Before California: An Archaeologist Looks at Our Earliest InhabitantsBefore California is the first comprehensive look at the history of the Golden State prior to the arrival of European settlers. Written by America's best known archaeological trade and textbook author, the book describes the process of settlement of the Pacific Coast by Paleo-Indians and the environmental and human transformations of the next 13,000 years, emphasizing themes of adaptation, interconnectedness, and spirituality. More than a rehashing of received wisdom, Fagan explores the controversies surrounding the first human settlement, then describes the first peoples to colonize the Pacific coast and offshore islands, their watercraft and fishing practices. The transformation from a gathering economy to acorn processing and hunting is highlighted, as is the increasing social complexity, gender differentiation, and intensification of intergroup conflict and trade. Individual chapters describe distinctive societies in widely contrasting environments--northwest salmon fishers, Bay area shell mound communities, Central Valley wetland villagers, desert foragers, and the sophisticated coastal societies of the Channel Islands region. Fagan also devotes a chapter to California's rock art, melding his description with wider cultural events. Calling upon a century of archaeological research, Fagan provides an jargon-free, well-illustrated account accessible to the general public interested in the early history and indigenous peoples of the state. Before California also makes an ideal textbook for courses in California history, archaeology, and native peoples. |
Contents
The Archaeologists Tale | xv |
Before 11200 BC to ad 1542 | 1 |
Beginnings Before 11200 to c 2500 bc | 37 |
Before 11200 BC to c 9000 BC | 39 |
c 11000 to 6500 BC | 60 |
A World of Milling Stones 9500 to 2500 BC | 77 |
c 6500 to c 2500 BC | 100 |
The Web of Interconnectedness c 2500 to 1500 bc | 123 |
A Crowded World c 1500 bc to ad 1542 | 213 |
Dugouts and Salmon | 215 |
A Landscape of Mounds | 242 |
Realm of the Rivers | 266 |
Coast Hinterland and Desert | 292 |
The World of the Tomol | 322 |
Entrada | 355 |
Notes and References | 361 |
c 2500 to 1500 bc | 125 |
The Seductive Glass | 155 |
The Realm of the Supernatural | 175 |
Art on the Rocks | 189 |
Index | 383 |
| 396 | |
Common terms and phrases
abundant acorns ancient California animals archaeological sites archaeologists artifacts Basin Bay Area became bifaces bones burials Cahuilla California Archaeology camp canoe cemeteries Central Valley centuries ceremonial changes Channel Islands chapter Chumash climate coast coastal Coso Range cultural dating deer desert dolphin drought earlier early Eel Point environment estuary European contact excavations exploited figure fish flourished food supplies grass groups harvest Holocene human hunter-gatherer hunters hunting important Indians interconnectedness interior land landscape lived mainland marshes middens miles millennia Milling Stone Mojave mollusks Moratto obsidian offshore olivella Pacific Paleo-Indian planked canoe plant foods pluvial lakes population projectile points radiocarbon dates region ritual River rock art Sacramento salmon San Francisco Bay Santa Barbara Channel sea levels sea mammals seeds settlement shamans shell beads shell mounds shellfish shore shoreline Sierra Skyrocket social societies southern California spears supernatural survival territories thousand tomol trade tribelets tule village waterfowl wetlands Windmiller Yokut