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Mazourka-Eclipse Series surface soil
Terrace (T3) South of Owens River near Horton Creek, Inyo County Deposits Exposed in Bank of Pine Tree Wash (left) and Sample Location (right), Fremont Valley, Kern County 2Ab -
15,029 cal BP
(Beta-254726)
Sample Location Near Firebaugh in East Bank of San Joaquin River, Fresno County 2Cu -
14,873 cal BP
(OS-72826)
Lubkin-Tinemaha (complex) series surface soil
Lubkin-Tinemaha (complex)
series surface soil
Well Developed Soils Exposed in Dissected Alluvial Fans East of Owens Lake Near Keeler, Inyo County Bqk -
7245 cal BP
(Beta-053846)
Poleta-Tinemaha (complex) series surface soil
Poleta-Tinemaha (complex)
series surface soil
Yermo (1) series surface soil Yermo (1) series surface soil Owens Lake Basin
South Bank of Owens River Terrace
(above) and Sample Location (below),
Near Lone Pine, Inyo County
Arizo series surface soil
Bqk -
7245 cal BP
(Beta-053846)
Glacial Till and Outwash Deposits along Big Pine Creek, West of Big Pine, Inyo County Figure 38. Selected Views of Latest Pleistocene Deposits in the Mojave Desert (top) and Owens Valley (bottom).
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Perrott 1983), it seems likely that Owens Lake reached its overflow sill at least once in the early Holocene (Phillips 2008; Orme and Orme 2008). Alternatively, groundwater connections and local surface flow (e.g., in Rose and Indian Wells valleys) may have been enough to supply water to the lower reaches of the Owens River.
Springs may have been especially productive during the early Holocene, providing habitat refuges and predictable water sources during cyclical downturns.
In the Mojave River system, streamflows remained relatively high. The record of dated freshwater shell in the southern Great Basin and Mojave River (Figure 39) is particularly illustrative of the change in hydrologic conditions. Dated shell is common in latest Pleistocene deposits along the Owens and Mojave rivers. There is enough moisture in the river systems to maintain populations of freshwater shell through the early Holocene, but these shells disappear from the record in later periods; there are no dates on freshwater shells in the region from 8000 cal BP until very recent times. A highstand of Lake Thompson is also recognized at about 7660 cal BP (Beta-166446) in the Rosamond and Rogers lake basins in the western Mojave Desert (Orme 2008). This seems a significant proxy for continuation of healthy riparian environments throughout the Study Area during the early Holocene.
Early Holocene deposits are common along the Owens River. These are often positioned as abandoned terraces, with younger inset terraces between early Holocene landforms and the modern river course. The Division soil series, broken by the Lone Pine fault scarp north of Lone Pine, formed on a surface that stabilized in the early Holocene (Figure 40). Bacon et al. (2003) provided a series of well-dated profiles with stratigraphically organized dates between 14,820 and 10,330 cal BP from landforms with Division soils mapped at the surface.
Deposition of many of the early Holocene Owens River terraces may have begun with latest Pleistocene scouring upstream, but final deposition and stability was established in the early Holocene. Because sediment originating from young fan surfaces to the west has not yet reached the Owens River, early Holocene terraces form a prominent level landscape between the valley-margin fans and incised river channel.
Early Holocene landform stability is also evidenced beneath the relatively young fan surfaces on the western margin of Owens Lake and beneath the pumice-capped fans near Mono Lake. Buried soils that formed during the early Holocene are common in the bajadas emanating from the eastern Sierra mountain front.
Archaeological excavations at INY-4554 (Gilreath and Holanda 2000) revealed an early Holocene cultural assemblage resting on a prominent buried paleosol. The paleosol was also exposed in the arroyo of Ash Creek on the southern margin of the fan (1-1/4 miles south of the site [Figure 40]). Dates from the paleosol, derived from soil organics at both locations, ranged from 9390 to 7600 cal BP (Figure 41); this shows long-term soil development and general stability across broad stretches of the Ash Creek alluvial fan. Although fan stability and peaks in soil organics suggest relatively moist environmental conditions, Owens Lake may have been approaching desiccation, as evidenced by soil development on an exposed lakebed with dates of 9220 and 9240 cal BP (Benson et al. 1997; Benson et al. 2002); fish remains from a buried beach deposit on the lake’s southeastern shore have been dated to 8265 cal BP (OS-72752), marking a prominent die-off and likely lake desiccation (Figure 41). Soils were also developing on stable alluvial fans and terraces in Indian Wells Valley in the early Holocene; now buried, these paleosols have been dated to between 10,250 and 9810 cal BP (Figure 41). This is key evidence for cyclical environmental conditions of the early Holocene.
Fan systems between Owens and Rose valleys are capped by the Ulymeyer soil series which displays a strong soil profile. These alluvial fans, which lie above the overflow-point of Owens Lake (beneath modern Haiwee Reservoir), have been long-stable, though periods of lateral surface erosion (i.e., planation) have resulted in periodic pauses in soil development. Nonetheless, these soils are probably correlates of the now-buried paleosols found in alluvial fans on either side of this relatively high landscape.
In the desert basins east of the Owens River, alluvial fans continued to prograde with significant extension into valley bottom areas during the early Holocene. In fact, most of the fan surfaces and near-surface deposits in Death, Panamint, and Silurian valleys are early Holocene in age as indicated by the Carrizo soil series.
However, fans in each valley are complicated landforms with time-transgressive surface ages (i.e., youngest to oldest as one moves up-fan) and significant local variability. This is likely due to valley-to-valley variations in intense summer storms that tend to drive Holocene fan progradation in an idiosyncratic way. 552
8000
9000
10,000
11,000
12,000
13,000
14,000
15,000
16,000
Min. 2-sigma
cal BP (n=66)
Max. 2-sigma
0 1
2 3
4 5
6 7
8 cal Years BP (median probability)
Fish, Ostracods, Oolites, Reeds, and Tufa
Anodonta, Gonidea, and Gastropod Shells
Owens River System Mojave River System
Mojave Desert Spring
Latest Pleistocene
Middle
Holocene
Late Holocene
Early Holocene
cal Years BP
Number of Samples
15,000
14,40013,800
13,200
12,60012,00011,40010,800
10,200
96009000
8400
7800
720066006000
5400
4800
4200
3600
3000
24001800
1200
600
Figure 39. Freshwater Shell from Owens and Mojave River Systems (top) and Comparison of Dates from Shell and Other Lacustrine Sources (bottom).
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Ash Creek
Owens River
Shepherd Creek
George Creek
Lone Pine Creek
Tuttle Creek
S my mes Creek
Bairs Creek
Diaz Creek
W hi nt ey Creek
W gir ht C er ke Wallace Creek
Rock Creek
Lubken
Creek
Owens Lake
Owenyo
Lone Pine
Mt.
Whitney
Inyo County
Tulare County
WaterArtificial Cut and FillHistorical and Modern
Latest HoloceneLatest Holocene VolcanicLate Holocene
Holocene Volcanic (undivided)Middle HoloceneEarly Holocene Early Holocene VolcanicLatest PleistoceneLate Pleistocene Older PleistocenePre-QuaternaryHighway 0 2 4 Miles
For greater resolution and visual clarity, please refer to GIS database. 190
136
Figure 40. Early Holocene Deposits in the Owens Valley.
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554
Lacustrine and Terrrestrial Deposits Exposed in East Bank of Gully North of State Route 190, South of Owens Lake, Inyo County Owens Lake Basin
Yellowrock
series surface
soil
Freshwater Shell Bed Exposed in East Bank of Gully North of State Route 190, South of Owens Lake, Inyo County
Arizo series surface soil
Buried Soil Exposed in Bank of Ash Creek, Near
State Route 395, West of Owens Lake, Inyo County
Buried Soil Exposed in Bank of Ash Creek, Near
State Route 395, West of Owens Lake, Inyo County
Lava End Sample Location Rose Valley,
Inyo County, View to South
Deposits Exposed at Indian Wells Canyon Sample Location to Northeast (left), East (center), and Southeast (right), Inyo County Buried Soil Sample Location in
Bank of Ash Creek, Inyo County
Lava End Sample Location,
Rose Valley, Inyo County
A -
451 cal BP
(OS-71199)
3Ab -
6778 cal BP
(OS-72855)
A -
451 cal BP
(OS-71199)
3Ab -
6778 cal BP
(OS-72855)
5Cg -
10,514 cal BP
(OS-72583)
6Cg -
10,396 cal BP
(OS-72854)
5Cg -
10,514 cal BP
(OS-72583)
6Cg -
10,396 cal BP
(OS-72854)
8263 cal BP
(OS-72752) on fish bone
Arizo series surface soil
Arizo series surface soil
3Ab - ~8350 cal BP
(average of four dates)
2Ab - ~8350 cal BP
(average of four dates)
3Ab - ~8350 cal BP
(average of four dates)
Cartago series
surface soil
2Ab -
5050 cal BP
(Beta-260152)
9067 cal BP
(Beta-260154)
on "black mat"
2Ab -
5050 cal BP
(Beta-260152)
9067 cal BP
(Beta-260154)
on "black mat"
2Ab -
9811 cal BP
(Beta-237061)
9811 cal BP
Figure 41. Selected Views of Radiocarbon-Dated Early Holocene Deposits in Owens and Indian Wells Valleys.
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Rearrangement of the landscape marked the close of the early Holocene as significant drying, likely accompanied by fewer but more intense summer storms, took hold of the region. It is difficult to split this episode of significant erosion and deposition between the early and middle Holocene periods. Geomorphic process influenced the preservation and modern distribution of the landforms of the former period, while environmental conditions characteristic of the latter period were beginning to take hold. There is a dearth of radiocarbon dates from buried paleosols at this boundary suggesting that landforms were being eroded and/or capped by new deposits; a regional absence of soil dates may be a good proxy for regional geomorphic activity. In the northern Great Basin, tephra from the eruption of Mount Mazama filled erosional gullies, choked narrow drainages, and was incorporated into new fan deposits (Davis 1978; Nials 1999.; Young in McGuire 2002:4). The Mazama ashfall occurred at about 7700 cal BP (Hallett et al. 1997) and, based on its depositional context, followed closely geomorphic rearrangement marking the early/middle Holocene boundary. Although not well-documented in the study area, deposits of Mazama tephra occur in the northern portions of Mono County (Sarna-Wojcicki et al. 1991; and see Chapter 5). Nevertheless, it provides a minimum date for the transitional period of punctuated landform rearrangement.
Middle Holocene (7000 to 4000 cal BP)
With the opening of the middle Holocene, relatively high aridity and prolonged droughts are evident in the valleys east of the Sierra Nevada (Grayson 1993; Wigand and Rhode 2002). Following the intensive downcutting of the early/middle Holocene transition, points of alluvial erosion shifted toward mountain fronts and valley margins resulting in broad fan progradation and sheet deposition. Early Holocene paleosols near Owens Valley and along the Owens River terraces were buried by renewed fan deposition in mid-fan locations. Fans expanded in Fish Lake Valley and the northern reaches of Death Valley. Fan progradation was also influenced by major tectonic shifts in locations as disparate as Fish Lake Valley (Reheis 1994) and Fremont Valley (Gardner et al. 2002). Lower in the valleys, landforms either became stabilized (Rose Valley) or underwent pulses of aeolian re-working. Owens Lake desiccated completely (Bacon et al. 2003; Benson et al. 2002), and groundwater-charged Little Lake was limited to a tule and scirpus wetland (Mehringer and Sheppard 1978). With regional desiccation, aeolian transport of sand from drying streams, deltas, and lakes allowed the development of new dune fields (northeast and south of Owens Lake) and rejuvenation and reconfiguration of large dunes in many other locations (Mehringer and Warren 1976).
Radiocarbon dates on charcoal from distal fan deposits in Fremont Valley provide evidence of distal fan progradation beginning sometime after 8125 cal BP and continuing in repetitive pulses until almost 3690 cal BP (Young 2009). This broad fan progradation, originating near valley margins, resulted in deep burial of archaeological sites situated in incised drainages along the Garlock Fault on the western side of Fremont Valley.
At Clark Wash (KER-3939), hearths and cultural burn zones formed in the early/middle Holocene (dates range from 8000 to 6300 cal BP) occupy a drainage where tectonic offset provided protection from subsequent erosion (Gardner et al. 2002); the site rests in an abandoned channel that was tectonically shifted away from local streamflow (i.e., canyon floods). Cultural materials were subsequently buried by sheet floods from the adjoining fan, filling the abandoned drainage and capping the archaeological site after 6300 cal BP.
The Cartago soil series marks landscapes formed during the middle Holocene. Early Holocene spring and lake deposits in Rose Valley are capped by fan and sand sheet deposits with well-developed soil profiles of the Cartago series (Figure 42). Radiocarbon dates on soil organics in a Cartago profile at the Lava End Locality in Rose Valley range from 7625 cal BP (Beta-260155) to 5050 cal BP (Beta-260152; Figure 43). At this locality the soil was capped by a thin sand sheet and is no longer developing; elsewhere in the valley the soil is at the modern surface. Along the Owens River terraces north of Owens Lake, the Cartago soil series formed on small fans that drape onto early Holocene terraces adjacent to the river (see Figure 42).
Archaeological sites are common on middle Holocene fans of the Cartago series. Almost always late or latest Holocene assemblages, with radiocarbon dates less than 2000 cal BP, the sites are typically surface or shallow manifestations in well-drained sediments of relatively young fans. Site INY-3826 at Little Lake was buried by artificial fill but rested directly on a Cartago soil profile. This site has a series of radiocarbon dates from near556 Little Lake
Tulare County
Inyo County
Rose
Valley
Coso Wash
Owens River
Goodale Creek
Sawmill Creek
Red Mountain Creek
Marble Canyon
Fresno County
Inyo County
Owens River
Taboose Creek
Goodale Creek
Tinemaha Creek
Woods Creek
0 2 4 Miles
0 2 4 Miles
Water
Artificial Cut and Fill
Historical and Modern
Latest Holocene
Latest Holocene Volcanic
Late Holocene
Holocene Volcanic (undivided)
Middle Holocene
Early Holocene
Early Holocene Volcanic
Latest Pleistocene
Late Pleistocene
Older Pleistocene
Pre-Quaternary
Highway
For greater resolution and visual clarity, please refer to GIS database.
Figure 42. Middle Holocene Fan and Basin Deposits in Rose Valley (top) and Owens Valley (bottom).
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()
r
?--_/
-{ IL
'
------
557
Buried Soil Exposed in Alluvial Fan Gully in Indian Wells Valley, Inyo County Torrifluvents series surface soil
2Ob -
5167 cal BP
(OS-72698)
Buried Cultural Deposit Exposed in Trench at
MNO-891 Along Walker Creek, Mono County
Lava End Sample Location Rose Valley,
Inyo County, View to South
Lava End Sample Location,
Rose Valley, Inyo County
Cartago series
surface soil
2Ab -
5050 cal BP
(Beta-260152)
9067 cal BP
(Beta-260154)
on "black mat"
2Ab -
5050 cal BP
(Beta-260152)
9067 cal BP
(Beta-260154)
on "black mat"
Little Lake
Little Lake
Middle Holocene Alluvial Fan West of
Little Lake, Rose Valley, Inyo County
Middle Holocene Alluvial Fan West of Little Lake,
Rose Valley, Inyo County
Deposits Exposed in Terrace (T2) Along North Bank of Horton Creek, South of Owens River, Inyo County (above)
5517 cal BP
(Beta-141244)
5163 cal BP
(Beta-237064)
Cajon series
surface soil
Figure 43. Selected Views of Middle Holocene Fan and Basin Deposits in Indian Wells, Rose, and Mono Valleys.
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surface contexts that cluster between 1290 and 1045 cal BP (Byrd and Reddy 2004), providing a limiting age for the landform. A maximum age for the distal portion of the Little Lake Canyon fan is provided by buried early Holocene cultural deposits at the Stahl site (INY-182; Schroth 1994). Other assemblages with late Holocene dates resting on middle Holocene landforms marked by Cartago soils include INY-2284 (Faull 2006), INY-5281, and INY-5876 (Zeanah and Leigh 2002).
The Cartago soil and associated landforms may be the best temporally constrained landscape features in the eastern project area. In addition to examples from Little Lake and the Owens River, historic-era arroyos in the vicinity of Centennial shore on the southeastern side of Owens Lake have exposed a complex fan/lacustrine interface. Although overlain by late Holocene fan deposits, the Cartago soil generally outcrops near the top of local profiles and grades upward to form the modern surface of higher fans around the lake margin. As elsewhere, the Cartago soil is bracketed by a date of 6780 cal years BP (OS-72855) from a buried soil beneath this deposit and a date of 490 cal years BP (OS-71199) from a cultural hearth that directly overlies the buried Cartago profile (see Figure 42). These well-dated assemblages provide clear constraints for middle Holocene fan deposition and subsequent development of the Cartago soil.
The Great Basin notion of expansive and prevalent heat and aridity during the middle Holocene “Altithermal,” as originally proposed by Antevs (1948), has been superseded by a nuanced view of local variability (Grayson 1993:216; Sutton et al. 2007). However, archaeologists continue to struggle with a relatively sparse archaeological record. In fact, the general outcome of middle Holocene drying seems to be relatively low population densities throughout large areas of the Great Basin and Mojave Desert (Grayson 1993:255). Pinto Series projectile points occur in widespread contexts throughout the region (Sutton et al. 2007:238), but dated sites are relatively rare. Most radiocarbon dates from sites with Pinto assemblages (e.g., Stahl, Clark Wash, [those of Pinto Basin, further afield]) fall within the early Holocene or occupy the early years of the middle Holocene.
Sites with well-dated middle Holocene components tend to be in relatively well-watered positions that may have been resource refugia. Site MNO-891 is adjacent to Walker Creek (Carpenter 2001) in close proximity to remnants of glacial lakes where resources may have been somewhat buffered by orographically induced precipitation (see Figure 43). Although the Rose Spring site (INY-372) is famous for its late Holocene projectile point assemblage, the site may also provide a classic example of a spring-side refugia. The site appears to have been first occupied about 6,000 years ago and contains a well-dated middle Holocene component with multiple features and dense midden (Yohe 1992).
Late Holocene (4000 to 2000 cal BP)
The late Holocene period is marked by a general amelioration of the harsh aridity of the preceding interval, and a rebound toward more favorable environmental conditions. As a whole, the region experienced an increase in seasonality resulting in an overall increase in precipitation and concomitant reduction in evaporation.
Unlike the punctuated erosional and depositional events that marked the opening of the middle Holocene, the regional transition from the middle to late Holocene was spatially and temporally transgressive. Pollen evidence and lake-inundated trees from the northern Great Basin suggest that increased precipitation may have arrived as early as 6,000 years ago (Wigand and Rhode 2002). Peat deposits in Ash Meadows near Las Vegas also show spring regeneration at about 6,000 years ago (Mehringer and Warren 1976; Wigand and Rhode 2002). Although this spring record is enticing, the shifting dune environments may have forced changes in deposition of spring organics. In any case, both Mono Lake and Owens Lake reached relative high stands around 4,000 years ago, (Bacon et al. 2006; Benson 2004; Stine 1990, 1994) pointing to a general increase in regional precipitation and runoff, a keystone of the late Holocene.
Concurrent with the regional increase in lake levels, some rising from near desiccation, regional landforms underwent a significant rearrangement. Although not as pronounced as the down-cutting and fan progradation episodes of the early to middle Holocene transition, there is a similar erosional and depositional period between about 4000 and 3500 years cal BP. After this transition, there are no dates on soil organics from late Holocene period landforms in the Great Basin or Mojave Desert. This may be a result of general sampling error, but it does suggest that geomorphic change and landform rearrangement was dominant through the period.
Furthermore, late Holocene dates on non-cultural and cultural material buried within landforms are relatively 559
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common. This is especially true in distal fan areas where fan progradation extended toward valley bottoms. Late Holocene deposition produced thick deposits in Fremont Valley (Figure 44) where movement on the Cantil/Garlock fault and increased run-off led to several meters of sediment (Young 2009). In the Mojave section of the Sierra front, these late Holocene deposits are capped by even younger (latest Holocene) sediment packages (i.e., latest Holocene or historic)
Further north, late Holocene fans are common adjacent to the Owens River terrace and are inset between older fans, typically middle Holocene and latest Pleistocene. Many of the modern fans emanating from the Sierra mountain front along the Owens River began development in the late Holocene (see Figure 17); similar progradation occurred at the foot of the White Mountains.
