Posted on 06/19/2016 5:35:07 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
On a rugged island just offshore from Ventura County, archaeologists have turned up evidence of some of the oldest human activity in coastal Southern California.
On Santa Cruz Island, the largest of the Channel Islands, researchers have found three sites scattered with ancient tool-making debris and the shells of harvested shellfish.
The youngest of the three sites has been dated to 6,600 BCE, but based on the types of tools found at the other two, archaeologists say they may be as much as 11,000 to 12,000 years old.
The artifacts are traces of what's known as the Island Paleocoastal culture, descendants of migrants who moved south from Alaska along the Pacific at the end of the last Ice Age.
These ancient seafaring people were some of the earliest inhabitants of California's southern coast, said Dr. Jon Erlandson, an archaeologist with the University of Oregon who reported the new finds...
These ancient islanders left behind no traces of structures, at least that have been found so far, but a subtle abundance of their presence remains, like piles of abalone and mussel shells, unique barbed stone points, and distinctive crescent-shaped tools whose exact purpose remains unclear.
Using these and other clues, Erlandson and his colleagues have discovered Paleocoastal sites not only on Santa Cruz, but have also detected dozens of others throughout the Channel Islands.
Previous research had revealed Ice Age sites on San Miguel and Santa Rosa Islands, he said, and soon a pattern began to emerge among the places where Paleocoastal people left their mark.
The ancient sites tended to have some kind of natural shelter nearby, as well as access to resources like rock and fresh water, and a commanding view of the island's coastline.
(Excerpt) Read more at westerndigs.org ...
I don’t recall, but suspect it was probably 8,000 - 10,000 years ago at the end of the ice age.
[singing] I met my love in Avalon... [/singing]
;’)
I’ve got a “crude” aboriginal tool. It’s a rock. From the looks of it, it was used to bash clams.
A sea otter will float on its back with a rock on its abdomen, and smash clams on it.
You may have that rock.
;^)
It’s a cool rock. Opalized wood...oak, I’d say. It caught my attention for that reason. Only later did I notice the wear patterns of fingers and the chipped striking surface. Still has millennia of clam cracking potential left.
Oh...this is for real....very interesting.
I have a piece of petrified rock picked up out West in 1958 when it was still legal, plus obsidian, fool’s gold, azurite, & anything else a 9 year old kid could find on the ground.
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