal shell-midden sites in and around Newport Bay, a large, complex wetlands in southern California. Whereas shell-midden studies have traditionally focused on changes in subsistence and settlement patterns, this project took a decidedly different approach. Using a variety of innovative detection measures, eleven structures were identified and excavated. Most were interpreted as house pits; one was inferred to be a sweat lodge. The structures dated between about 300 B.C. and A.D. 700, placing the occupation within the Intermediate period. The archaeological study was augmented by pollen and ostracod analysis of a 1,081-cm core taken from the nearby San Joaquin Marsh, which helped establish the Holocene history of Newport Bay. The authors integrate archaeological, ethnographic, and environmental data in a comprehensive settlement and subsistence model that is sure to be of interest to all scholars of coastal wetlands adaptation. |
Contents
Field and Laboratory Methods by Donn | 5 |
Environmental Background by Jeffrey | 7 |
Worked Bone Shell Beads and Ornaments | 10 |
Copyright | |
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Common terms and phrases
Altschul approximately archaeological record Area Argopecten spp assemblage beads bifacial California Chione spp Chumash coast coastal core cultural debitage density deposits depression diameter domestic houses estuaries ethnohistoric evidence excavated faunal remains Feature Figure firepit flakes floor formation processes fragments frequency freshwater Gabrielino Gamble hearth historical-period house pits Hudson and Blackburn Hurd and Macko identified indicate interior Intermediate period Intermediate-period intertidal Koerper Late period lithic located lurida manos Mason and Peterson material midden Millingstone Newport Bay Newport Coast occupation Olivella ostracod Ostrea pattern percent pollen postholes prehistoric present projectile points quadrants screened radiocarbon dates recovered represent rocks rodent sample San Joaquin Hills San Joaquin Marsh Santa Santa Ana River seasonal camps settlement shell shellfish soil species specimens stone structure suggests surface sweat lodges Table taxa tion types unidentifiable Unit upper Newport Bay venus clam wavy turbans weathering