Soils on late Holocene landforms typically show weakly to moderately developed profiles because sediment deposition occurred relatively recently. While late Holocene landforms are often buried, late Holocene soils form the modern surface throughout much of the Owens River terrace system and, as mentioned, on alluvial fans adjacent to mountain fronts. The Yermo and Yellowrock soil series have formed on inset alluvial fans emanating from the western side of White and Inyo mountains, east of the Owens River terraces and floodplain (Figure 45). West of the river, contemporaneous landforms with Goodale soils and small areas of Yermo soils emanate from the bajada of the eastern Sierra Nevada.
Although these soil series have not been directly dated, archaeological sites on their surfaces have produced dates reflecting latest Holocene occupation. Site INY-2750 rests on a small fan with the Yermo series; Delacorte (1999) obtained a radiocarbon date of 1250 cal BP on an archaeological feature deposited on this soil.
These young fan deposits are relatively thin, often resting on lacustrine or riverine deposits of Pleistocene vintage (Bacon et al. 2006).
Terraces on the Owens River, between Bishop and Owens Lake, form a complex system of erosional and depositional surfaces. Archaeological sites are relatively rare on the terraces in close proximity to the modern river channel, and the few sites that have been dated, such as INY-328 (Delacorte 1999), contain relatively shallow surface deposits resting on much older landforms. Sites are often found where late or latest Holocene fans and small dune sets extend onto late terraces. The dunes are reworked alluvial sediments derived from the terraces.
These young terraces and late distal fans are marked by Mazourka soils (see Figure 38). Hesperia soils cap the distal fans and late Holocene dunes.
Radiocarbon dates derived from archaeological sites on and cut into Mazourka soils range from 1200 to 375 cal BP (Delacorte 1999). Sites on adjacent fans and dunes capping the terraces, marked by the Hesperia series, including INY-3769, INY-4646, and INY-5775, have radiocarbon suites falling within the same range (Delacorte 1999; Faull 2006; Zeanah and Leigh 2002).
Latest Holocene (2000 to 150 cal BP)
In general, latest Holocene landforms expanded in valley bottom settings throughout the Great Basin and Mojave Desert as fan progradation continued. There are, however, clear proxies and many seminal studies indicating that during the last 2,000 years environmental shifts increased in frequency and amplitude congruent with variations in the impacts of regional climatic drivers (e.g., El Nino). At about 2000 cal BP, drought conditions forced regression of lakes that had returned in the late Holocene. Well-developed beach berms associated with late Holocene high stands at Mono and Owens lakes (Stine 1990), were abandoned as lakes retreated and then fluctuated, to form a complex series of concentric low-elevation beaches and berms.
Variation in regional environmental conditions, across an interval of almost 600 years, culminated in closely spaced droughts at about 850 and 600 cal years BP, i.e., the Medieval Climate Anomaly (Stine 1994).
These intense dry events were punctuated by periods of relatively abundant precipitation; submerged tree stumps provide direct evidence of a significant medieval drought. The droughts were of such duration that large trees expanded to elevations below modern lake level in the Mono Lake Basin and Walker River. When moisture returned, the trees were rapidly inundated and preserved in growth position (Stine 1994). Though the evidence for drought was clear, Stine and others subsequently realized that the medieval period was characterized more by fluctuations than simply one extensive drought and lake regression. 560
Stratified Late and Latest Holocene Alluvial Deposits Exposed in Exploratory Trenches Near Cantil, Fremont Valley, Kern County Buried Prehistoric Hearth Exposed in East Wall of
Gully near Southern End of Owens Lake, Inyo County
Buried hearth Deep Springs
Valley, Inyo County (Lustig 1965)
Buried Soil and Archaeological Material Exposed in Alluvial Fan/Borrow Pit East of State Route 395 Near Little Lake, Inyo County 1333 cal BP
(TX-1195) on buried hearth
(Mehringer and Sheppard 1974)
1296 cal BP
(W-1069)
1296 cal BP
(W-1069)
Veet series surface soil
(STATSGO)
Veet series surface soil
(STATSGO)
Cajon series surface soil
Cartago series soil incorrectly identified on STATSGO
Cajon series surface soil
Yellowrock-Mazourka complex surface soil 1598 cal BP
(Beta - 255909)
3772 cal BP
(Beta - 255911)
Cajon series surface soil
3071 cal BP
(Beta - 255910)
59 cal BP
(Beta - 255910)
488 cal BP
(OS-71199)
Figure 44. Selected Views of Late and Latest Holocene Deposits in Deep Springs, Fremont, Little Lake, and Owens Valleys.
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Birch Creek
Horton Creek
McGee Creek
Fish Slough
Bishop Creek
Coyote Creek
Pine Creek
Lower Rock Creek
Rawson Creek
Laws
Owens River
McGee Creek
Silver Canyon
North Fork Bishop Creek
Bishop
Owens River
Tuttle Creek Diaz Creek
Lubken Creek
Owens Lake
Owenyo
Lone Pine
Ge orge C reek
Lone Pine Cree
Tuttle Creek
Inyo County
Tulare County
0 2 4 Miles
0 2 4 Miles
Mono County
Inyo County
Calders
Corner
Fruitvale
Gosford
Kern
City
Water
Artificial Cut and Fill
Historical and Modern
Latest Holocene
Latest Holocene Volcanic
Late Holocene
Holocene Volcanic (undivided)
Middle Holocene
Early Holocene
Early Holocene Volcanic
Latest Pleistocene
Late Pleistocene
Older Pleistocene
Pre-Quaternary
Highway
For greater resolution and visual clarity, please refer to GIS database.
Figure 45. Late Holocene Deposits in the Upper Owens Valley (top) and Lower Owens Valley (bottom).
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Fan progradation and fluctuating (though generally low) lakes and streams contributed large amounts of sediment toward valley bottoms. Stream flow in the Owens River appears to have cyclically flushed the fluvial system, delivering sediment to its drainage terminus at Owens Lake. Rearrangement of beaches and deltaic sediments resulted in the development of complex dunes and sand sheets on the basin margins. Radiocarbon dates from buried late and latest Holocene archaeological sites are relatively common, reflecting latest Holocene dune and lake-margin deposition (i.e., fans prograding to lake basins) in the basins of Mono Lake and Owens Lake.
Landforms may have remained very unstable during fluctuations of the Medieval Climate Anomaly because equilibria between precipitation, surface cover, and runoff could not be maintained. Thus, environmental changes would have encouraged fan expansion and dune reworking, burying older landforms and associated archaeological sites. Fires may have also been common due to drying and wetting cycles and volcanism (see Chapter 5), allowing the incorporation of non-cultural charcoal commonly observed in latest Holocene deposits.
On the Owens floodplain, site MNO-584 contained surface archaeological features post-dating 500 cal BP (Garfinkel and Cook 1979). In Milner and Jeffrey Mine canyons in Mono County, non-cultural charcoal buried by active fans, including debris-flow facies, date to the beginning of the Medieval Climate Anomaly (Hubert and Filipov 1989). Incipient soil series, such as Brantel, Benemes, and Millner, have formed on these young fan and dune deposits.
The pattern continues further south. At site INY-1991, very recent archaeological features, most postdating 500 cal BP (Byrd and Hale 2003; Markos et al. 1998) rest on young fans burying much older cultural deposits. Nearby, surface features at site INY-5967 are slightly older but still post-date the dramatic cycling of the Medieval Climate Anomaly (Byrd and Hale 2003). Lakeside fan segments expanded from late Holocene and earlier medial fan segments. A hearth buried by a small inset fan at the margin of Owens Lake (see Figure 44) returned a date of 490 cal BP (OS-71199). While this date provides age control for the late Holocene fan and soil series the feature was cut into, it also provides a maximum age for the youngest fans at the southeastern side of the lake. These fan deposits are marked by the widespread Cajon soil series.
In basins without significant river-lake systems, fan expansion and aeolian reworking filled valleybottoms. The Cajon soil series has been described on expansive alluvial fills throughout much of the Mojave Desert segment of the Study Area, including on fans of southern Owens Valley, western Indian Wells Valley, Fremont Valley, and well into Antelope Valley (Figure 46). These broad basins, which are moderately sloping to almost level, often retain a very young surface veneer of distal fan and valley fills. Arcuate sand and silt dunes resting on very young distal fans are common at the margins of playas, such as Rosamond and Rogers lakes.
Although pluvial histories of these shallow lakes are poorly understood, during much of the Holocene they functioned as catchment basins for fan runoff. Fluctuations encouraged dune development as the basins were repeatedly flooded, turbated, and then scoured.
At Rogers Lake, the Cajon and related Leuhman soil series formed on the distal fan segments and basinside dunes (Figure 46). Radiocarbon dates on cultural material from buried and surface contexts in these soil series are consistently less than 2,000 years old (Byrd 1996; Byrd et al. 1994). The Cajon series extends northward into Fremont Valley on fans and valley fills. The latest Holocene fans form a thin alluvial veneer, and thicken near basin centers or along faulted troughs (Young 2009). Near Cantil, Sutton (1991) dated several deeply buried sites, including KER-2211, which provided three radiocarbon dates of less than 1210 cal BP. Nearby, Apple et al. (2008) and Young (2009) have dated numerous buried archaeological sites and other depositional contexts showing that the Cajon soil series formed on very young fan deposits (< 700 years old) and valley fill. Similar alluvial fan veneers extend from the mountain fronts on the western side of Indian Wells Valley. These shallow deposits, mapped as Cajon series soils, rest on abrupt contacts that pre-date 2000 cal BP. Young (2007) obtained a series of radiocarbon dates from underlying fan deposits which provides a maximum age of 2900 cal BP for these recent fans and the associated Cajon series (see Figure 44) Contemporaneous fan progradation and dune activity occurred in Great Basin valleys east of the Owens Valley. In Deep Springs Valley, east of Bishop, archaeological charcoal buried by young fans mapped in the Veet soil series have been dated to 1290 cal BP (Ives et al. 1964; Lustig 1965; see Figure 44). Elsewhere in Deep Springs Valley, similarly young fans and dunes provided radiocarbon dates ranging from 1910 cal BP (buried) to 490 cal BP (surface; Lee et al. 2001); these dates succinctly bracket Medieval Climate Anomaly cycling. 563
Mojave
Cantil
Monolith
Indian Creek
Caliente Creek W
ae ver Creek
Fox Canyo
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Rogers Lake
Koehn
Lake
lia
a ur Ne
California City
Oak Creek Tehachapi Willow
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Redrock Randsburg
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WaterArtificial Cut and FillHistorical and Modern
Latest HoloceneLatest Holocene VolcanicLate Holocene
Holocene Volcanic (undivided)Middle HoloceneEarly Holocene Early Holocene VolcanicLatest PleistoceneLate Pleistocene Older PleistocenePre-QuaternaryHighway 0 2 4 Miles
A n t e l o p e V a l l e y
F r e m o n t V a l l e y
Randsburg Cut off sburg Cut of
For greater resolution and visual clarity, please refer to GIS database.
Figure 46. Latest Holocene Deposits in Antelope and Fremont Valleys.
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In Panamint Valley and Death Valley, alluvial bajadas continued extensive progradation during the latest Holocene as alluvial fans encroached on valley centers. In dry periods, distal fan deposits and lacustrine relict landforms (e.g., beaches and berms) were reworked into the existing dune systems. Aeolian landforms throughout the Great Basin and Mojave Desert portion of the Study Area continued cycles of reworking initiated in the late Pleistocene and early Holocene. Radiocarbon dates from the active dunes are often very young, typically due to the highly idiosyncratic nature of dune preservation. Deflating cultural features in the Panamint Dunes are latest Holocene in age (Breschini et al. 1996). A burial at INY-2546, for example, was capped and then subsequently exposed by aeolian reworking over the past 750 years.
Because latest Holocene archaeological deposits occupy, and are readily visible on or very near the modern surface of all landforms, radiocarbon information and archaeological sites are well represented for this period. Understanding the extent and geometry of the latest Holocene landforms provides useful information on the potential for buried archaeological sites, primarily because the underlying surfaces may have been available for occupation for a very long period of time. A special case of this occurs in the Inyo/Mono region where volcanic deposits of very recent origin cap almost all landforms (see Chapter 5). This relatively unique situation makes surface archaeological inventory very limiting, as only those materials and sites post-dating latest Holocene eruptions will be visible.
Historic-Era to Modern (150 to 0 cal BP)
Of the small group of landforms dating to the Historic-era and modern period, most consist of playa surfaces, with all others relatively limited in size. The playas east of the Sierra Nevada are typically lakebed remnants of pluvial lakes (Benson 2004). Many of these basins experienced periodic inundations during the Holocene, reaching various high-stand elevations (Benson 2004; Benson et al. 1997; Stine 1990). Owens Lake, for example, may have reached its overflow sill in the earliest portion of the early Holocene and formed multiple shorelines and beach berms during lake transgressions, and brief stillstands in more recent times. In fact, a relatively large, though not too deep, lake might occupy the modern playa if upstream alterations (i.e., water diversions) had not occurred. So the Owens playa is a modern feature subject to aeolian deflation, not to mention human-engineered alteration. The playa and desiccated salt badlands of Death Valley, though encroached upon by valley margin alluvial fans, are also subject to deflation and other modern processes.
The playas of Rogers Lake and Rosamond Lake lack deep water deposits of the basins that once held vast pluvial lakes (Orme 2008), but the formation processes of playa development are similar. These basins were repeatedly inundated and occasionally held significant lake stands during the Holocene. Lake stands likely were short-lived, yet the basins may have supported wetland communities of plants and animals for periods of time.
The surfaces, however, were mostly dry landscapes where deflation and nearby surface re-working were commonplace. Like the larger playa landforms in the Great Basin and northern Mojave Desert, these deflationary, occasionally flooded, features are grouped in the modern period.
In addition to these non-cultural deposits, a number of artificial landforms and engineered landscapes were created by human land-use changes in the Historic-era, with mining, agriculture, and the construction of transportation corridors (e.g., railroads, highways) and water impoundment and conveyance systems (e.g., dams and irrigation canals) being a few of the most obvious examples (Figure 48). By the early 1860s, valuable deposits of metallic minerals (i.e., silver, lead, gold, tungsten, and copper) and non-metals (e.g., borax, dolomite) were discovered and mined from several key areas known as the Bodie-Aurora, Late Mountain, Montgomery, Lone Pine, White Mountain, Keyes, Inyo, Russ, Coso, and Death Valley mining districts (Beddie 1864); listed roughly from north to south.
As mining activities reached a zenith between the 1870s and 1890s, food and forage demands of the miners and their livestock sparked a boom in local agriculture. By the 1870s, approximately 3,000 acres of the Owens River floodplain were already under cultivation and being systematically irrigated in the area between Alabama Hills and Poverty Hills (Lee 1912). As the population of people and mules reached into the thousands, a series of boom towns sprang up throughout the region (Figure 48). In the developed and populated town of Lone Pine, at least 27 (~10 %) of its residents were killed when a massive magnitude-8 earthquake struck the 565
Owens River
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Santa Rosa Wash
Ash Creek
Olancha Creek
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Inyo County
Tulare County
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Cartago
Bartlett
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Late Pleistocene
Older Pleistocene
Pre-Quaternary
Highway
For greater resolution and visual clarity, please refer to GIS database.
Figure 47. Historical to Modern Deposits in the Owens Valley (above) and Antelope Valley (below).
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Opening Paved Highway, Red Rocks Canyon, Kern Co., 1931 Modern Photo of Bodie HIlls Mining Town, Mono County
Building Road for L.A. Aqueduct, Owens Valley, 1907 Dirt Road (State Route 395) to Bishop, Owens Valley, 1927 Dredging L.A. Aqueduct Canal, Owens Valley, 1908 Dredging Main L.A. Aqueduct Canal, Owens Valley, 1909 Building Dam for Main Canal, Owens Valley, 1912 Upper Owens River in 1906, Crowley Lake Today Crowley Lake Dam Across Owen River Gorge Today Owens Lake
Figure 48. Historic-era Land Use and Landscape Changes in the Great Basin and Northern Mojave Desert in Portions of District 6/9.
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Owens Valley in March of 1872 (Beanland and Clark 1994). That quake produced a large surface rupture that can be traced across much of the valley floor, creating a fault scarp with vertical displacement of as much as 4.4 meters (~14.4 feet) in some areas (Bacon et al. 2003; Beanland and Clark 1994; Lee et al. 2001).
By the early twentieth century, the growing demand for water prompted the city and county of Los Angeles to purchase land and the water rights to properties that stretched from the Mono Basin through all of Owens Valley, and parts of Rose and Antelope valleys. As a result, human activity and related ground disturbances (i.e., canals, dams, roads, and pipelines) increased dramatically as the first Los Angeles Aqueduct was constructed between about 1907 and 1912 (see Figure 48). As part of a second aqueduct project, a dam was constructed near the natural outlet of Long Valley, located in the upper Owens River drainage, and the lower part of the valley was flooded to create present day Lake Crowley (see Figure 48). Other dams were constructed along the Owens River north and south of Owens Lake, and portions of the valley flooded to create Tinemaha and Haiwee reservoirs. By the 1920s and 30s, many of the state rural highway routes were established and constructed, including much of State Route 395, with most segments located within the valleys of the region (see Figure 48).
Most of these artificial modifications to the landscape involved some amount of cutting or filling, which produced irregular surface contours that generally do not conform with the surrounding natural topography (i.e., abruptly steep or level), allowing many to be distinguished in the field. While not as extensive as deposits produced by natural processes, historical activities have undoubtedly disturbed or destroyed some archaeological sites, and buried or preserved others. Consequently, the role of Historic-era activities on the nature and completeness of the archaeological record is an important consideration for portions of the Great Basin and Mojave Desert regions.
SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION
Over the past 14,000 years, the stratigraphic and radiocarbon evidence amassed from the Study Area and surrounding region indicates that pervasive periods of land stability and soil formation, were interrupted by at least four major episodes of rapid sediment deposition that were equally widespread. The timing and extent of these geologic changes are, therefore, responsible for creating notable structural biases in the nature and completeness (e.g., visibility) of the region’s archaeological record, as discussed below from the earliest to most recent.
Latest Pleistocene
Buried soils at several different locations record a period of latest Pleistocene land stability centered between about 13,900 and 12,900 cal BP (Figure 49). While these soils are best represented in the San Joaquin Valley, examples have also been documented at a handful of locations west of the Sierra crest, and at least two locations in the Mojave Desert. Dates from these soils and from some overlying deposits suggest they were buried by sediment deposited between about 12,900 and 11,500 cal BP, corresponding with the Younger Dryas cool interval and Pleistocene-Holocene climatic transition. Landforms of this age seem poorly represented at the present ground surface, with the only clear examples found in the San Joaquin Valley.
These amount to only a little more than 4.5 percent of all depositional landforms exposed at the surface (see Figure 17). Consequently, the earliest evidence of human occupation in the region, such as Clovis and other components dating to the Paleo-Indian period, may be buried in association with these landforms.
Early Holocene
With the arrival of the Holocene came a renewed period of relative landform stability (soil formation) that extended through most of the early Holocene. As shown in Figure 49, buried soils dating to the early Holocene have been identified at dozens of locations in the upper Sierra Nevada, Great Basin, Mojave Desert, and San Joaquin Valley; none have yet been documented in the Temblor or Transverse ranges however.
Though dates from these soils place the main period of stability between about 9800 and 7500 cal BP, the clustering of dates at 9800-9300 cal BP and at 8300-7800 cal BP suggests this period was interrupted, in 568
0 900080007000600050004000300020001000
32,00031,00030,00029,00028,00027,00026,00025,00024,00023,00022,00021,00020,00019,00018,00017,00016,00015,00014,00013,00012,000 11,000
10,000
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Number of Dates
(soil formation)Landform Stability
(500-year intervals)
(erosion/deposition)
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Max. 2-Sigma Cal BPn=197Cal BP (med. prob.)Min. 2-Sigma Cal BP Temblor and
Tranverse Ranges
cal Years BP
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Transition
Late Pleistocene
Tioga Glacial
Late Pleistocene
Tenaya-Tioga
Interglacial
Figure 49. Comparison of Radiocarbon Dates from Buried Soils by Physiographic Region In and near District 6/9.
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I I I SBA. Cuvama River
SLO. Wallace Creek, SAF
SBA. Cuvarna River
SBA. Cuvama River
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t~IR l::~~~
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SI O Van MatrP. Ranch, SAF
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Kl\/, T~lwe Lake. 10~ St Canal
t~L +ma~.f~rJ"i,he reek
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FR!;;. Panache/Silver Creek
FRR. Fresno River
~~EtYJ1~ia~of~e Creek m'fi F~i~~~~,BJ~er
mti t.g:r~n"J~sc9~:ik, site
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FR~. Pa.ooche/Silver Creek
FR . N Hussell Ave
FR . Panache/Silver Creek
FRl Los Gatos Creek
• ~?:s~St~fv~feek
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FRt Cantua Creek FR -og61. Wahtoke Creek
MA _ _ ottonwood Creek
kfr-tT~1lI'rWtfi!:8k ~m ~~~[,fJ~~k in Merced ~f'9_1~~7enda Creek S~N. Panache Creek
M R.~rv Creek at Oakdale Rd.
M R. ear Creek in Merced
FRE antua Creek
MER. Orv Creek at Oakdale Rd.
KIN. Tulare Lake
KIN Tlllarn I akA
KER. Kern River Terrace
MA~. Firebauah K . uena Vista V II v
M~ . 'r!rv Creek at c'latdale Rd. ~-8~l~i~'1>9fd Creek
F[l~-2365 . P'\1loche Creek
~,:~5~§ ~ik Htl~s MA . Chowchilla River
FR . Salt Creek
~R .• fr8r~2'tJfa°~a~reek
FR -0257. Arrovo Hondo
~~~J3"JkCfi';,en~che Creek
r,;i FR . Los Gatos Creek (upper) _
1 FR , San Joaqurn River
TU~-4557. Greenstone Site TU . ESB II. Aresi 10
fH :~i~Mt~~'li~e~lesite
Tll -4627/H. Jenness Site
Tl JO FSR II. Arna 1?
TU§-2192/H. Sturais Site TU -2193. ucknarn Site
TU -4559. ~daemon!. Knoll
TU . ESB I. Curtis Creek
fH8Jn~~/~j~en8nl~s SitA
Tug-1,627/H. Jenness Site
Tll . ESB II. Area 2
f H[:45~~ 'Lt'J;if bhiooer TU -4559. Edaemont. Knoll
Tll . ~~Mn Run TU . I. Phoenix Lake Rd
Tl I . I. Curtis Creek
flJ8~fd~ 1~~?~1 ~hipper
t LJ ~fs1~P8~iis Cre k
TU~. ESBI. Calvalieri Road
TU -4627/H. Jenness Site
TU -4514. Uooer Chiooer
fU8;1?J~·1:g~rgn;:r~~fl 0II
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MAD. Nichols Meadow
TU}l Boaav Meadow MA . Nichols Meadow
MA . Nichols Meadow
t~h ~~~~lii1~r~~f~
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MA~-223. Cran<,_ Vallev TU . Yosemite. t:ast Meadow
MA _ Nichols Meadow
FR , Long Meadow Ck (upper)
~rn Bie~0s'o1iiIgr~:srW 1
~:~g~en °s~7;tiJ8antil
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NY-4554. Ash Creek
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_ _ rN\~s!~~rr\' Wells Canyon
: INY-6021. Olanche/Cartaao
- 1 INY-6021. Olanche/Cartago ~ 1 KFR-OS01. Rom'!rs I akA • ~E~:8~81. ~gg~r~
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: INY-6021. Olanche/Cartaao
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: INY-0372. Rose Locus 1
1 INY. Deeo Sorinas Vallev Site
- 1 INY-0372. Rose Locus 1
1 MNO. Fish \.,ake Vallev Faull
: l=lgg~;~
K~R-0490. Roaers Lake ir- : K R-2378. Roaers Lake •- K R-0490. Roaers Lake •---: INY-03 72 . Rose Locus 1 - 1 ~~2,s~fno Basin, Rush Creek : I ~~:a?mn~t;J I
!{or~n'iia'1.~~rr
KER-0490, Rogers Lake
569
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some areas, by deposition on one or more occasions. Land stability appears to have occurred earlier in the upper Sierra, Great Basin, and Mojave Desert regions than in the San Joaquin Valley, as no buried soils dating between about 13,000 and 9500 cal BP have yet been identified in the valley (see Figure 49).
During this stable period, the channels of many rivers and streams became deeply incised by downcutting and/or widened by lateral migration. While relatively large bodies of early Holocene-age landforms occur at the surface in the eastern San Joaquin Valley, and in parts of Owens and Death valleys (see Figure 17), they account for 10.8 percent of all depositional landforms and 15.7 percent of all Holocene-age landforms exposed at the surface, including early Holocene volcanic deposits. Since landforms of this age are better represented in buried contexts than in surface contexts, it is likely that a substantial part of the early Holocene archaeological record is also buried (e.g., KER-116 and KIN-80).
Middle Holocene
Early Holocene soil formation and channel cutting were interrupted by a major depositional pulse between about 7000 and 6800 cal BP, widely evidenced in the Study Area and other parts of California (Meyer and Rosenthal 1997, 2008; Rosenthal and Meyer 2004a, 2004b). This likely resulted from increased precipitation and runoff that repeatedly met or exceeded the geomorphic threshold level, as explained at the beginning of this chapter. While most of these sediments were deposited in low-lying settings (i.e., basins, channels, and meander belts), they sometimes spilled onto the surface of surrounding floodplains as low-lying areas were overwhelmed. This pulse of instability was soon followed by another sustained period of soil development between about 6800 to 4500 cal BP, as indicated by more than two-dozen radiocarbon dates; most centering around 5400 cal BP (see Figure 49).
Middle Holocene-age surface landforms are very poorly represented in the Study Area, accounting for only 3.2 percent of all depositional landforms and 4.6 percent of all Holocene-age landforms exposed at the surface. Most are found in the arid valleys of the Great Basin/Mojave Desert (e.g., Rose Valley), and a few occur in portions of the San Joaquin Valley where they form relatively small and isolated bodies. Deposits of this age are most often found in buried contexts, and only rarely exposed at the present ground surface.
Though middle Holocene sites can and do occur at or near the surface of landforms that are early Holocene or older, this pattern suggests that sites in certain locations (i.e., low-lying areas or near water) are underrepresented because they were buried. This may explain why there is an apparent gap in the region’s archaeological record during the middle Holocene as compared to earlier and later cultural periods.
Late Holocene
Landforms were once again destabilized between 4,400 and 3,600 years ago as arid conditions of the middle Holocene shifted toward wetter conditions of the late Holocene. This led to another major pulse of deposition around 4000 cal BP that is recognized throughout the region (Meyer and Rosenthal 1997, 2008; Rosenthal and Meyer 2004a, 2004b). These sediments were deposited mainly as alluvial fans, which are exposed at the surface in arid valleys of the Great Basin/Mojave Desert (e.g., Antelope, Fremont, Owens, and Saline valleys), and along part of the western San Joaquin Valley. Deposition was again followed by soil formation, as there are dozens of buried soils that date between about 3600 and 2200 cal BP, most centered at 2900 cal BP (see Figure 49). Though many occur in buried contexts, landforms of this age are more widely represented at the surface. They make up 11.4 percent of depositional landforms and 16.6 percent of all Holocene-age landforms. Since late Holocene landforms are more commonly exposed at the present ground surface, sites of this age should be better represented at the surface than those of earlier cultural periods.
Latest Holocene
As the climate became more variable after about 2200 cal BP, landforms again became unstable and a torrent of sediment was unleashed around 2000 cal BP (Meyer and Rosenthal 1997, 2008; Rosenthal and Meyer 2004a, 2004b). These sediments were deposited as extensive alluvial fans and floodplains that now form much of the present ground surface in valleys on both sides of the Sierra crest. A pronounced period of soil formation followed that may have been sustained and extended by drought conditions of the Medieval 571
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Climatic Anomaly, as dates from latest Holocene-age buried soils center around 1100 cal BP (see Figure 49).
While a second depositional pulse is recognized around 650 cal BP in some areas (Meyer 2008a; Meyer and Dalldorf 2004; Meyer and Rosenthal 1997, 2008; Rosenthal and Meyer 2004a, 2004b), it was not as intense or widespread as the 2000 cal BP episode.
While late Holocene deposits are often found in buried contexts, one-third (33.3%) of all depositional landforms and nearly one-half (47.7%) of all Holocene-age landforms have surface deposits that date to the latest Holocene. Latest Holocene landforms, therefore, make up more of the present ground surface than all Pleistocene-age surface deposits combined, which equal 31.5 percent overall). Thus, the current spatial extent of these landforms is greater than any deposit thought to have been formed by glacial outwash (i.e., Riverbank and Modesto formations). Since a large part of the present surface consist of latest Holocene landforms, sites of 2,000 years or less should be the best represented of any other cultural period.
CONCLUSION
Unlike previous models that relate landscape change to glacial cycles, this study shows that landscape evolution was driven by large-scale climatic shifts and associated environmental changes in the post-glacial era (i.e., Holocene). These changes are expressed in depositional sequences throughout the region as alternating cycles of landform stability and instability that occurred repeatedly during the Holocene, and often synchronously throughout the region (Figure 50). Though portions of the landscape have remained relatively stable since the last glacial maximum, others changed dramatically, long after prehistoric people had arrived and settled in the Study Area. While most sites in District 6/9 were buried by alluvial landscape changes, some sites were also buried by Holocene volcanic activity in portions of Inyo and Mono counties, as explored in the following chapter.
572
Eastern Sierra, Great Basin, and Mojave Desert
Latest Pleistocene Middle Holocene Late Holocene Latest Holocene Cultural Surface
Cultural Buried
Natural Buried
Cultural Surface
Cultural Buried
0 604020
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0 20
Coast Ranges, San Joaquin
Valley, and Western Sierra
Early Holocene
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Natural Buried
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cal Years BP (250 yr intervals)
Number of C Dates 14
Figure 50. Comparison of Radiocarbon-Dated Surface and Buried Contexts from Eastern and Western Regions of District 6/9.
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Geoarchaeological Study
CHAPTER 5. ARCHAEOLOGY IN AN ACTIVE VOLCANIC REGION
The District 6/9 Study Area contains several major volcanic centers including the Kern, Kings, and San Joaquin volcanic fields west of the Sierra crest; the Big Pine, and Mono-Long Valley volcanic fields east of the Sierra crest; and the Aurora-Bodie, Darwin, Coso, Ricardo-El Paso Mountains, and Ubehebe volcanic fields further south and east in the Great Basin and Mojave Desert (Jessey 2009; Klinger 2001; Moore and Dodge 1980). These fields contain a variety of volcanic landforms such as ash (tephra) beds, coulees (sheets of solidified lava), cones, craters, domes, tuff rings, and flows, created by a combination of explosive (Plinian) eruptions, hydrothermal (phreatic) blasts, and the intrusion and extrusion of molten rock (magma) from craters and vents.
Rocks produced by these processes typically include andesite, ash/tephra, basalt, dacite, rhyodacite, rhyolite, obsidian, pumice, and related rocks that are found in most but not all of the fields.
Volcanic landforms in the Study Area usually developed in a sequence that started with an explosive eruption, creating a tephra-rimmed crater, followed by pyroclastic flows and surges (Sieh and Bursik 1986). The sequence usually ended with the extrusion of viscous flows and the formation of a block-encrusted lava dome which sometimes grew until lava spilled over the tephra-rimmed crater to create a coulee (Wood 1977).
Occasionally, the dome may have subsequently collapsed or exploded to produce a double crater.
Though south-central California has been volcanically active for several million years, only three of the volcanic fields, Coso, Mono-Long Valley, and Ubehebe, were active during the Holocene. While most of the Coso field, located in southern Inyo County, was formed more than 40,000 years ago (Moore and Dodge 1980), the field also contains a few cones, domes, and flows that are latest Pleistocene and Holocene in age (Monastero 2002; Monastero et al. 2005). To the north in Mono County, the Mono-Inyo volcanic chain contains dozens of Holocene-age magmatic and eruptive centers that extend more than 55 kilometers (34 miles) from near the south shore of Mono Lake to the southern end of the Long Valley caldera, along a north-south trending alignment (Miller 1985; Sieh and Bursik 1986).
Mono Craters contains at least 30 individual volcanic domes that are sequentially numbered from north to south in rough order (Bursik 1989; Bursik and Sieh 1989; Sieh and Bursik 1986). The Ubehebe volcanic field covers only about three square kilometers (1.2 square miles) at the northeastern end of the Cottonwood Mountains, near the intersection of the northern Death Valley and Tin Mountain fault zones, where it is blanketed mostly by basaltic cinders (Klinger 2001). The volcanic history of these fields is discussed below from the oldest to youngest examples.
VOLCANISM IN SOUTH-CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
A cloud . . . was ascending, the appearance of which
I cannot give you a more exact description of than by likening it to that of a pine tree, for it shot up to a great height in the form of a very tall trunk, which spread itself out at the top into a sort of branches; . . . it appeared sometimes bright and sometimes dark and spotted, according as it was either more or less impregnated with earth and cinders . . . ashes began to fall again, this time in heavy showers. We rose from time to time and shook them off; otherwise we should have been buried and crushed beneath their weight.
~ Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus, ìPliny the Youngerî (Extracts from ìLetters of Plinyî translated by William Melmoth, revised by F. C. T. Bosanquet 1905)
As a witness to the 79 AD (1871 cal BP) eruption of Mount Vesuvius, Pliny the Younger provides a vivid account of a single “Plinian eruption” like those that occurred repeatedly along the Inyo-Mono volcanic chain. The chain has generated no less than 20 such eruptions over the past 11,000 years—most in the late Holocene (<4000 cal BP), with at least ten occurring after the Italian cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum were 575
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buried by Vesuvian eruption. Though there are no oral or written records of eruptions in the Long Valley-Mono Basin region, the stratigraphic record unequivocally shows they were at least as frequent and of a comparable magnitude as those that buried or destroyed large areas in the Mediterranean region during the Holocene.
Together these eruptive events spread hundreds of thousands of cubic meters of material across large portions of the Study Area (Sieh and Bursik 1986), depositing multiple layers of volcanic ash (tephra), pumice, and other pyroclastics that form important stratigraphic and chronologic markers across the region. These deposits covered the pre-existing landscape, burying many plants and animals on which resident human groups relied, along with previous camps and village sites. While the buried sites may not compare with Pompeii or Herculaneum, the rapidly deposited volcanic material should have similarly preserved their contents and systemic relationships in an almost “time-capsule” fashion. Thus, the volcanic activity of the Study Area has important implications for the nature and completeness of the archaeological record, for archaeological research (Hall 1983), and for implementing appropriate archaeological survey and excavation methods, particularly in Long Valley and Mono Basin. To this end, the following section examines the timing and extent of latest Pleistocene and Holocene volcanism in eastern California.
Latest Pleistocene (15,000-11,500 BP)
Radiometric evidence (i.e., radiocarbon, argon-argon, and potassium-argon dates) indicates that volcanism was infrequent and restricted to a few portions of the Study Area during the latest Pleistocene. While the Coso volcanic field may contain a few isolated cones and flows of this age, most are found within the Mono Craters volcanic field where several cones and lava flows date roughly between 14,500 and 13,000 years old (Figure 51) based on obsidian hydration, ion micro-probing, argon-argon, and potassium-argon dating of volcanic rocks (Bursik 1989; Hu et al. 1994; Reid 2003; Wood 1983; Zartman and Bush 1995). The only latest Pleistocene-age volcanic deposits that have been radiocarbon dated are those from Black Point, located on the northwest shore of Mono Lake (Figure 52). Black Point is a flat-topped (Surtseyan-style) tuff cone that formed beneath glacial Lake Russell soon after 13,300 ± 500 14 BP, or 14,575 cal BP (Denham and Cox 1971; LaJoie 1968), when the lake was almost ten times deeper than at present (Hill 2006; Schneider 2001). While other latest Pleistocene volcanic deposits are likely present in Inyo and Mono counties, most have yet to be dated with radiometric techniques.
Early Holocene (11,500-7000 BP)
As with the latest Pleistocene, there is only limited evidence of early Holocene volcanism in the Study Area, which appears to have been restricted to the Coso and Mono-Long Valley fields. For example, no tephra layers occur in the lacustrine sediments that date between 13,261 cal BP (GaK-01425) and 6013 cal BP (GaK02486) at Black Lake in Adobe Valley (Batchelder 1970). As Figure 51 shows, several argon-argon or potassiumargon dates have been obtained from volcanic deposits in the Mono Craters segment of the Long Valley field that range between about 11,000 and 7,000 years in age (Hu et al. 1994; Zartman and Bush 1995). The age of Red Hill, a cinder cone located in the Coso field at the southern end of Rose Valley near Fossil Falls (Figure 53), is estimated to be about 10,000 years old based on geomorphic evidence (Jessey 2007), as is Dome 18 at Mono Craters based on ion micro-probe dating of the mineral allanite (Reid 2003).
A pair of isolated cinder cones and related deposits, collectively known as Red Cones (Figure 53), located at the southern end of the Inyo volcanic chain, date to about 9500 cal BP (Figure 51) based on radiocarbon dates from underlying deposits (Demming 2002). Ion micro-probe dating of allanite from Dome 6 and Dome 30 at Mono Craters indicates they are roughly 8,200 and 7,000 years old, respectively (Reid 2003). In addition, it appears that an unnamed volcanic cone on the northeast shore of Mono Lake is also early Holocene in age, based on 15 potassium-argon dates associated with the Wassit-series soil mapped on the cone’s surface (Zartman and Bush 1995). Besides these, a few other early Holocene-age cones or flows are probably within the Coso field (Monastero 2002; Monastero et al. 2005), but their ages have yet to be confirmed.
In addition to local volcanic sources, volcanic ash derived from the Crater Lakes area in Oregon is found in some alluvial, lacustrine, and meadow deposits in the northern part of the Study Area, including Mono Lake 576
0 Sample No. (n
Min. Age
Calculated Age
Max. Age
0 6 12
200-Year Totals
(n=56)
Notes: All samples from Mono Lake Basin; dates based on Argon-Argon (Ar-Ar), Postassium-Argon (K-Ar), and ion-laser probe techniques. (n = 16)
Inyo Craters Mono Craters
Buried Contexts Surface Contexts Buried Contexts Surface Contexts Late Pleistocene
Latest Pleistocene
Early Holocene
Middle Holocene
Late Holocene
Early Holocene
Middle Holocene
Late Holocene
Latest Holocene
Calculated Years BP
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
7000
8000
9000
10,000
11,000
12,000
13,000
14,000
15,000
16,000
17,000
6G0075G2015G2036G0076G00875M0056G0065G2046G0166G0176G0055G2015G2035G2045G2026G014 1200
5400
800-600
2000
Figure 51. Radiometric (top) and Radiocarbon (bottom) Dates Associated with Volcanic Deposits in the Mono-Inyo Chain.
MAD, Inyo Craters, Red Cones
MAD, Inyo Craters, Red Cones
MNO, Emerald Lake
MNO, Adobe Valley, S.R. 120
MNO, Inyo Craters, Horseshoe Lk.MNO, Adobe Valley, S.R. 120 MNO, Sawmill Meadow
FRE, Exchequer Meadow
MNO, Mono Craters, Oh! Ridge
MNO-2440/H, Waugh Lake
MNO, Inyo Craters, Deadman Summit
MNO, Adobe Valley, S.R. 120
MNO-2439/H, Waugh Lake
MNO, Wilson Butte
FRE, Dinkey Meadow
MNO-2440/H, Waugh Lake
FRE, Exchequer Meadow
MNO-0574MNO-2439/H, Waugh Lake
MNO-0574MNO, Inyo Craters, Deadman Summit
MAD, Mineret Summit
MNO, Inyo Craters, Mammoth Mountain
MNO, Inyo Crater Lakes
MNO, Inyo Crater Lakes
MNO, Inyo Craters, Glass CreekMNO, Inyo Craters, Glass CreekMNO, Inyo Craters, Wilson Butte MNO, Inyo Craters, Wilson Butte
MNO-0577MNO, Inyo Craters, South Deadman
FRE, Cabin Meadow (lower)
MNO, Inyo Craters, South Deadman
MNO, Inyo Craters, South Deadman
MNO, Inyo Craters, South Deadman
MNO, Inyo Craters, South Deadman
MNO, Inyo Craters, South Deadman
MNO, Inyo Craters, South Deadman
MNO, Inyo Craters, Mammoth Mountain
MNO, Crooked Meadows
MNO, Sawmill Meadow
MNO, Mono Basin, Rush Creek
MNO, Mono Basin, Rush Creek
MNO, Mono Craters, Oh! Ridge
MNO, Mono Craters, South Coulee
MNO, Mono Basin, Rush Creek
MNO, Mono Craters, Panum Crater
MNO, Mono Craters, South Coulee
MNO, Mono Craters, Panum Crater
MNO, Mono Craters, Panum Crater
MNO, Mono Craters, Panum Crater
MNO, Mono Basin, Panum Dune
MNO-2206, Benton Range
MNO-2433/H, Sherwin Grade
MNO-0458INY, Death Valley, Ubehebe
Min. 2-Sigma
Max. 2-Sigma
Cal BP (med. prob.)
0 1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
7000
8000
9000
10,000
11,000
cal Years BP
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577
Mono Lake
Mono County
Tuolumne County
Madera County
Mariposa County
Inyo County
Fresno County
Owens River
Tuolumne River
Falls Cree k
Fish Creek
Mono Creek
Spring Canyon Creek
Rus h Creek
P ni e Creek
San oJ qa i u n i R ver
Lyell Fork
oR i b nson C er ek
Mill Creek
Hot Cr eek
Fish Slough
e R ut rn Creek
u H ct h ni son Creek
Kendr ci k C er ke
Green Cre ke
o C nv ci t Creek
Jacks Creek
Frog Creek
Lower Rock Creek
Dana Fork
Adobe Creek
South Fork San Joaquin River
Lee Vining Creek
Marble Creek
Granite Creek
Deadman Creek
Virginia Creek
Rock eek Cr
s aE Ft r o Ck oh wchil al R vi er
Conness Creek
Leidy Creek
Wet Fork
Swauger Creek
Cold Creek
Mammoth Creek
Bi
g Oak Rd
6S04
Laws
Bishop
Benton
Ahwahnee
Toms Place
Lee Vining
Bridgeport
Mammoth Lakes
WaterArtificial Cut and FillHistorical and Modern
Latest HoloceneLatest Holocene VolcanicLate Holocene
Holocene Volcanic (undivided)Middle HoloceneEarly Holocene Early Holocene VolcanicLatest PleistoceneLate Pleistocene Older PleistocenePre-QuaternaryHighway 0 5 10 Miles
Nevada
California
Black Point
For greater resolution and visual clarity, please refer to GIS database.
Figure 52. Distribution of Holocene Volcanic Deposits in the Mono-Inyo Craters Area.
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578
Ubehebe Crater, Death Valley (latest Holocene-age) Panum Crater, Mono Crater Volcanic Field, Mono Basin Mono Craters (fore) and White Mountains (back) to East
Red Hill Cinder Cone in Coso Volcanic Field, Rose Valley, Inyo County Red Hill Cinder Cone, Rose Valley to North State Route 395 North
Red Cones, Inyo Volcanic Field, Madera County
About 180 cal BP
About 600 cal BP
Inyo Craters, Inyo Volcanic Field, Mono County
About 650 cal BP
About 9500 cal BP
Inyo Craters Ash/Pumice Mono Craters Ash/Pumice
About 10,000 years old
(estimated)
Red Hill
Little Hebe Crater in Ubehebe Field, Death Valley
Late or Latest Holocene-age?
Figure 53. Holocene-Age Volcanic Deposit in the San Joaquin Valley.
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(Davis 1999b; Sarna-Wojcicki et al. 1991) and Hidden Lake (Potito et al. 2006), both in northern Mono County. Ash that erupted from this distant source was deposited over a large part of the northwestern United States in two separate layers, known as the Tsoyowata and the Mazama tephras, which date to about 7855 cal BP and 7675 cal BP, respectively (Bacon 1983). While these tephras are discontinuous and have a limited distribution, they serve as important chrono-stratigraphic markers in some parts of the Study Area. A summary of the locations where these tephras have been identified in California is provided in Table 10.
Table 10. Identified Deposits of Tsoyowata and Mazama Tephra in Northeastern California.
LOCATION ASH FALL
DEPTH
(CM)
THICKNESS OF
TEPHRA (CM)
ASSOCIATED 14C
DATE(S) (CAL BP) REFERENCE
Tule Lake Tsoyowata 177/228 8 n/a Rieck et al. (1992)
Medicine Lake Tsoyowata 152 2.5 >7710 Starratt et al. (2002) Mazama 148 2.5 >6900, <7710 Starratt et al. (2002)
Secret Creek Mazama n/a reworked n/a McGuire (1997)
Grassy Lake Tsoyowata 170-178 8 n/a Edlund (1994b)
Osgood Swamp Tsoyowata 170 ±3 <7840 Adam (1967)
Bunker Lake Tsoyowata 286-302 16 < Edlund (1994a)
Gabbott Meadow Lake Tsoyowata 196 discontinuous <8375 Peak and Neuenschwander (1991) Hidden Lake Tsoyowata 347-351 n/a <9611 Potito et al. (2006) Lake Moran Tsoyowata 229-232 3 <7735 Edlund (1991); Mensing and Southon (1999) Lake Aloha Mazama 20-22 2 >7605 Clark and Gillespie (1997) Tsoyowata 25-50 25 <7960, <7965 Clark and Gillespie (1997) Swamp Lake Tsoyowata 429 n/a n/a Smith and Anderson (1992) Mono Lake Tsoyowata n/a n/a n/a Sarna-Wojcicki et al. (1991) Mazama n/a n/a n/a Sarna-Wojcicki et al. (1991); Davis (1999b) Middle Holocene (7000-4000 BP)
The reduced volcanic activity in the early Holocene extended into the first part of the middle Holocene (Batchelder 1970; Bursik 1989; Bursik and Sieh 1989; Miller 1985). As noted above, the earliest direct evidence of renewed activity comes from Black Lake, where a tephra (Ash 5) was deposited after 6013 cal BP (GaK-02486) and before 5693 cal BP (GaK-1853); (Batchelder 1970). While two potassium-argon dates from domes in the Mono Craters segment suggest they are about 6500 to 6300 years old (see Figure 51; Dalrymple 1967; Zartman and Bush 1995), a recent reevaluation of obsidian hydration evidence suggests that the oldest middle Holoceneage domes in this segment (Domes 18, 23, 25, and 30) are between 5,400 and 4,200 years in age (Meyn 2007).
Further, a rhyolite dome north of Deadman Creek (“North Deadman Dome”) in the Inyo Craters segment is estimated to be about 6,000 years old based on obsidian hydration comparisons, but since no explosive or magmatic activity is associated with this eruption (Miller 1985), it was not a source of tephra. Subdued activity is further confirmed by the near absence of middle Holocene-age tephra in the lacustrine sediments of Mono Lake (Davis 1999b).
As shown in Figure 51, the age of some volcanic deposits has been constrained by a handful of radiocarbon dates from overlying or underlying non-volcanic deposits. These include dates of 5693 cal BP (GaK1853) and 5243 cal BP (GaK-1852) from peat deposits below and between volcanic ash layers at Black Lake in Adobe Valley (Batchelder 1970), a date of 5547 cal BP (W-734) from deposits overlain by Inyo Crater pumice near Horseshoe Lake (Rubin and Alexander 1960), a date of 5223 cal BP (W-3473) from peat beneath multiple ash layers in Sawmill Meadow (Figure 54, Wood 1983), and a date of 5179 cal BP (Beta-17184) from organic sediment below Inyo Craters ash and above an unknown ash (possibly the Tsoyowata or Mazama tephra) at Exchequer Meadow in Fresno County (Davis and Moratto 1988). An unidentified ash found within the sediments of Mono Lake that dates to 4083 cal BP (AA-06837) is the youngest middle Holocene-age tephra yet identified in the region (Davis 1999b). This suggests that the Mono-Long Valley field experienced a modest increase in volcanism and explosive activity around 5400 cal BP that appears to have subsided or stopped completely by 4,000 years ago.
580
Sawmill Meadow, Glass Mtn., Mono County State Route 120 Roadcut, Mono County Ubehebe Crater, Death Valley, Inyo County Wilson Butte Pit, State Route 395, Mono County Panum Crater, Mono County Ash Layer 1 - fine white ash
Fiberous peaty topsoil dated to
1088 cal BP (W-3470)
Ash Layer 2 - greay and white pumice
with rhyolite, black obsidian,and
charred log dated to 1956 cal BP
(W-3472)
Fiberous brown peat
Ash Layer 4 - coarse tan ash
Ash Layer 5 - gray and white pumice
Silty peat dated to 3585 cal BP
(W-3474)
Ash Layer 6 - coarse pumice and ash
Fiberous brown peat dated to 5223
cal BP (W-3474)
1956 cal BP
(Adapted from Meyn 2007:Figure 5) (Adapted from Wood 1983:69) (Adapted from Wood 1983:72) (Adapted from Wood 1983:73) (Adapted from Klinger 2001:Figure A1-4 (Adapted from Sieh and Bursik 1986:Figure 13)
180 cal BP
(UB1-1AT)
0 m
1 m
2 m
3 m
0 m
1 m
2 m
3 m
0 m
1 m
2 m
3 m
0 m
1 m
.5 m
0 m
1 m
.5 m
0 m
1 m
.5 m
Tan "muddy" ash
and fine pumice
White pumice with
charred log dated to
1112 cal BP (W-3661)
Black and white tephra
of pumice, rhyolite,
and black obsidian
Brown ashy (buried) soil
State Route 120
roadway
Unit 1 - Colluvial soil with partly
mixed white ash bed
Unit 2 - Angular pyroclastic
debris with gray and white
rhyolite pumice,and many
charred logs and sticks, one
dated to 1956 cal BP (W-3469)
Unit 3 - Thin pinkish-white ash
layer and pumice gragments
Unit 4 - Buried soil formed in
layer containing 60% black
obsidian blocks,small amounts
of quartz monzonite, and red
and gray banded rhyolite
Q4b - alluvium
Ubehebe Craters tephra bed
Q4b - alluvium
Q4c - alluvium
Mono Craters tephra bed
Older alluvium (buried soil?)
Fine-bedded obsidian, pumice,
and stony rhyolite
Tephra ring of angular ash and
small blocks
Pyroclastic flow deposits, massive,
poorly sorted ash with pink cast
Panum block and ash flow with
unsorted blocks of glassy rhyolite
and breadcrusted pumice
Pyroclastic surge of well-bedded
(cross and planar) layers of ash
and a few block bombs
Pyroclasitc flow of white, ashy
pumice gravel with charcoal, dated
to 554 cal BP (UW-799)
Throat-clearing unsorted
pumiceous breccia with small
blocks of lacustrine silt and
rounded Sierra clasts
North Mono tephra, well-bedded
and -sorted pumice with gray and
black obsidian
Buried soil, 574 cal BP (UW-796)
1956 cal BP
1112 cal BP
1087 cal BP
(AA-72568)
2232 cal BP
(AA-72576)
~700,000 years old
554 cal BP
574 cal BP
Deadman Summit, State Route 395, Mono County
(Note: different vertical scales on top and bottom rows.) Figure 54. Radiocarbon-Dated Holocene-age Volcanic Strata in the Study Area.
Geoarchaeological StudyCalifornia Department of Transportation, District 6/9Transportation Enhancement Activities Program Far Western123 I I I I : I~
,,,, ,.., I
- A) Inyo Airfall Tephras
~lli'l:11· I!@ - 8) North Mono Airfall
-C) Paleosol
- D) Pyroclastic Flow Deposit L ... •I,.. .:, .... . _, "'\,,,._· I { - E) Airfall Tephra 11ra.'f."iJ,J,it,'\/ M
- F) Paleosol { .,,-, -·· ~, /#,l' v,.;o,,_ ...
- G) Airfall Tephra l ~i.' ·, ',,.Jl"l li'Ui1
- H) Pyrocla stic Flow Depo sit [
- 1) Alrfall Tephra
~ u V '
_,
C
- J) Distal Pyroclast ic Flow f - K} Zoned Pumice Fall
- L) Phreatomagmatic or Surge
·--- {JG lJ TJ
- M) Laminated Silt and Sand CJ L -(_
- N) Bishop Tuff
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Thus, apart from the one tephra at Mono Lake and the tephras at Black Lake, there is comparatively little evidence of explosive volcanic activity in the region during the middle Holocene. It does appear, however, that during this time at least one dome (North Deadman) was emplaced in the Inyo Craters segment, and a few small domes and related flows were formed in the Mono Craters segment.
Late Holocene (4000-2000 BP)
For the next 1,800 years, between about 4000 and 2200 cal BP, volcanic activity was again subdued and restricted solely to the Mono-Inyo volcanic chain (Miller 1985; Sieh and Bursik 1986; Wood 1977, 1983).
Obsidian hydration and potassium-argon evidence indicate that at least four silica-rich rhyolite domes (Dome 14, 17, 20, and 27) were emplaced at Mono Craters between about 4,000 and 3,000 years ago (see Figure 51; Dalrymple 1967; Meyn 2007; Wood 1983; Zartman and Bush 1995), with Dome 22 and 26 formed during a later episode around 2,070 years ago (Meyn 2007).
Deposits buried by volcanic ash at Deadman Summit along State Route 395 within the Inyo Craters segment record a sudden increase in explosive eruptions at 2232 cal BP (AA-72576; Figure 54; Meyn 2007). To the east, at Black Lake in Adobe Valley, a nearly identical date of 2192 cal BP (GaK-2476) was obtained from peat below a layer of ash originating from Mono or Inyo craters (Batchelder 1970). Tephra from Mono or Inyo craters also appears to overlie portions of archaeological site MNO-2439, located to the west near Waugh Lake, where the underlying cultural deposits date to 2115 cal BP (Beta-121306); (Jackson and Morgan 1999). Thus, tephra was deposited over much of the surrounding area between about 2,200 and 2,100 years ago.
Latest Holocene (2000-150 BP)
During the latest Holocene, a pronounced increase in volcanic activity occurred within the Mono-Inyo volcanic chain that was far more explosive and extensive than before, which equaled or exceeded that of the previous 10,000 years (Sieh and Bursik 1986; Miller 1985 Wood 1977, 1983). Obsidian hydration evidence, for instance, suggests that five of the Mono Crater domes (Dome 9, 13, 15, 22, and 22) were emplaced between about 1,800 and 1,000 years ago, with another five (Dome 3, 4, 5, 7, and 8) formed between about 800 and 600 years ago (Bursik 1989; Meyn 2007; Wood 1977, 1983). One of these domes generated the Mono Craters obsidian flow. The age of these domes are consistent with radiocarbon and stratigraphic evidence from volcanic deposits throughout the region which show a major episode of volcanism around 1200 cal BP, and another centered near 700 years ago (see Figure 51).
Volcanic deposits dating to the latest Holocene have been identified at dozens of locations throughout the region. Among these are identical dates of 1956 cal BP from charred logs found embedded within volcanic deposits in a gravel pit at Wilson Butte along State Route 395 north of Crestview (W-3469) and in Sawmill Meadow at Glass Mountain (W-3472), and a date of 1112 cal BP (W-3661) from a road cut along State Route 120 north of Benton (Wood 1983). As shown in Figure 54, Mono Craters ash from Sawmill Meadow (Wood 1983) and from Deadman Summit along State Route 395 produced next to identical dates of 1088 cal BP (W3470) and 1087 cal BP (AA-72568; Meyn 2007). Additionally, at archaeological sites MNO-2440 and MNO2439 near Waugh Lake, cultural deposits dating to 1854 cal BP (Beta-117216) and 1367 cal BP (Beta-121307), respectively, are buried by Mono or Inyo craters tephra (Jackson and Morgan 1999), while those at site MNO574, located along State Route 395 near the Mammoth Scenic Loop junction, are between 1755 and 1197 cal BP (Beta-29480 and Beta-29479; Goldberg et al. 1990).
In the Mono Craters area, at least one moderate to large Plinian ash eruption may have occurred at Panum Crater between about 1135 and 1100 cal BP (Kilbourne and Anderson 1981; Wood and Brooks 1979), and another occurred between 574 and 554 cal BP, that spread a blanket of ash, pumice, and other pyroclastic debris (North Mono Craters tephra) over most of the Mono Lake Basin (Sieh and Bursik 1986). During the past 2,000 years, the intrusion of magma and episodic eruptions from beneath Mono Lake led to the formation of Negit Island, which lies in the north-central part of the lake (see Figure 52; Stine 1987). One exceptionally violent event around 1700 cal BP created thousands of blocks of vesicular pumice that floated on the lake until they shoaled around its shoreline. Near the center of Mono Lake lies Paoha Island (see Figure 52), which was created by a similar series of eruptive events around 265 cal BP, making it the youngest addition to the Mono Craters volcanic 582
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chain (Stine 1987). Besides the creation of the Mono Islands, at least three of these volcanic episodes (Paoha Island included) generated ash that was presumably deposited throughout much of the Mono Basin.
Plinian-type eruptions and steam-driven (phreatic) explosions also occurred along the Inyo segment (i.e., Glass Creek and South Deadman domes) between about 600 and 500 cal BP that blew huge amounts of debris into the air (Miller 1985). Deposits of ash and pumice from at least three separate Inyo eruptions during this interval have been traced over hundreds to thousands of square kilometers, ranging from a few centimeters thick at the outer edges to as much as 25 meters (82 feet) thick near the source vents (Miller 1985; Wood 1977). Some of these materials were subsequently reworked and redeposited by alluvial processes and, in at least one case, pumice completely filled a formerly active channel of the Owens River just north of present-day Lake Crowley in Mono County (Bursik and Reid 2004; Reid et al. 1998).
The last major eruption of Inyo Craters around 478 cal BP caused a pyroclastic debris flow, known as a lahar, to move down the canyon of Glass Creek and into the upper Owens River Valley (Bursik and Reid 2004).
The lahar ran up the sides of the canyon to a height of about 35 meters (115 feet) above the present stream level, and extend downstream to the present north shore of Lake Crowley; a distance of at least 30 kilometers (18.6 miles). The channel of Glass Creek has since become incised below the surface of these deposits, which now form a series of flat terraces in the canyon, generally less than ten meters (33 feet) wide. One of the largest and most recognizable segments of the lahar sits west of State Route 395 at Crestview, near a point where Glass Creek exits the canyon.
While the cause of the lahar is uncertain, some debris flows may have been triggered by the intense thunderstorms and rainfall that accompany some Plinian eruptions. This assertion is based on the repeated occurrence of undisturbed beds of Mono-Inyo tephra buried by debris flows at more than 20 sites in western Nevada, which generally date to less than 1400 cal BP (Bell and House 2007). Researchers argue that these stratigraphic associations are not random coincidence but are linked to the many Plinian eruptions generated by the Mono-Inyo volcanic chain over the past 1,400 years. They explain that the enormous ash plumes released by Plinian eruptions “can entrain very large quantities of moisture from exsolved magmatic water and condensation during atmospheric rise of the eruption column, possibly amounting to hundreds of metric tons of water” (Bell and House 2007:221). They also note that these eruption-driven storms are usually electrically charged, and can generate lightning that may have triggered widespread fires on the ground, and point to the regular associations of tephra, charcoal, and debris flows identified in the White Mountains and Fish Lake Valley near the CaliforniaNevada state line (Reheis 1996). Thus, these eruptions not only resulted in the deposition of ash, but the ash deposits were in some cases buried and preserved by volcanically induced debris flows.
Implications for Human Occupation and Preservation of the Archaeological Record From this review it is clear that latest Holocene volcanic activity was as active as any time since the arrival of people in south-central California. Because volcanism was extensive and recurrent over the last two millennia, it “may have had persistent direct and indirect, and cumulative effects on prehistoric economic, demographic, and land-use patterns in the eastern Sierra and adjacent region” (Hall 1983:191). The violent eruptions and pyroclastic fallout may have threatened and even killed some prehistoric residents, and likely forced others to relocate or adapt to the newly formed volcanic landscape. At the same time, many older archaeological sites within the Long Valley and Mono Basin area were likely buried by Mono-Inyo Craters tephra, and/or by the debris flows that accompanied some of the Plinian eruptions (Bell and House 2007). As shown in Figure 55, sites that postdate the highly eruptive period between about 2000 and 500 cal BP are probably far better represented at the surface than those that pre-date this period.
THE PREHISTORIC USE OF OBSIDIAN IN SOUTH-CENTRAL CALIFORNIA:
TEMPORAL AND SPATIAL ASPECTS
In addition to the effects that Holocene volcanism may have had on site visibility and human populations that lived in eastern California (e.g., Hall 1983), obsidian deposits associated with each of these volcanic fields became an important prehistoric commodity that was widely used and traded across California and into western 583
-100%
-80%
-60%
-40%
-20%
0%
20%
40%
60%
Note: Dates from both natural and cultural contexts included.
Percent (per period)
Early Holocene
(11,500 to 7000 cal BP)
Middle Holocene
(7000 to 4000 cal BP)
Late Holocene
(4000 to 2000 cal BP)
Latest Holocene
(2000 to150 cal BP)
-22
-3 -8 -6
20 0 0 0
Surface Context
Buried Context
Figure 55. Percentage of Radiocarbon Dates from Surface and Buried Volcanic Contexts.
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Nevada, beginning as early as the latest Pleistocene. Within the District 6/9 Study Area there are no fewer than six geochemically distinct obsidian sources (Bodie Hills, Casa Diablo, Coso, Fish Springs, Mono Glass Mountain, Mono Craters), with numerous definable sub-sources that were quarried prehistorically (e.g., Ericson 1977; Hughes 1994; Jackson 1974). Despite the attention given to obsidian by archaeologists, we continue to know very little about the quarries themselves, the timing of obsidian exploitation at these localities, or the geographic distribution of this material through human conveyance. Initial studies of prehistoric exchange began the inquiry into broad-scale patterns of obsidian distributions (e.g., Ericson 1977; Jack 1976; Jackson 1974), but few recent studies have updated or refined this work (but see Bouey and Basgall 1984; Gilreath and Hildebrandt 1997; Sutton and Des Laurier 2002). For the most part, modern research has focused on obsidian use within more geographically restricted areas, forgoing extra-regional analyses to better understand local land-use patterns (e.g., Basgall 1989; Hughes and Bettinger 1984; King et al. 2008; Roper-Wickstrom 1992; Stevens 2002). Yet, broad-scale patterns remain important and local material conveyance cannot be adequately assessed without this regional context.
Along with studies that examine the distribution of different obsidian sources across the landscape, this material has also become an important chronological tool for archaeologists working throughout south-central California. Obsidian hydration measurements are now commonly used to provide relative age estimates for individual artifacts and entire site assemblages. In a few instances, source-specific hydration rates have been developed (e.g., Basgall 1990; Stevens 2002); however, most sources continue to lack a reliable hydration rate model, making it difficult to determine the true age of obsidian artifacts. Further, ongoing research has shown that a myriad of other intrinsic and environmental properties make hydration rate conversions imprecise and often grossly inaccurate. This is particularly true for the earliest time periods, where existing rate models prove most unreliable. Because of this, we are sorely in need of hydration anchors which provide limiting values for the earliest human-derived artifacts and allow for an assessment of the initial timing of quarry activities at each source locality. As a first step in this direction, the following discussion examines both the temporal and spatial parameters of obsidian use in south-central California.
The Timing of Obsidian Use in South-Central California
Among the well-studied obsidian quarries in the Study Area are those in the Coso Volcanic field where more than 4,000 obsidian hydration readings are available, revealing human use of this quarry from the latest Pleistocene through the Holocene (Gilreath and Hildebrandt 1997). Other studies of obsidian quarries such as Bodie Hills have been much more limited in scope, documenting mainly late Holocene exploitation (e.g., Jackson 1984; Singer and Ericson 1977); although, Halford (2008) has recently documented early Holocene use of secondary alluvial cobbles derived from the Bodie Hills source. The lack of focused hydration work at most quarries makes it difficult to judge when they were first used by early foraging groups. Furthermore, even when thousands of hydration readings are available, such as in the Coso Volcanic field, it has been difficult to separate evidence of early human activity from hydration bands that developed through natural breakage. To overcome this problem, we compiled 8,291 source identifications and obsidian hydration readings from 390 archaeological sites throughout the District 6/9 Study Area, the majority of which are located away from primary and secondary sources of obsidian. To better establish naturally from culturally derived hydration readings, we compared the regional obsidian hydration profiles to those obtained from 249 of the earliest well-documented obsidian tools in this region—fluted and basally thinned concave-base projectile points, Great Basin stemmed points, and flaked stone crescents. These data are summarized in Table 11 and Table 12 and Figure 56.
Multiple hydration readings from latest Pleistocene and early Holocene diagnostic artifacts were only available for four sources in the Study Area—Coso, Bodie Hills, Casa Diablo, and Fish Springs. Notwithstanding the three readings from early points made of Mono Glass Mountain, it appears that Coso, Casa Diablo, Bodie Hills, and to a much lesser extent, Fish Springs, were the main obsidian sources from south-central California utilized during the terminal Pleistocene and early Holocene. Fluted concave base points (c.f., Clovis) are typically believed to be the earliest point forms in western North America (e.g., Moratto 1984), an assumption supported by the limited obsidian hydration information available from these artifacts (see Table 11). The presence of fluted points made of Coso, Bodie Hills, and Mono Glass Mountain obsidians in the regional sample clearly shows that these source materials may have been used as early as 13,200 to 12,800 cal BP (Waters and Stafford 2007). 585
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Table 11. Obsidian Hydration Summary Information for Latest Pleistocene and Early Holocene Artifacts by Source.
TYPE COUNT MEAN (µ) RANGE (µ) S.D. C.V.
BODIE HILLS
Concave Base - Fluted 2 12.5 10.2-14.7 3.2 0.26
Concave Base 3 7.1 6.3-8.1 0.9 0.13
Stemmed 20 7.3 5.0-11.9 1.7 0.23
CASA DIABLO
Concave Base 26 9.7 6.1-12.2 1.5 0.15
Stemmed 68 8.2 3.9-14.0 2.1 0.26
Crescent 7 10.6 7.6-13.5 1.8 0.17
COSO
Concave Base - Fluted 2 17.1 15.7-18.4 1.9 0.11
Concave Base 8 13.8 8.2-21.1 4.9 0.36
Stemmed 80 13.1 4.9-19.7 3.0 0.23
Crescent 5 10.5 7.9-13.2 2.3 0.22
FISH SPRINGS
Concave Base 3 7.2 5.2-8.3 1.7 0.24
Stemmed 3 6 5.8-6.3 0.3 0.05
MONO GLASS MOUNTAIN
Concave Base - Fluted 1 10.8 - - -
Stemmed 2 11.3 10.6-11.9 1.3 0.11
Notes: S.D. – Standard deviation; C.V. – Coefficient of variation.
Table 12. Obsidian Hydration Summary for Latest Pleistocene and Early Holocene Artifacts by Region and Source.
REGION TYPE COUNT MEAN (µ) RANGE (µ) S.D. C.V.
BODIE HILLS
Mojave Concave Base - Fluted 1 14.7 - - -
Great Basin Concave Base - Fluted 1 10.2 - - -
Concave Base 1 8.1 - - -
Stemmed 6 8.4 5.9-11.9 2.16 0.26
Upper Sierra Concave Base 2 6.6 6.3-6.9 0.42 0.06
Stemmed 6 6.4 5.0-7.3 1.01 0.16
Sierra Foothills Stemmed 8 7.2 5.2-8.9 1.3 0.18
CASA DIABLO
Mojave Desert Stemmed 1 8.7 - - -
Great Basin Concave Base 24 9.7 7.5-12.2 1.25 0.13
Stemmed 30 7.0 4.1-9.8 1.56 0.22
Sierra Foothills Stemmed 10 7.8 5.3-11.2 1.6 0.21
San Joaquin Concave Base 2 9.1 6.1-12.1 4.2 0.46
Stemmed 26 10.0 5.3-11.2 1.3 0.13
COSO
Mojave Concave Base - Fluted 2 17.1 15.7-18.4 1.9 0.11
Concave Base 4 14.4 8.2-21.1 5.3 0.37
Stemmed 64 13.5 4.9-19.7 2.9 0.22
Great Basin Stemmed 10 12.0 6.0-16.3 3.03 0.25
San Joaquin Concave Base 4 13.0 9.0-19.8 5.1 0.39
Stemmed 6 10.7 6.1-14.6 2.9 0.27
Notes: S.D. – Standard deviation; C.V. – Coefficient of variation. 586
Casa Diablo (n=3,890)
0 255075
100125150175200225
Fish Springs (n=970)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
0 1020304050607080
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
Stemmed
Concave Base
Bodie Hills (n=387)
05 10152025
Coso (n=1,411)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
05 10152025303540455055
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 Hydration Rim Thickness in Microns
Stemmed
Concave Base
Concave Base - Fluted
Concave Base
Crescent
Stemmed
Concave Base - Fluted
Concave Base
Crescent
C
Stemmed
Figure 56. Obsidian Hydration Profiles for Main Sources Utilized in the Study Area.
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As a baseline for human use of California obsidians, hydration information from fluted and other concave base points indicates that readings on Coso obsidian up to about 21 microns are likely to be legitimate evidence of latest Pleistocene use of this material (see Figure 56). Likewise, readings from Bodie Hills up about 15 microns and Mono Glass Mountain up to about 12 microns also appear to relate to latest Pleistocene or earliest Holocene human use (see Table 11). Although no fluted points are reported from Casa Diablo obsidian, hydration readings associated with this source material ranging up to about 14 microns may also derive from human use during the latest Pleistocene or early Holocene. Because drastically different temperature regimes prevailed east and west of the Sierra Nevada and between the Great Basin and Mojave Desert during the Holocene, it is expected that warmer regions (e.g., the Mojave Desert) will generate thicker hydration rims than cooler regions (e.g., the Sierra Nevada and western Great Basin). This result is evident in the data presented in Table 12, demonstrating that points from the Mojave Desert always produce larger hydration readings than similar types from cooler regions to the north and northwest. Likewise, points from the upper Sierra have thinner rims than those from the Sierra Foothills. These patterns indicate that different maximum values will characterize the earliest use of each obsidian source in different regions.
The largest readings from Bodie Hills and Coso obsidians originate from the Mojave Desert—14.7 and
21.1 microns, respectively. In the Bridgeport-Long Valley-Owens Valley region, where the Bodie Hills and Casa Diablo sources are located, maximum hydration readings on artifacts made of these source materials equal 11.9 and 12.2 microns, respectively, indicating that equivalent readings from the quarries likely signal some of the earliest human use. At the Coso quarries in the northern Mojave Desert, readings in the range of 21 microns are likewise indicative of terminal Pleistocene or earliest Holocene human activity. In the San Joaquin Valley, we can expect evidence of terminal Pleistocene to early Holocene human occupation to be signified by hydration readings from Casa Diablo and Coso obsidians up to at least 12.5 and 20 microns, respectively (see Table 11). Judging by maximum readings on Bodie Hills obsidian from the western Great Basin, this material in the San Joaquin Valley may generate readings in excess of 10.0 microns (Tuohy 1984).
As shown in Figure 56, hydration readings displayed at the early end of these histograms fall comfortably within the expected range of hydration values associated with the early artifacts just described. These data reveal that few readings from the terminal Pleistocene or earliest Holocene are recorded at regional sites, consistent with the rarity of early artifact types in this region. Further, there is virtually no evidence in the regional hydration record for pre-Clovis human occupation of south-central California. However, the possibility remains that such evidence may be uncovered when and if more focused research is conducted at the quarries. Lastly, the hydration evidence compiled from regional projectile points clearly shows a sequence of types beginning with fluted concave base forms, followed in time by un-fluted concave base points, and lastly Great Basin Stemmed forms. This sequence is largely consistent with those found elsewhere in North America, and suggests that concave base points likely preceded stemmed points in south-central California, and that un-fluted points are primarily younger than their fluted counterparts (e.g., Rondeau and Hopkins 2008).
The Holocene Distribution of Obsidian in South-Central California Using the same data sets employed in the previous analysis, we examined the distribution of different obsidian types throughout the District 6/9 Study Area, as a measure of human land use and broader prehistoric interaction spheres (Figure 57). Several studies have previously considered the distribution of different obsidian materials within the Study Area beginning with Ericson (1977). For the most part this research has shown that obsidian moved mainly in an east-to-west direction over the Sierra Nevada (but see Basgall 1989; Delacorte 1999), with reasonably well-demarcated north-south divisions between the distributions of the various sources (Bouey and Basgall 1984; King et al. 2008; Roper-Wickstrom 1992; Sutton and Des Laurier 2002). The current analysis largely supports these previous findings. As shown in Figure 56, Coso is the dominant material found at sites throughout the Mojave Desert portion of the Study Area northward to just past Owens Lake and westward across the Sierra Nevada through the Kern River Canyon and into the Kern and Buena Vista lake basins of the San Joaquin Valley (Roper-Wickstrom 1992; Sutton and Des Laurier 2002). Fish Springs becomes the dominant obsidian source in the central Owens Valley from north of Owens Lake to just north of Big Pine and west across the Sierra Nevada to the upper portion of the western slope near the headwaters of the middle fork of the Kings 588
Coso
Casa Diablo
Fish Springs
0 50 100
Kilometers
0 25 50
Miles
Percentage of Obsidian
Casa Diablo
Observed
none
.01 - .39 %
.40 - .77 %
.78 - 1%
Expected
49% - 60%
61% - 70%
71% - 81%
82% - 92%
93% - 100%
Coso
Observed
none
.01 - .39 %
.40 - .77 %
.78 - 1 %
Expected
49% - 60%
61% - 70%
71% - 81%
82% - 92%
93% - 100%
Fish Springs
Observed
none
.01 - .39 %
.40 - .77 %
.78 - 1 %
Expected
49% - 60%
61% - 70%
71% - 81%
82% - 92%
93% - 100%
Obsidian Sources
Figure 57. Distribution of the Three Primary Obsidian Types found in Archaeological Contexts within District 6/9.
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... .
*
D D D
D D D
D D
-
D
- - I', 0
... •
... •
... • •
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River (Roper-Wickstrom 1992). Its absence in the San Joaquin Valley may, in part, be related to an absence of samples from valley sections immediately to the west, or may represent the western-most distribution of this material (Roper-Wickstrom 1992). Casa Diablo is the most common obsidian source north as far as the southern Mono Basin and on the western slope of the Sierra as far as the Tuolumne River (Jackson et al. 1994; King et al. 2008). Further north, Bodie Hills obsidian makes up the great majority of volcanic glass found on both sides of the Sierra as far as the Tahoe Basin and the American River watershed (King et al. 2008; Meyer and Rosenthal 2008). East-west distributions break down in the northern San Joaquin Valley during the late Holocene, where obsidian from Napa Valley in the southern North Coast Ranges becomes dominant and Casa Diablo obsidian extends much further north than its representation in the western Sierra (Rosenthal and Whitaker 2009).
Although these distribution patterns relate mainly to the late Holocene (i.e., 4000 cal BP; based on the age of most sampled components), limited information available from early Holocene sites shows that these patterns of distribution are long standing. For example, early Holocene sites at the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley include Coso obsidian almost exclusively (Jackson et al. 1998), while early artifacts found along the southern shore of Tulare Lake are mainly Casa Diablo (Gold et al. 2008). Likewise, Coso obsidian makes up virtually all of the obsidian from early sites in desert regions to the east (e.g., Basgall and Hall 1994). Further north, deeply buried early Holocene components at the Skyrocket site (CAL-629/630) and at Clarks Flat (CAL342), north of the Tuolumne River, include 80 percent or more Bodie Hills obsidian (La Jeunesse and Pryor 1996; Peak and Crew 1990), similar to late Holocene sites from that same region (Rosenthal 2008).
While it remains unclear to what extent these distribution patterns represent the movement of people across the landscape or the exchange of commodities within broad interaction spheres, it is likely that early Holocene distributions represent something completely different than those associated with the late Holocene.
These patterns also show that, while obsidian often moved quite far from its place of origin, the great majority of this material was deposited in a relatively tight radius around its source, extending more broadly in an east-west orientation than north to south.
CONCLUSIONS
Prehistoric human use of volcanically active regions east of the Sierra Nevada likely began in the latest Pleistocene and continued up to the historic period. This is evident not only in regional obsidian hydration profiles, but the earliest known human tools from this region are made of obsidian quarried within the Study Area. That all of the major obsidian sources were known to the makers of fluted points suggests that the region was thoroughly explored by the latest Pleistocene, leaving open the possibility that even earlier human use of south-central California may be uncovered in the future. Regional hydration profiles, however, do not show use of these obsidian sources earlier than indicated by hydration values from fluted points, further suggesting that if pre-Clovis occupations exist in the Study Area, they have yet to be discovered, or do not register in the considerable hydration evidence amassed to date. Nevertheless, beginning in the terminal Pleistocene obsidian from the Inyo-Mono and Coso regions was transported across a large area of south-central California, recovered from the earliest known archaeological sites both east and west of the Sierra Nevada. From that time through the latest Holocene, the distribution of obsidian from eastern California marks both the movement of people across the Sierra crest, and broad interaction spheres that developed between politically autonomous communities throughout much of California.
Over this time span, eastern California witnessed numerous volcanic events which transformed the geomorphic landscape and often delivered enormous amounts of ash and other volcanic debris over broad portions of the Study Area. While such events certainly had short-term effects on human populations, the numerous eruptions recognized in the Inyo-Mono region during the Holocene are not evident in obsidian hydration profiles from across south-central California (e.g., Laylander 1998). Despite the potentially devastating effects of such events, human use of this region appears to have continued unabated throughout the Holocene (c.f., Hall 1983). However, these volcanic events played a major role in structuring the archaeological record of the Inyo-Mono region, almost certainly obscuring much of the early and middle Holocene record beneath various types of volcanic ejecta and debris flows that originated during the late Holocene. Even sites from the latter time period have been buried by volcanic ash and debris, imposing a bias which cannot be overcome without concerted effort by archaeologists to account for the ways in which volcanic activity has structured the archaeological record of this region. 590
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CHAPTER 6. BURIED SITE POTENTIAL IN DISTRICT 6/9
Buried site potential in District 6/9 is assessed here using landform age and key environmental characteristics thought to have a strong bearing on the location of past human settlements. A comprehensive map of Pleistocene- and Holocene-age landforms was constructed for the entire Study Area using digital soils surveys in combination with extensive radiocarbon-dating. To account for human land-use patterns, a model of buried site potential was developed based on landform age in combination with topographic relief and proximity to water. The resulting model allows Caltrans and other resource managers to make informed decisions regarding: (1) the need for further geoarchaeological studies; (2) appropriate inventory methods; and (3) the level of effort needed to identify buried sites in a given project area. In addition to increasing the likelihood that buried archaeological resources will be identified early in the planning process, this study provides a basis for evaluating potential biases in the nature and completeness of the archaeological record.
MAPPING STRATEGY AND METHODS
To better account for the entire record of human occupation in the Study Area, it was necessary to assess the age and extent of depositional landforms so that those with the potential to contain buried archaeological deposits could be distinguished from those that do not. A combination of radiocarbon dating and archival research was used to develop a map depicting the age of depositional landforms in District 6/9.
Archaeological and geological studies, historical maps, soil surveys, and related digital files were identified, and critical datasets (i.e., soil descriptions, radiocarbon dates, and stratigraphic relationships) integrated to provide landform age assignments discussed in Chapter 4 and presented in Figure 17.
Radiocarbon Database
Recognizing that the use of relative age assignments based on soil development and landform position alone has created a number of problems with existing geological maps (see Chapter 3), 2,402 radiocarbon dates from 569 separate locations were compiled from published and unpublished sources. Relevant information, such as location, provenience, and stratigraphic context, was recorded for each date by obtaining and reviewing the primary source whenever possible. Sample locations include 284 archaeological sites and 285 from natural contexts. More than 1,713 dates (~71%) are from locations within District 6/9, while the remainder (689 or ~29%) are from adjoining counties with similar soil types (Table 13). Slightly more than one-third of the total dates (n=856, or 35%) are from “cultural” contexts, while 1,598 (65%) are from contexts judged to be “natural” or non-cultural in origin; the type and context of a small number of dates (n=6, or 0.02%) could not be determined and were not utilized in subsequent analyses.
Table 13. Summary of Radiocarbon Database.
CALTRANS
DISTRICT NO.
COUNTY OR COUNTIES
CULTURAL
CONTEXTS
NATURAL
CONTEXTS
GRAND TOTAL % OF TOTAL
5 San Benito 9 99 108 4.40%
6 Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera, Tulare 335 479 814 33.20% 7 Los Angeles 0 1 1 0.04%
8 San Bernardino 4 285 289 11.92%
9 Inyo, Mono 339 618 957 38.83%
10 Alpine, Mariposa, Merced, Tuolumne 169 116 285 11.63% Grand Total 856 1,598 2,454 100.00%
% of Total 34.9% 65.1% 100.0%
Note: Includes 65 dates obtained for this study
In addition to dates compiled from existing literature, 65 new radiocarbon dates were obtained from 33 locations as part of the current study (Table 13). Radiocarbon sampling initially focused on distinguishing 591
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Pleistocene- from Holocene-age landforms. This allowed for a more accurate correlation between characteristics of soil development and landform age in the Study Area. Subsequent dates were used to refine age assignments within the Holocene and clarify the temporal range of various soil types, particularly those with moderate degrees of profile development or in intermediate landscape positions.
For purposes of constraining the age of surface soils, radiocarbon dates were considered to be from buried contexts if they were associated with a geological stratum overlain by an unrelated depositional stratum. Using this criterion, some samples from shallow depths were considered buried, while others from relatively deep contexts were assigned to the surface stratum. Samples covered by deposits of artificial fill were also assigned to surface contexts because they were not naturally buried. In the absence of information on stratigraphic context, samples collected from depths of 100 centimeters or more were generally presumed to be from buried contexts.
All radiocarbon dates were calibrated using the CALIB software program (version 5.02) developed by Stuiver and Reimer (1993). Sample locations were linked to soil types at the surface of associated landforms using digital soil survey data. Fifty of the compiled dates are from unknown or suspect contexts and were excluded from further analyses, including some dates that the original researchers considered erroneous. Thirteen “modern” dates were also excluded because they were too young to calibrate with the CALIB program. Radiocarbon dating methods, laboratory sample sheets, and the resulting database are provided in Appendix B.
As shown in Table 14, the majority (~54.1%) of dates are late and latest Holocene in age, of which more than 1,000 (~42.3 %) date solely to the latest Holocene (<2,000 cal BP). Latest Holocene dates account for about 72 percent of those from cultural contexts and about one-quarter (26.1%) of those from natural contexts. It is telling that the number of dates from middle Holocene-age deposits (n=172, or ~7.2 %) is about one-half of those from the early Holocene (n=364, or 15.1%), pointing to the long-standing difficulty in finding middle Holoceneage geological contexts (Table 14).
Table 14. Summary of Radiocarbon Database by Time Interval and Context.
TIME INTERVAL CAL BP NATURAL
CONTEXTS
% OF NATURAL
CONTEXTS
CULTURAL
CONTEXTS
% OF CULTURAL
CONTEXTS
TOTAL PER
INTERVAL
% PER
INTERVAL
Historical-Modern <150 25 1.6% 69 8.1% 94 3.9%
Latest Holocene 150-2000 404 26.2% 616 72.5% 1,020 42.7% Late Holocene 2,000-4000 196 12.7% 85 10.0% 281 11.8%
Middle Holocene 4000-7000 117 7.6% 55 6.5% 172 7.2%
Early Holocene 7000-11,500 339 22.0% 25 2.9% 364 15.2%
Latest Pleistocene 11,500-15,000 186 12.1% - - 186 7.8% Late Pleistocene 15,000-25,000 155 10.1% - - 155 6.5%
Older Pleistocene 25,000-1.9 million 119 7.7% - - 119 5.0% Grand Total 1,541 100.0% 850 100.0% 2,391 a 100.0%
Notes: Included are all dates from District 6/9 and selected dates from adjoining counties; a 50 dates from unknown or suspect contexts and 13 “modern” dates that could not be calibrated are not included.
Digital Soils Surveys
The depositional landform map was created from digital soil data obtained from the Natural Resource Conservation Service (2009a, 2009b) Soil Survey Geographic Database. The soil data occur in two formats known as the Soil Survey Geographic (SSURGO) Database and the State Soil Geographic (STATSGO) Database. The SSURGO-data are the most detailed, representing an exact duplication of the original soil surveys mapped at a 1:24,000 scale (NRCS 2009a). The state-wide STATSGO data are far more generalized and include areas where SSURGO-level soil surveys were not needed, or have not yet been conducted (NRCS 2009b). For example, soils in agriculturally fertile areas such as the San Joaquin Valley are mapped at the detailed SSURGOlevel, while those in less fertile areas such as the Mojave Desert and Sierra Nevada mountains are only mapped at the general STATSGO-level. For this reason, the spatial resolution of soils maps is generally better in lowland areas than in upland or desert regions. Though designed primarily for natural resource planning and management, SSURGO-level data have previously been used to develop reasonably detailed maps of depositional 592
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landforms, including those created for geoarchaeological sensitivity studies elsewhere in central California (Meyer and Rosenthal 2008; Rosenthal and Meyer 2004a, 2004b) and other states (Monaghan and Lovis 2005). The STATSGO data were only used for those portions of the Study Area where SSURGO data are not available.
Currently, nearly 16 million acres (68.3%) of the Study Area are covered by detailed SSURGO data (mainly the San Joaquin Valley), with more general STATSGO data covering over seven million acres (31.7%), mainly east of the Sierra crest. The combined SSURGO and STATSGO dataset for the Study Area includes 1,000 individual soil series, families, or complexes, corresponding to 53,923 mapped polygons (soil map units), with almost one-quarter-million (246,976) assigned attributes or components (Table 15).
Table 15. Summary of Digital Soil Survey Data and Coverage.
DIGITAL SOIL DATA
(RESOLUTION)
NO. OF SOIL
SERIES OR
MAP UNITS
NO. OF SOIL
SUB-TYPES
(PHASES)
NO. OF
POLYGONS
NO. OF RELATED
COMPONENTS
EXTENT
IN ACRES
PERCENT OF
TOTAL ACRES
SSURGO (detailed) 878 3,284 53,408 239,893 15,941,877 68.3% STATSGO (general) 122 n/a 515 7,083 7,407,428 31.7%
Totals 1,000 3,284 53,923 246,976 23,349,305 100.0%
Limitations of the Soils Surveys
To understand the limitations of the landform map, it is important to know a little about how data were gathered and constructed by the original soil surveys. First, natural boundaries between different soils are often indistinct and sometimes imperceptible, as soils are complex three-dimensional bodies that merge gradually with one another across a landscape. Soil surveyors make divisions between different soils based on a very limited number of field observations and test pits (Reed 2006:19). Since this is the way that most soil maps are constructed, a certain amount of error, imprecision, and uncertainty always built into soil series boundaries. Further, as mapped, individual soil series often contain some percentage of other soil types, either too small or too spatially complex to be differentiated at the 1:24,000 mapping scale. As a result, the relative accuracy of the map produced for this study is not enhanced by increasing the scale beyond 1:24,000.
Because soils in different portions of the Study Area were often mapped at different times by different people, using different methods and criteria, it was sometimes difficult or impossible to match comparable soil series and associated age groups across adjoining survey boundaries. These types of matching problems are evident at several locations within the SSURGO-level data, with an example from the San Joaquin Valley shown in Figure 58. It is also apparent that the level of detail and spatial resolution provided by earlier surveys is greater in some areas (i.e., northeast side of the San Joaquin Valley) than those surveyed more recently (i.e., western Fresno and Tulare counties). While some of these differences likely reflect variations in the training and knowledge of particular surveyors, it is also true that many of the indicators used to map soil types and their boundaries continue to be obscured or destroyed by artificial landscape modifications, such as repeated cultivation, land leveling, soil reclamation, and drainage. These processes have only increased over the years.
Mismatches also occur along boundaries between SSURGO and STATSGO datasets (Figure 58), which simply reflect differences in mapping resolution inherent to each.
No attempt was made to adjust the boundaries of existing soil polygons as mapped, including natural and artificial bodies of water (e.g., lakes and reservoirs). While the precision of map unit boundaries could be improved through stereoscopic comparisons of aerial photographs and topographic contours, this was not possible given the wide geographic scope of this study. Consequently, all map unit boundaries should be considered approximate, and the degree of spatial resolution is no better than the level of detail provided by the soils database. Because our map units are intended to emphasize temporal differences, and not depositional environments, multiple depositional environments may be represented in some map unit-age groups. Even so, obvious landform types (e.g., basins, channels fans, floodplains, and glacial deposits) can be recognized from the overall shape and location of map units. The general age, nature, and distribution of each map unit defined for this study are described in Table 16. Appendix C includes a detailed correlation of soil series, map unit designations, and buried site potential.
593
Kern River
Buena Vista Lake
South Fork Kern River
Cartago Creek
Walker Creek
Olancha Creek
Honeybee Creek
Haiwee
Reservoir
Olancha
Cartago
Summit Cree k
Haiwee Creek
Inyo County
Tulare County
0 2 4 Miles
0 2 4 Miles
Calders
Corner
Fruitvale
Gosford
Kern
City
Water
Artificial Cut and Fill
Historical and Modern
Latest Holocene
Latest Holocene Volcanic
Late Holocene
Holocene Volcanic (undivided)
Middle Holocene
Early Holocene
Early Holocene Volcanic
Latest Pleistocene
Late Pleistocene
Older Pleistocene
Pre-Quaternary
Highway
Haiwee
For greater resolution and visual clarity, please refer to GIS database. Mismatch Mismatch Mismatch Mismatch
Mismatch
Mismatch Area
Mismatch Area
Figure 58. Mapping Discrepancies within SSURGO soil data (top) and between SSURGO and STATSGO soils data (bottom).
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Table 16. Definitions of Landform Map Units.
MAP UNIT
(ABBREVIATION) CAL BP NATURE AND GEOMORPHOLOGY
SOIL PROFILE DEVELOPMENT
GENERAL DISTRIBUTION
IN STUDY AREA
Artificial Cut/Fill
(Hacf)
0-150 Created or modified by human
activity, such as canals, dams,
levees, mining debris, pits,
quarries, and urban areas
Often lacks soil development,
but varies greatly depending on
nature and setting
Relatively small areas distributed throughout
the Study Area.
Historical-Modern
(Hm)
0-150 Nearly level alluvial fans,
floodplains, lake beds, playas,
inset terraces, and channels
Very weakly developed A/C
profiles with no subsurface
horizons
Distributed locally in Study Area in or along
active channels, in canyons, and beds of
former lakes
Latest Holocene
(LtH)
150-
2000
Alluvial/colluvial fans, nearly
level floodplains, inset terraces,
some dunes and volcanic
deposits
Weakly developed A/C or
A/Cg profiles, few weak Bk or
Bw horizons
Distributed widely in valleys throughout the
Study Area, mainly found in the San Joaquin
Valley
Late Holocene
(LH)
2000-
4000
Alluvial/colluvial fans,
floodplains, inset terraces,
many dunes, some volcanic
deposits
Weakly medially developed
profiles, many with Bw
horizons, some with Bk and/or
Bss horizons
Distributed widely in valleys throughout Study
Area, mainly Owens and San Joaquin valleys
Middle Holocene
(MH)
4000-
7000
Alluvial/colluvial fans,
floodplains, inset terraces, and
some dunes
Medially developed profiles,
most with Bk and/or Bt
horizons (clay films often faint
and patchy), few Bn horizons
Surface distribution very limited in valleys,
most often buried, found at surface in parts of
Owens and Rose valleys
Early Holocene
(EH)
7000-
11,500
Alluvial/colluvial fans,
floodplains, inset terraces, and
some older lake beds, few
volcanic deposits
Medial- to well-developed
profiles, most with Bk and/or
Bt horizons (common, faint
clay films), many Bn horizons,
some with weakly cemented
silica horizon (Bq)
Surface distribution limited mainly to
abandoned lake beds in parts of Owens Valley,
distal fans in eastern San Joaquin Valley, and
fan in parts of Great Basin and Mojave Desert
(e.g., Death Valley, Antelope Valley)
Latest Pleistocene
(LtP)
11,500-
15,000
Alluvial fans and floodplains,
some glacial deposits and few
volcanic deposits with some
surface dissection
Well-developed profiles, most
with Bk, Bn and/or Bt
horizons (common, distinct
clay films), some with semicemented silica horizon (Bqm) Surface distribution limited exclusively to parts
of western San Joaquin Valley, such as
“Lethent fan” northwest of Tulare Lake
Late Pleistocene
(LP)
15,000-
25,000
Alluvial fans and floodplains,
common glacial deposits and
some volcanic deposits, most
with some surface dissection
Very well-developed profiles
with strong Bk, Bn, Bt and/or
Bqm horizons (many, distinct
clay films)
Surface distribution limited mainly to valley
margins, found in Owens Valley, eastern San
Joaquin Valley, and parts of Great Basin and
Mojave Desert (e.g., Antelope and Silurian
valleys); glacial deposits in upper parts of Sierra
Nevada and White Mountains, and along
western margins of Owens Valley and MonoLong valleys.
Older Pleistocene
(OP)
25,000-
1.9 my
Alluvial fans and floodplains,
common glacial deposits and
some volcanic deposits, all
with surface dissection, many
uplifted, and/or faulted
Extremely well-developed
profiles with very strong Bk,
Bn, Bt and/or Bqm horizons
(many, distinct, thick clay
films), often cemented and/or
semi-consolidated
Surface distribution limited mainly to valley
margins in Owens Valley, eastern and western
San Joaquin Valley, and parts of Great Basin
and Mojave Desert (e.g., Armargosa and
Antelope valleys); glacial deposits in upper
parts of Sierra Nevada and White Mountains,
and along western margins of Owens Valley
and Mono-Long valleys.
Pre-Quaternary
(pQ)
1.9 my
or more
Hills and mountains
composed of volcanic,
metamorphic, and
sedimentary rocks, most often
dissected, uplifted, and/or
faulted
Profiles vary greatly due to
erosion of most landforms,
from weakly developed to
extremely well developed, often
consolidated and/or wellcemented
Bedrock outcrops found mainly in the
Coast/Temblor Ranges, Transverse Ranges,
Sierra Nevada, White Mountains, and other
Great Basin ranges
Notes: Water (H20) map unit not described; my – million years. 595
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Map Development
Because specific soil types are typically associated with landforms of a similar age and depositional environment, soil series were used to define the aerial extent and chronological relationship of different landform groups. Once compiled, soil survey data were uploaded to a customized software interface where they were reviewed and coded. The degree of soil profile development provided by official soil descriptions was used to make initial age estimates for each soils series, while boundaries between each series were used to define contacts between soils of different ages. In addition to relative soil development, age assignments for particular soil series were further based on the geomorphic position of associated landforms, cross-cutting relationships, and degree and extent of erosional dissection.
Each radiocarbon date in the database was then linked to their associated soil series and cross-checked against initial age assignments for each soil type. When contradictions were found, soil series ages were sometimes adjusted based on the new radiocarbon information, and all map polygons associated with that soil series were recoded with the revised age. Soil series found to have similar degrees of horizon development and in similar landscape positions as dated soils were also re-evaluated and, if necessary, also re-assigned to the new age group.
After a series of these detailed comparisons, soil types of the same age were mapped in GIS using the SSURGO and STATSGO shape-files, with a simplified final version of the map shown in Figure 17.
Landform Map Limitations
As for any map, it is important to remember that the “map is not the territory.” The landform map is no exception since its precision and accuracy depend mainly on the criteria, scale, and data used in its construction.
In some desert areas, such as Death Valley and Panamint Valley, alluvial fans and floodplains are typically composed of different-age deposits with complex distributions that vary considerably over short distances. The ages and distributions of these landforms are over-generalized at the STATSGO level so that some include small areas of non-depositional landforms (e.g., pre-latest Pleistocene). The same applies to most mountainous areas, such as the upper Sierra Nevada, that are generally mapped as solely pre-Quaternary bedrock or pre-latest Pleistocene glacial deposits, even though many Holocene-age depositional landforms are present in these areas that are too small and localized to be mapped at the STATSGO scale. The landform map must, therefore, be used with the recognition that it is over-generalized in most settings.
For example, as shown in Table 17, upland landforms known to contain buried archaeological deposits include meadows, fans, footslopes, floodplains, inset terraces, and some bedrock hollows and hillslopes. Buried sites associated with older upland landforms include an early Holocene-age deposit and soil on a low-angle ridge spur at Sunset Point (TUL-1052) near Mountain Home (Dillon 1992), and middle and late Holocene culturaldeposits (TUO-2834) buried on a Pleistocene-age glacial moraine at Dana Meadows (Montague 1996).
Other examples include site MNO-3 along Snow Creek near Mammoth Lakes (Burton 1990) and site TUL-879 in Rockhouse Basin (Garfinkel et al. 1984), which have late or latest Holocene cultural deposits more than 1.1 meters (3.6 feet) below surface even though both are located on glacial deposits.
Table 17. Age and Buried Site Potential of Depositional Landforms in the Sierra Nevada (adapted from Meyer and Rosenthal 2008).
LANDFORM TYPE AGE RANGE
(CAL BP)
DESCRIPTION TYPICAL AGE OF
BURIED SOILS/SITES
Meadows 15,000-150 Usually found in basins with level or nearly level surfaces at elevations of more than 1,829 meters
(6,000 feet) above mean sea level.
Early, Middle, and Late
Holocene
Fans and Footslopes 15,000-400 Typically have gently sloping surfaces (~9 degrees or less) that occur at the base of slopes and in concave
landscape positions.
Early, Middle, and Late
Holocene
Floodplains and
Inset Terraces
4500-0 Usually form level or nearly level surfaces that are adjacent to modern stream or river channels
Middle and Late Holocene
Bedrock Hollows and
Low-Angle Hillslopes
Pre-Holocene
to 400
Includes broad low-angle benches at mid-slope
positions or nearly level ridges and nose slopes
Middle and Late Holocene
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Usual distinctions between depositional and non-depositional landforms are sometimes blurred and confounded in areas where Holocene-age deposits overlie older bedrock, or glacial deposits that are generally considered to be erosional. In the Sierra foothills near Sonora, for instance, buried Holocene-age soils and archaeological deposits were found on low-angle (~0.5 to 4.5 degrees) hill slopes underlain by granitic bedrock (Meyer 2008a; Meyer and Dalldorf 2004). These studies also determined that Holocene-age depositional landforms in the foothills tend to have concave surface topography and slopes of nine degrees or less, which likely applies to other upland areas in the Study Area.
LANDFORM AGE AND BURIED SITE POTENTIAL
Simply stated, there is generally an inverse relationship between landform-age and the potential for buried archaeological deposits. For example, archaeological deposits cannot be buried within landforms that developed prior to human colonization of North America (Rosenthal and Meyer 2004a, 2004b). Therefore, as a first step, landforms with the potential to contain buried sites must be distinguished from those that are too old to contain them, allowing older portions of the landscape to be confidently excluded from further consideration.
While this basic distinction addresses the potential for buried sites, the relative probability of locating a buried site depends largely on a more fine-grained distinction between the ages of different Holocene-age landforms.
For the purposes of this study, buried site potential was determined by two main assumptions: (1) archaeological deposits from each successive time period are more common because the density of human populations increased over time; and (2) the longer a landform remained at the surface, the greater the probability that any one spot on that landform was occupied. Thus, the potential for buried archaeological deposits is elevated when landforms are buried later in time.
For example, early Holocene surface landforms are considered to have a low potential for buried sites, not because such sites are absent, but simply because these landforms can only contain sites from the latest Pleistocene or earliest Holocene, a relatively short 2,000- to 3,000-year interval. In addition, human populations are thought to have been comparatively low during this time period. Thus, we assume a small number of sites were created by the region’s first inhabitants over a relatively brief period of time. Consequently, the probability of finding one of these sites within or below an early Holocene surface landform is reduced by these factors.
The relationship between time and archaeological potential can also be used to predict which landforms are likely to yield buried archaeological deposits from specific cultural periods, and which are not. For instance, latest Pleistocene to early Holocene surface landforms cannot contain buried sites from later cultural periods and, conversely, archaeological deposits from almost any cultural period may lie beneath latest Holocene-age surface landforms.
As depicted in Figure 17 and described in Table 16, 13 different landform units were identified and mapped throughout the Study Area, corresponding to nine different age groups (areas mapped as water are excluded). Based on the age and type of landform, five levels of buried site potential were associated with particular landform units and ranked from Very Low to High (Table 18). In keeping with the assumptions outlined above, latest Pleistocene-age or older landforms are ranked as having a Very Low potential for buried sites, while latest Holocene-age landforms are ranked as having a High potential. Based on the landform age criteria, the potential for buried sites is Low or Very Low in nearly three-fourths (74.4%) of the Study Area, and Moderate to High in only one-fourth (25.6%; Table 18).
Caltrans Right-of-Way
By adding a 10-meter- (32.8-foot-) wide right-of-way buffer along both sides of each Caltrans highway, the buried site potential of these roadways was evaluated (Appendix E). This assessment indicates that landform units with Very Low to Moderately Low buried site potential are associated with more than one-half of the total highway distance in the Study Area (n=14,695 linear acres, or 54%). In contrast, about one-third of the total highways traverse units with a High potential for buried resources (n=9,723 linear acres, or 35.7%), while only about 10 percent cross landforms with a Moderate buried site potential (n=2,810 linear
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Table 18. Buried Site Potential and Size of Landform Map Units in the Study Area.
WEIGHTED POTENTIAL (SCORE)
LANDFORM MAP UNIT VERY LOW
(-1,OR. 0)
LOW
(1)
MODERATELY
LOW (2)
MODERATE
(3)
HIGH
(4)
% OF TOTAL
ACRES
Water (H20) 142,563 - - - - 0.61%
Artificial Cut and Fill
(Hacf)
37,001 - - - - 0.16%
Historical and Modern
(Hm)
- 659,354 - - - 2.82%
Latest Holocene Volcanic
(LtHv)
- - - - 421,970 1.81%
Latest Holocene (LtH) - - - - 3,848,815 16.48%
Late Holocene (LH) - - - 1,318,099 - 5.65%
Holocene Volcanicundivided (Hvun) - - - 13,368 - 0.06% Middle Holocene (MH) - - 365,252 - - 1.56%
Early Holocene (EH) - 1,244,584 - - - 5.33%
Early Holocene Volcanic
(EHv)
- 17,189 - - - 0.07%
Latest Pleistocene (LtP) 521,561 - - - - 2.23%
Late Pleistocene (LP) 881,404 - - - - 3.77%
Older Pleistocene (OP) 2,243,131 - - - - 9.61%
Pre-Quaternary (pQ) 11,634,845 - - - - 49.83%
Total Acres 15,317,942 2,063,690 365,252 1,331,467 4,270,785 100.00% % of Total Acres 65.6% 8.8% 1.6% 5.7% 18.3%
Notes: 23,349,136 acres total.
acres, or 10.3%). Thus, the total length of roadways with low or moderate buried site potential is 18% less than the total with high potential, a difference that largely reflects the tendency for roads to be placed along paths of least topographic resistance (i.e., level valleys versus steep slopes).
ENVIRONMENTAL PARAMETERS AND BURIED SITE POTENTIAL
The age-based map provides a good basis for predicting which landforms may contain buried archaeological remains, and what cultural period(s) may be represented. It does not, however, explicitly account for other factors that likely determined the location of prehistoric sites. Consequently, buried site potential may be overestimated in some areas, and underestimated in others based on landform age alone.
Given the large extent of Holocene-age surface landforms in the Study Area (see Figure 17), buried site potential was further refined by including environmental parameters that attempt to account for human settlement decisions.
Archaeological deposits are not distributed randomly throughout the landscape, but tend to occur in specific geo-environmental settings (Foster and Sandlelin 2003:4; Hansen et al. 2004:5; Pilgram 1987; Rosenthal and Meyer 2004a). Detailed site prediction models are, ideally, constructed for areas where it is possible to account for most of the variables that may have made a specific location more favorable for human occupation than another, such as a single valley, lake basin, or drainage network (e.g., Allen et al. 1999; Rosenthal and Meyer 2004a). While such a model based on the complexities of human decision-making are well beyond the scope of this study, we did utilize two environmental variables to better identify areas with the highest potential to contain buried archaeological sites: distance to water and landform slope. These variables are consistent with previous analyses in the southern Sierra foothills, indicating that most prehistoric occupation sites are associated with level or nearly level landforms (<10-degree slope), occurring near stream confluences where at least one stream is perennial (Pilgram 1987:44-47). Furthermore, geoarchaeological 598
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studies conducted in the Sierra foothills near Sonora determined that Holocene-age depositional landforms tend to have surface slopes of nine degrees or less and often contain buried archaeological sites (Meyer 2008a; Meyer and Dalldorf 2004).
Distance to Water Sources and Degree of Slope
The relationship between site locations and environmental variables such as biotic zone, physiographic provenance, precipitation, soil productivity, stream order, and distance to water within District 6/9 were assessed using a GIS-based “weights of evidence analysis” (Bonham-Carter et al. 1989; see Appendix E-1 for a detailed discussion of the weights of evidence analysis). Artificial sources of water such as man-made canals, channels, ditches, lakes, ponds, and reservoirs were identified and excluded from further consideration to emphasize only prehistoric water sources. Similarly, since the lower reach of the Kern River channel was not established until the 1870s (Grunsky 1898a), it was excluded in favor of the pre-1870s river course as shown on historic-era maps.
This analysis revealed that prehistoric site locations in the Study Area are most strongly correlated with distance to the nearest water source, whether a lake, stream, or spring. It was also shown that sites tend to be located farther away from major lakes, streams, and rivers as compared to springs or small streams.
Based on this, the order of perennial streams (i.e., their size and number of upstream confluences) throughout the Study Area was ranked using the Horton-Strahler method (Horton 1945; Strahler 1952), and the distance to water modeled by progressively increasing the distance for larger order streams using a roughly logarithmic scale, as shown in Table 19.
Surface slopes over the entire Study Area were modeled in 90-meter (295 feet) grid cells using data from NASA Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission (Jarvis et al. 2008). The calculated results were analyzed using a simple binary model to identify those portions of the Study Area that have surface slopes of less than 10 degrees located within the prescribed distance to water as determined by stream order. Because weights of evidence analysis showed that distance to water is more important than slope in determining site locations, proximity to water was given greater weight than slope. Thus, areas with surface slopes of 10-degrees or less that are located near water have a greater potential for buried sites than areas of similar slope away from water (Table 19).
Table 19. Parameters Used to Model Slope and Distance to Water.
STREAM
ORDER
DEPENDENT DISTANCE
TO WATER (METERS)
PRESENCE OF
WATER SOURCE a
TYPE OF SURFACE SLOPE
(DEGREES)
1 100 <10° (yes) >10° (no)
2 250 <Distance (yes) 2 1
3 500 >Distance (no) -1 -2
4 750
5 1,000
6 2,500
7 5,000
8 7,500
9 or more 10,000
Notes: a
Water present or absent within dependent distance per stream order.
AN ENVIRONMENTAL MODEL OF BURIED SITE POTENTIAL
All portions of the Study Area were distinguished according to the two environmental criteria and the results merged with the landform-age map to develop a refined model of buried site potential. To arrive at an overall measure of buried site potential, scores generated by the environmental parameters were added to scores derived from the landform map as follows: distance to water/slope (ws) plus map score (ms) equals the overall score (ws + ms = os). For example, to calculate the score for areas with surface slopes greater than 10 degrees that are not near water, and associated with pre-Quaternary surface deposits, the slope and distance to 599
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water score of -2 was added to the pre-Quaternary score of -1 for an overall score of -3, or Very Low.
Conversely, areas with surface slopes of 10 degrees or less, which are near water, and associated with latest Holocene surface deposits, were calculated by adding the slope and distance to water score of 2 to the latest Holocene score of 4, for an overall score of 6, or Very High. The scoring system and possible scoring combinations are summarized in Table 20.
Table 20. Buried Site Potential Scoring System and Possible Score Combinations.
COMBINED SURFACE SLOPE AND DISTANCE TO
WATER (WEIGHTS) AND LANDFORM WEIGHTS LANDFORM UNIT
(WEIGHT)
(WT. -2) (WT. -1) (WT. 1) (WT. 2)
OVERALL SCORE AND
BURIED SITE POTENTIAL
Water (0) -2 -1 1 2 6 - Very High
Artificial Cut/Fill (-1) -3 -2 0 1 5 - High
Historical-Modern (1) -1 0 2 3 4 - Moderately High
Latest Holocene (4) 2 3 5 6 3 - Moderate
Late Holocene (3) 1 2 4 5 2 - Moderately Low
Middle Holocene (2) 0 1 3 4 1 - Low
Early Holocene (1) -1 0 2 3 0 to -3 - Very Low
Latest Pleistocene (0) -2 -1 1 2
>Late Pleistocene (-1) -3 -2 0 1
Slope/Water Trends (>slope/<water) (<slope/>water)
Notes: Moderate to Very High scores in bold and shaded cells.
While the environmental predictive model itself does not alter or decrease a landform’s “geologic potential” to contain buried sites, it does provide a rationale to further define and delimit areas with the greatest likelihood for buried sites within each of the landform map units. In doing so, the predictive model focuses attention on particular portions of sensitive landform units, while deemphasizing other parts of the same units.
Comparison of Buried Site Potential Using Landform Age and Environmental Parameters The landform map alone identifies more than 4.2 million acres (~18 %) of the Study Area as having a High potential for buried sites. The landform map combined with variables of slope and distance to water identifies just 2.8 million acres (~12% of Study Area) as having High or greater potential for buried sites, which reduces the sensitive area by about 1.4 million acres (~6 %; Table 21).
Table 21. Comparison Buried Site Potential Scores, and Area Covered.
VERY LOW, LOW, AND
MODERATELY LOW
% OF
TOTAL
MODERATE
% OF
TOTAL
MODERATELY HIGH,
HIGH, AND VERY HIGH
% OF
TOTAL
Landform Map (acres) 17,746,884 76.01% 1,331,467 5.70% 4,270,785 18.29% Predictive Model (acres) 17,734,342 75.95% 2,793,642 11.96% 2,821,152 12.08% Model minus Map (acres) (12,542) (0.05%) 1,462,175 6.26% (1,449,633) (6.21%) Notes: Values in bold indicate a net increase, and those in (parentheses) indicate a net decrease, in area compared to the landform map assignment.
The environmental model also identifies some areas ranked as Moderate or lower potential by the landform map as having a slightly higher potential for buried sites. While this results in a net change in the buried site potential for only about 12,500 acres (less than 0.05%) of the overall Study Area (Table 21), specific map units show more significant changes (Table 22). For example, the buried site potential of some areas associated with early Holocene landforms shifts from Low to Moderately Low or Moderate, and the potential of some areas associated with middle Holocene landforms shifts from Low to Moderately Low or High. The landform map units, buried site potential scores, and area covered by each are summarized in Figure 59 and in Table 22. 600
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Geoarchaeological Study Table 22. Buried Site Potential and Area Covered by Landform Map Units. ——VERY LOW (0, -1, -2, -3)—— LOW MOD. LOW MOD. MOD. HIGH
HIGH VERY
HIGH
MAP
UNIT
-3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
TOTAL
ACRES
% OF
ACRES
Water (H20) - (570.4) (63,365.2) - 4,025.1 74,601.9 - - - - 142,562.7 0.6% Artificial Cut and Fill (Hacf)
(4,437.4) (15,864.3) - 1,557.2 15,141.8 - - - - - 37,000.7 0.2% Historical and Modern (Hm)
- - (2,469.9) (393,599.5) - 15,880.3 247,404.0 - - - 659,353.8 2.8% Latest Holocene (LtH)
- - - - - (45,123.0) (135,683.3) - 26,108.3 215,054.9 421,969.5 1.8% Latest Holocene Volcanic (LtHv)
- - - - - (14,353.1) (1,935,200.1) - 19,705.3 1,879,556.9 3,848,815.5 16.5% Late Holocene (LH) - - - - (26,804.8) (757,552.0) - 6,823.3 526,919.0 - 1,318,099.1 5.6% Holocene Volcanicundivided (Hvun) - - - - (5,570.3) (2,013.6) - 4,223.3 1,561.2 - 13,368.4 0.1% Middle Holocene (MH) - - - (4,741.7) (216,049.7) - 3,260.5 141,199.6 - - 365,251.5 1.6% Early Holocene (EH) - - (33,421.9) (724,896.7) - 16,274.6 469,990.8 - - - 1,244,584.1 5.3% Early Holocene Volcanic (EHv)
- - (6,409.0) (7,427.8) - 1,249.0 2,103.6 - - - 17,189.3 0.1% Latest Pleistocene (LtP)
- (164.1) (278,550.2) - 128.1 242,718.4 - - - - 521,560.8 2.2% Late Pleistocene (LP) (134,658.5) (399,798.3) - 52,712.9 294,234.4 - - - - - 881,404.2 3.8% Older Pleistocene (OP) 119,136.5 1,380,249.4 - 59,258.0 684,487.3 - - - - - 2,243,131.2 9.6% Pre-Quaternary (pQ) 5,814,375.2 2,642,409.1 - 1,905,020.7 1,273,040.2 - - - - - 11,634,845.2 49.8% Total Acres 6,072,607.7 4,439,055.7 384,216.2 3,149,214.5 2,519,481.7 1,169,766.0 2,793,642.5 152,246.2 574,293.8 2,094,611.9 23,349,136.0 100.0% % of Acres 26.0% 19.0% 1.6% 13.5% 10.8% 5.0% 12.0 % 0.7% 2.5% 9.0% 100.00% Cumulative % (R-L) 100% 74.0% 55.0% 53.3% 39.8% 29.1% 24.0% 12.1% 11.4% 9.0%Notes: Values in bold italics indicate an increase, and those in (parentheses) indicate a decrease, in potential compared to the landform map assignment; Mod – Moderate. 601
-932
3732
-2799 -3,000
-2,000-1,000
0 1,0002,0003,0004,000
Very Low to Moderately Low Moderate Moderately High to Very High Predicted Buried Site Potential
11339
2587
770
2811
0 9723
0 8151
3705
1907
6543
445
1167
5312
0 1,0002,0003,0004,0005,0006,0007,0008,0009,000
10,000
11,000
12,000
Very Low Low Moderately Low Moderate Moderately
High
High Very High
Predicted Buried Site Potential
Model AcresMap Acres
Figure 59. Extent of Buried Site Potential Based on the Landform Map Compared to the Predictive Model.
Transportation Enhancement Activities Program
California Department of Transportation, District 6/9
Geoarchaeological Study
Far Western 144
Area in Acres (Landform Map vs Predictive Model) Area in Acres 602
Transportation Enhancement Activities Program 145 Far Western California Department of Transportation, District 6/9
Geoarchaeological Study
Caltrans Right-of-Way
To evaluate how the environmental parameters effect the overall buried site potential within Caltransowned right-of-way, the extent of each sensitivity level was calculated along each road alignment, (as shown in Appendix E), again with a 10-meter- (32.8-foot-) wide right-of-way buffer. When the two environmental parameters are added to the landform map, the resulting model estimates that the potential for buried resources is Very Low to Moderately Low along about 50.5 percent of all roadways (n=13,761 acres), compared to 54 percent estimated by the landform map alone; a reduction of about 3.5% or 932.3 acres overall (Table 23). About onefourth of the total roadways (n=6,923 acres, or 25.4%) have a Moderately High to Very High buried site potential with the inclusion of environmental parameters, compared to 35.7 percent based on just the landform map; a reduction of more than 10 percent or about 2,800 acres total. These reductions are contrasted by a 13.7 percent (3,731.7 acres) increase in the amount of area estimated to have a Moderate buried site potential (about 24% or 6,542.5 acres). Thus, adding environmental parameters suggests buried potential is Moderate or lower along more roadway segments (74.5%) than estimates based on the landform map alone (64.3%).
Table 23. Buried Site Potential of Landform Map Compared to Environmental Parameters along all Roadways in District 6/9.
BURIED SITE
POTENTIAL
LANDFORM
MAP ACRES
% MAP
ACRES
ENVIRONMENT
ACRES
% ENVIRONMENT
ACRES
ENVIRONMENT VS.
MAP ACRES
ENVIRONMENT VS.
MAP % ACRES
Very High 0 0 5,312.1 19.5% 0.0 0.0%
High 9,723.3 35.7% 1,166.8 4.3% -8,556.5 -31.4%
Moderately High 0 0 445.2 1.6% 0.0 0.0%
MODERATELY HIGH TO
VERY HIGH TOTAL
9,723.3 35.7% 6,924.0 25.4% -2,799.3 -10.3%
MODERATE TOTAL 2,810.8 10.3% 6,542.5 24.0% 3,731.7 13.7% Moderately Low 769.7 2.8% 1,907.4 7.0% 1,137.7 4.2%
Low 2,587.0 9.5% 3,705.1 13.6% 1,118.1 4.1%
Very Low 11,339.1 41.6% 8,151.0 29.9% -3,188.1 -11.7%
VERY LOW TO
MODERATELY LOW TOTAL
14,695.8 54.0% 13,763.5 50.6% -932.3 -3.4%
Roads with the greatest number of acres identified as having a Very Low to Moderately Low buried site potential account for nearly 2,600 acres, or about 9.5 percent of all roadways (Table 24). Those with the most acres of Moderately High to Very High buried site potential make up a little more than 2,000 acres, or about 7.5 percent of all roadways (Table 24). There is a Very Low to Moderately Low potential along 21 other roads that cover between about 110 and 303 acres each, and a Moderately High to Very High potential along 21 roads that cover between about 100 and 272 acres each (Appendix E). State Route KER-58 has some of the longest segments of both reduced and high potential of any roadway within District 6/9.
Overall, environmental parameters plus landform age estimates that the potential for buried sites is Moderately Low or less in the majority (~75%) of the Study Area (see Figure 59), and along more than half of the roadways (54%). At the same time, there is a Very High buried site potential in about nine percent of the Study Area, and along nearly 20 percent of the roadways, suggesting that only about one-fifth of the roadways may require the greatest level of scrutiny. By focusing attention on where buried sites are most likely to occur, the model can help narrow the size of the area that needs to be searched for potentially buried sites, thus increasing the likelihood that buried sites will be identified while reducing the amount of time and effort needed to do so. 603
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Table 24. Roadways with the Greatest Linear Extent of Reduced or Elevated Buried Site Potential Based on Environmental Parameters.
VERY LOW TO MODERATELY LOW MODERATELY HIGH TO VERY HIGH
STATE ROUTE
ACRES % ALL ROADS ACRES % ALL ROADS
FRE-168 419 1.5% - -
FRE-180 584 2.1% - -
INY-190 443 1.6% - -
INY-395 - - 619 2.3%
MNO-395 437 1.6% - -
KER-5 - - 457 1.7%
KER-14 - - 302 1.1%
KER-58 717 2.6% 386 1.4%
KER-99 - - 291 1.1%
Grand Total 2,600 9.5% 2,055 7.5%
ESTIMATING BURIED SITE POTENTIAL: LIMITATIONS, PERFORMANCE, AND USE Before selecting any single approach to address the buried site potential of an area, one should first consider the general accuracy and practical limitations of the landform-age map and environmental model based on that map. It should be kept in mind that the map and model were designed to function as general planning tools that allow for relatively quick assessments of buried site potential at the scale of single landforms or entire landscapes. While the map should be relatively accurate in identifying areas most likely to contain buried archaeological resources, neither it nor the model are designed to pin-point exactly where, within those landforms, buried sites will be found, because there are simply too many unknown and unknowable factors.
As a consequence, the age and extent of the landforms depicted in Figure 17 and the estimated buried site potential modeled in Figure 60 should only serve as an initial guide for planners, managers, and archaeologists. The following section examines the primary limitations of the map, and provides a preliminary evaluation of the model’s accuracy, to help illustrate how they should and should not be used in the Study Area.
Limitations of Environmental Parameters
The overall utility and predictive power of the environmental model are undoubtedly affected by some obvious and, perhaps, not-so-obvious limitations that should be kept in mind. First and foremost, the environmental model shares the same inherent limitations as the landform map from which it is derived.
Although the model attempts to compensate for some of the map’s limitations by considering surface slope and distance to water, it does not change the predictions based on landform age. By emphasizing or de-emphasizing the variables considered most relevant for predicting specific site locations, the environmental model is at best an enhanced or extended version of the landform map, and should be viewed as such.
The spatial resolution of the environmental model is further limited by the size of the 90-x-90-meter (~295-x-295-foot), grid cells used to determine the degree of surface slope throughout the Study Area. Thus, the model does not convey all the actual variability of surface slopes or variations in buried site potential associated with differences in slope, overestimating it in some areas and underestimating it in others.
The model does not explicitly account for possible relationships between altitude, aspect, vegetation cover, and seasonal temperature variations on the distribution of human settlements as a function of metabolic (caloric) costs. While some metabolic cost functions may be embedded in the model’s use of surface slopes (i.e., steep slopes less sensitive than gentle slopes), the model may overestimate the buried site potential in areas that tend to be cooler (i.e., high-altitudes and north-facing slopes) and/or areas that lack protective vegetation cover (i.e., arid plateaus and high-altitudes).
604
KIN-80
KER-501
KER-490
INY-182
INY-372
INY-444
KER-116
FRE-257
MNO-574
MNO-891
INY-5084
KER-2378
INY-1991
KER-3939
INY-5875
INY-5761
INY-5281
INY-5276
TUL-1052
KER-3085
KER-1627
FRE-2365
INY-5273/H
INY-1384/H
Riverdale Man
Little Lake Site
Los Gatos Creek
Deep Springs Valley Site
Owens Valley, Hearth Gully
INY-5873/H
INY-5877
INY-5967
INY-6021
KER-500 Dea
ht Val el y
N
e
v
a
d
a
N
e
v
a
d
a
White Mountains
Madera
Fresno
Visalia
Hanford
Bridgeport
Bakersfield
Independence
Buried Site
Sensitivity For Buried Sites (Model Weight)
Very Low (less than 1)Low (1)Moderately Low (2)Moderate (3)Moderately High (4)High (5)Very High (6) Kilometers
Miles
0 25 50 75 100
0 10 20 30 40
Note Regarding Sensitivity: The potential for buried archaeological resources depicted on this map is based on the distribution and age of geological deposits present at the modern ground surface, distance to water, and landform slope.
Compiled from Soil Survey Geographic Database and U.S. General Soil Mapcoverages produced by the Natural Resource Conservation Service.
See Appendix G, GIS Database, and Fold-out Map in back Pocket for Higher Resolution.
Figure 60. Buried Site Potential Model for District 6/9 with Distribution of Known Buried Sites.
Transportation Enhancement Activities Program
California Department of Transportation, District 6/9
Geoarchaeological Study
147 Far Western
•
II
605
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Because the distance to water criterion is based on the modern configuration of the landscape, it does not explicitly account for long-term changes in the position of stream and river channels. The present course of the lower Kern River represents one such example, as it was not established until sometime in the 1870s (Grunsky 1898b). Similarly, segments of many historic-era streams and rivers have been artificially straightened for purposes of flood control and other land-use changes. Since prehistoric streams and rivers did not always follow the same courses they do today, the locations of some prehistoric sites are not related to the position of currently active channels, but are instead related to the position of formerly active channels. Some areas with no visible evidence of a channel may actually have more potential to contain buried sites than an area located near a present day channel. Consequently, working assumptions about site locations and the distance to water must be viewed with caution, as present channel positions are not always reliable indicators of where prehistoric sites may be located.
Further, stream and river courses are often not conducive to the burial or preservation of archaeological deposits because they are generally zones of intense erosion and alluvial reworking while active.
When channels become inactive they tend to quickly fill with sediments during floods, or become marshy or wetland areas (i.e., abandoned slough, cutoff meander, or oxbow lake) that are themselves unattractive settings for human settlement. In either case, abandoned channels usually do not contain any buried soils or archaeological sites because they are relatively unstable features of the landscape. This is clearly the case in areas where segments of historic-era stream or river channels were filled with relatively recent sediments, or were abandoned by artificial straightening of the channel. This is why the buried site potential of areas mapped as being Historic to Modern in age is judged to be no more than Moderate (see Table 22).
Given these imperfections, the environmental model cannot be expected to always provide accurate predictions of buried site potential, as there will undoubtedly be some misassignments, especially if no further thought, effort, or discretion is used in its application. If acknowledged and tested, however, many of these limitations may be overcome by adapting and revising the model’s parameters to suit specific areas.
Testing the Landform Map and Environmental Model
While at least 34 radiocarbon-dated buried sites are located in a variety of settings throughout the Study Area (see Figure 60, Appendix F), few if any of these were identified as part of systematic geoarcheological investigations. A tabulation of the expected buried site potential at these site locations indicates more than 40 percent are situated in areas of Very High potential, while one-half (n=17, or 50%) are in the combined areas of High and Very High potential (Table 25). Almost two-thirds (~62%) of these sites fall within areas of Moderately High or greater potential, and almost 80 percent (~79%) occur within areas where the potential is Moderate or higher. Therefore, only about one-fifth (n=7, or ~21%) of the known buried sites fall within areas identified by the environmental model as having Moderately Low to Very Low buried site potential (Table 25).
However, two sites (INY-0182, Stahl Site and INY-5084, Burro Canyon) falling in the Low potential area, occur where landform age assignments are based on the general STATSGO soil data. The poor resolution of these data may explain the underestimated potential of these site areas. By excluding these two sites, the model correctly places nearly two-thirds (n=21, or 65.6%) of the 32 remaining buried sites in areas of elevated potential (i.e., Moderately High or greater), and almost 85 percent in areas with Moderate or greater potential. The presence of the other five buried sites in locations predicted to have Moderately Low to Very Low potential, may be related to the resolution of the SSURGO mapping, as these sites are in upland areas (e.g., TUL-1052) or eastern California, where depositional landforms tend to be heterogeneous and difficult to map in detail.
To further assess if the environmental model works better or worse than “pure chance,” a Monte Carlo simulation (computer algorithm) was used to select sites at random 34 times from the approximately 1,500 sites identified by the District 6/9 TEA rural road surveys. After one hundred iterations, this process generated arandom sample of 3,400 sites that approximate an “expected by-chance” distribution. Table 26 summarizes the results of the simulation, and compares the predicted buried site potential at locations with buried sites to the predicted potential at sites identified in the random sample.
This table shows that the model outperforms the random sample in each category of elevated potential by margins 2.3 to 22.5 percent, and in two of the three categories of reduced potential by margins of 9.1 to 24.7 607
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Table 25. Buried Site Potential Identified by Environmental Model at Known Buried Sites.
BURIED SITE POTENTIAL (MAP AND MODEL SCORE COMBINED)
COUNTY, SITE, OR LOCATION VERY HIGH
(6)
HIGH
(5)
MOD. HIGH
(4)
MODERATE
(3)
MOD. LOW
(2)
LOW
(1)
VERY LOW
(0)
Fremont, Los Gatos Creek Site 1 - - - - - -
Fremont, Riverdale Man 1 - - - - - -
FRE-0257, Arroyo Hondo 1 - - - - - -
FRE-2365, Panoche Creek 1 - - - - - -
Inyo, Deep Springs Valley Site a1
a
- - - - - -
INY-0444, Ray Cave 1 - - - - - -
INY-1991, Olanche/Cartago 1 - - - - - -
INY-5967, Olanche/Cartago 1 - - - - - -
INY-6021, Olanche/Cartago 1 - - - - - -
KER-0116, Buena Vista Lake 1 - - - - - -
KER-3085, Elk Hills 1 - - - - - -
KER-3939, Clark Wash 1 - - - - - -
KIN-80, Tulare Basin 1 - - - - - -
MNO-0891, Walker Creek 1 - - - - - -
Inyo, Owens Valley, Hearth Gully - 1 - - - - -
INY-5273/H - 1 - - - - -
INY-5276 - 1 - - - - -
INY, Little Lake Site a
- - 1
a
- - - -
INY-0372, Rose Spring a - - 1 a - - - -
INY-5281 - - 1 - - - -
INY-5875 - - 1 - - - -
INY-5761, Independence - - - 1 - - -
KER-490, Rogers Lake - - - 1 - - -
KER-500, Rogers Lake - - - 1 - - -
KER-501, Rogers Lake - - - 1 - - -
KER-1627 - - - 1 - - -
MNO-0574 - - - 1 - - -
INY-1384/H - - - - 1 - -
INY-0182, Stahl Site a - - - - - 1
a
-
INY-5084, Burro Canyon - - - - - 1 a
-
INY-5873/H - - - - - 1 -
INY-5877 - - - - - 1 -
KER-2378, Rogers Lake - - - - - 1 -
TUL-1052, Sunset Point - - - - - - 1
Grand Total (n=34) 14 3 4 6 1 5 1
Percent of Total 41.2% 8.8% 11.8% 17.6% 2.9% 14.7% 2.9% Cumulative Percent (L to R) 41.2% 50.0% 61.8% 79.4% 82.3% 97.0% 100.0% Notes: See Figure 60 for location and Appendix F for additional information on these buried sites; a Site in STATSGO area.
percent (Table 26). In the categories of Moderate and Moderately Low potential, however, the model and random sample are nearly identical, suggesting the model’s predictive value may be no better than chance in these areas. The model is most predictive within the opposing categories of Very High and Very Low potential, and is generally reliable in predicting areas of elevated or reduced potential overall (see upper chart of Figure 61).
Next, a chi-square test was applied to determine if the predicted potentials at the 34 actual buried sites are similar to those of the random sample (i.e., accept null hypothesis), or whether they are different and statistically independent (i.e., reject null hypothesis). This test yields a probability value of less than zero (<0.001) 608
Transportation Enhancement Activities Program 151 Far Western California Department of Transportation, District 6/9
Geoarchaeological Study
Table 26. Predicted Buried Site Potential at Actual Buried Sites Compared to Random Sample.
PREDICTED BURIED
SITE POTENTIAL
ACTUAL
BURIED SITES
RANDOM
SAMPLE
% TOTAL
ACTUAL
% TOTAL
RANDOM
% ACTUAL
MINUS RANDOM
PREDICTIVE
VALUE
Very High 14 635 41.2% 18.7% 22.5% positive
High 3 221 8.8% 6.5% 2.3% positive
Moderately High 4 105 11.8% 3.1% 8.7% positive
Moderate 6 607 17.6% 17.9% -0.2% neutral
Moderately Low 1 84 2.9% 2.5% 0.5% neutral
Low 5 809 14.7% 23.8% -9.1% positive
Very Low 1 939 2.9% 27.6% -24.7% positive
Totals 34 3,400 100.0% 100.0% 0.0%
which is significantly less than the 0.05 value commonly considered as the critical threshold to reject the null hypothesis. This confirms that the environmental model as a whole operates independently of chance.
But how much better does the environmental model perform overall? If the chance of finding a buried site at random is assumed to be about “fifty-fifty” (a very generous estimate, given that only a small percentage of known sites in the study area are buried), then the model’s performance can be measured against this baseline. Compared to this, the model is at least 18.6 percent better at predicting areas of elevated potential, and at least 24 percent better at predicting areas of Low or Very Low potential (see lower chart of Figure 61). Despite the many limitations outlined above, these results demonstrate that the model can and does predict where buried sites tend to occur with greater accuracy and reliability than random chance.
Confident that it performs as designed and intended, the practical aspects of using the model to identify and sample buried sites is outlined in the following chapter (Chapter 7). 609
61.8%
17.6%
20.6%
28.3%
17.9%
53.9%
0%
10%20%30%40%50%60%70%
Very High to Moderately High Moderate and Moderately Low Low and Very Low Predicted Buried Site Potential
Actual Buried Sites Random Sample
68.6%
26.0%
31.4%
50.0%
74.0%
50.0%
0%
10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%
100%
Very High to Moderately High Moderate and Moderately Low Low and Very Low t Predicted Buried Site Potential
Actual Buried Sites Random Sample
Figure 61. Predicted Potential for Buried Sites at Actual Buried Sites (observed) Compared to Random Sample of Sites in District 6/9.
Transportation Enhancement Activities Program
California Department of Transportation, District 6/9
Geoarchaeological Study
Far Western 152
Percent of Sites Percent of Sites
610
Transportation Enhancement Activities Program 153 Far Western California Department of Transportation, District 6/9
Geoarchaeological Study
CHAPTER 7. APPROACHES FOR IDENTIFYING AND SAMPLING BURIED SITES The current overview and mapping effort represents an initial attempt to identify areas with elevated and reduced potentials for buried archaeological deposits useful for planners, resource managers, and archaeologists.
To know where buried sites are likely or unlikely to occur, it is first necessary to understand the age, nature, and extent of depositional landforms. In this regard, the landform map (see Figure 17) should serve as a useful starting point for resource managers who need to evaluate buried site potential as part of preliminary planning and budgeting scenarios where the Area of Potential Effects (APE) and/or Area of Direct Impact (ADI) of a proposed project cannot yet be fully defined (e.g., large or linear areas with multiple alternatives). Since the vertical and horizontal extents of earth disturbances are equally important for considering possible impacts to potentially buried sites, the vertical dimension (i.e., depth) of an APE/ADI must also be defined. Once a three-dimensional APE is defined and the ADI known, the environmental model (see Figure 60) should be used to assess the buried site potential of areas where specific earth-disturbing activities are proposed, because it also considers the factors of surface slope and distance to water that are more localized.
When evaluating the need for additional archaeological studies or fieldwork, the crucial questions become: (1) what is the potential for buried sites within a project area?; and (2) is there reason to think that proposed project activities could impact buried sites? Generally speaking, projects that cross or are located within younger depositional landforms (i.e., late and latest Holocene) will usually need some further work because these landforms tend to have the greatest likelihood of containing buried archaeological sites. Conversely, no further work may be needed or warranted for projects that cross or are located within older (i.e., pre-Holocene) or nondepositional (e.g., most bedrock slopes) landforms, because they generally have the lowest potential for buried sites. Thus, depending on the nature and scope of a proposed project, areas of Moderately High through Very High potential may often require additional attention, perhaps leading to more focused geoarchaeological studies.
These might include additional archival background research, field checking and examinations, subsurface explorations (e.g., trenching or coring), or more detailed modeling efforts.
Upland regions, such as the Sierra Nevada, White Mountains, and Coast and Transverse ranges, cannot be simply evaluated using landform age or the buried site potential model. The heterogeneity of these upland landscapes, combined with a lack of detailed soil and Quaternary maps, mandate that buried site potential be considered more carefully on a project-by-project basis. The types of potentially sensitive landforms listed in Table 17 should serve as a general guide, leading to more focused geoarchaeological studies in these contexts.
However, because buried archaeological sites have been discovered in a number of landform contexts in the Sierra, including some hillslope positions, it is difficult at this point to predict precisely where such deposits will be found, beyond the general types of landforms noted. In these areas, it may be necessary to consult additional sources of information and conduct field inspections to determine if sensitive landforms are present. The predictive model developed for this study may prove useful for considering other important factors (i.e., slope and water) in these upland settings (see Figure 60). At the same time, whether sites are buried or at the surface, the value of personal insight, intuition, and understanding of a place or project area for predicting the locations of archaeological sites should not be underestimated.
SURVEY STRATEGIES AND SAMPLING METHODS
This section provides practical suggestions for how to implement the predictive model, and how a landscape approach can be used to guide archaeological research and field methods within the confines of compliance-based archaeology. It is hoped these suggestions will assist in the design of field strategies that are more efficient, and in the selection and use of methods that are more effective for identifying buried sites.
Phase I Survey
Because buried sites typically lack visible or obtrusive features that would indicate their presence to an observer in the field, most are not found by conventional pedestrian surface surveys (Bettis 1992:120). If it is accepted that buried sites “are probably always underrepresented in survey samples” (Nance 1983:349), then the 611
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difficulty of locating these sites can be treated as a fundamental sampling problem that can be addressed by studies at the inventory and research design phases (McManamon 1984). Consequently, surface surveys are generally more efficient and effective in identifying sites, whether buried or not, when they are designed and executed with these expectations in mind.
For example, the landform map can be used to determine what parts of a survey area are composed of old non-depositional landforms and what parts contain young, depositional landforms (see Figure 17). More survey time and effort is often justified on the old non-depositional landforms because they are more likely to have surface sites. At the same time, since younger depositional landforms are more likely to contain buried sites, the amount of surface survey can sometimes be reduced with the focus placed on the examination of any subsurface exposures (e.g., cutbanks, roadcuts) instead. Due to these factors, shallow shovel test pits will usually be an appropriate and effective method for identifying sites at or near the surface of old, non-depositional landforms, but are comparatively inappropriate and ineffective for identifying sites that may be buried in depositional settings.
Phase I Extended “Subsurface” Survey
Before buried sites can be avoided, sampled, or otherwise “managed,” they must first be identified. Early identification of buried sites is particularly important for transportation projects, which can suffer significant delays and incur unexpected costs if a buried site is discovered “late” in the design or construction phases. Thus to help insure that project schedules (critical path) and budgets are not inadvertently affected by late archaeological discoveries, it may be crucial that some type of subsurface exploration is conducted in areas where there is a reasonable potential that buried cultural resources are present and may be disturbed. When designed and conducted in an informed fashion, subsurface explorations help satisfy the Section 106 requirement that “a reasonable and good faith effort to carry out appropriate identification efforts” is made [800.4(b)(1)].
Subsurface surveys or explorations for buried archaeological sites have become an important part of the initial identification process in California and elsewhere across the country (Monaghan et al. 2006). The ability to locate buried sites in a given project area depends on whether or not appropriate methods are properly used to explore sensitive landforms. Independent testing of exploratory methods such as backhoe trenching, coring and auguring, and geophysical survey (resistivity, magnetometry, and ground-penetrating radar) has found that backhoe trenching is the most effective way to identify buried archaeological sites (Monaghan et al. 2006; Monaghan and Lovis 2005). This is reinforced by the authors’ experience working throughout California. Coring or auguring, however, may be the only practical method in some locations—such as urban or wetland settings, or areas where Holocene-age deposits exceed the depth (thickness) accessible with a backhoe or excavator (about 4.5-
7.3 meters [15-24 feet], respectively). Consequently, the selection of an appropriate sampling method will likely depend on the nature and extent of earth disturbances (i.e., horizontal and vertical area of potential effects) proposed in specific portions of a project area. But just how deep can we expect sites to be buried? The age and depth of 367 radiocarbon-dated samples from buried natural and cultural deposits provide some indication of the depths at which sites of different ages may be buried. While there is considerable variability in the age and depth of these samples, they follow an overall trend of greater depth with increasing age, with natural deposits being slightly deeper than cultural deposits of the same age (Figure 62). Based on this, most of the natural deposits and all but one of the known buried sites appear to occur at depths of about 4.5 meters (~15 feet) or less, coincident with the maximum depth normally reached using a backhoe.
An interesting exception occurs among some middle Holocene samples which, along with the Los Gatos Creek site, form a perceptible cluster between about 6.5 to 13 meters (~21 to 42 feet) in depth (Figure 62).
Further comparisons reveal that the mean depth of all middle Holocene-age contexts (3.74 meters, or ~12.3 feet) is greater than that for any major time period (Table 27). At only about 2.6 meters (~8.5 feet), the mean depth of early Holocene-age deposits is 1.15 meters (~3.8 feet) less than the middle Holocene, thus running counter to what one might expect if a simple time-depth model is assumed. This provides further evidence that middle Holocene-age deposits are not missing but were often formed in low-lying landscape positions that are now deeply buried along with any associated cultural deposits. 612
Latest Pleistocene
Middle
Holocene
Cluster
Late
Holocene Early Holocene
Latest
Holocene
cal years BP (median probability)
Surface Cultural Surface Natural Buried CulturalBuried Natural Buried Naltural - linear trend 0 100200300400500600700800900
1,0001,1001,2001,3001,400
01000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000 9000 10,000 11,000 12,000 13,000 14,000 15,000 Depth
in
Centimeters
Buried Cultural - linear trend
Notes: Dates from lacustrine and marsh deposit excluded.
Figure 62. Comparison of the Age and Depth of Buried Natural and Cultural Contexts.
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Table 27. Depth of Buried Radiocarbon Samples by Time Period.
DESCRIPTION
LATEST
PLEISTOCENE
EARLY
HOLOCENE
MIDDLE
HOLOCENE
LATE
HOLOCENE
LATEST
HOLOCENE
Mean Depth (meters) 3.69 2.59 3.74 2.48 1.54
Minimum Depth (meters) 0.75 0.28 0.35 0.43 0.18
Maximum Depth (meters) 13.60 10.45 13.00 10.85 9.75
Sample Count (n=367) 19 64 66 85 133
Mean Depth Compared
to Middle Holocene (meters)
-0.5 -1.15 0 -1.26 -2.20
Note: Excludes dates from lacustrine and marsh deposits Because buried sites are often associated with formerly stable land surfaces marked by buried soils, the identification of buried archaeological sites will be facilitated by the identification of buried soil horizons, which are often laterally extensive and traceable over considerable distances. Since the majority of known buried archaeological deposits occur at depths of 4.5 meters (~15 feet) or less, it appears that subsurface exploration using a backhoe would be the most appropriate method for identifying potentially buried sites in most of the sensitive portions of the project area. Given these factors, subsurface explorations will usually be needed in areas where earth disturbances are planned and the potential for buried sites is predicted to be Moderately High, High, or Very High (see Figure 60).
Phase II Test Evaluation and Phase III Data Recovery
Based on the timing and nature of landscape evolution and evidence from previously excavated archaeological sites, a number of general observations can be made about the structure of the archaeological record in the study area. These observations should assist in designing and implementing future field strategies and in interpreting the chronostratigraphic context of excavated sites.
The way in which radiocarbon dates, obsidian hydration readings, and other chronometric information is obtained and interpreted suggests that many archaeologists are searching for a simple time-depth relationship to the archaeological record. This assumption probably stems from the prevailing view of stratigraphy as discrete, well-defined layers built up over time, like those found in rock shelters and shell mounds. However, anthropogenic and natural sediment input was seldom sufficient to build chronostratigraphic structure in the archaeological record of central California. In fact, the dominant geomorphic process during the Holocene was landform stability, with little or no sediment input for hundreds or thousands of years at a time. When deposition did occur, it often resulted in large amounts of sediment accumulating on fans and floodplains in very short periods of time. Similar patterns of landform development are wide-spread in central California (Meyer 2000; Meyer et al. 1999; Meyer and Rosenthal 2008; Rosenthal and Meyer 2004a, 2004b) and have a number of implications for understanding the structure of the archaeological record.
1. Cultural stratigraphy often occurs at the scale of entire landforms. Brief intervals of deposition followed by extended periods of landform stability have resulted in multiple late Pleistocene and Holocene buried soils (i.e., buried land surfaces) in fans and floodplains throughout central California. Archaeological excavations and surveys that do not account for the entire Holocene depositional record will likely miss buried and potentially significant archaeological deposits.
2. Because sediment deposition was typically rapid, a significant amount of sterile sediment may separate a surface archaeological deposit and a buried one. Depositional episodes would likely have discouraged human occupation on actively aggrading landforms, at least temporarily. As a consequence, older portions of the archaeological record may be missed if hand excavation is halted after the surface archaeological deposit is exhausted, without accounting for the potential of more deeply buried materials. This is especially true for the alluvial fans and floodplains in lowland valleys, where Holocene-age soils are often found buried as deep as three to five meters (10 to 15 feet) below surface.
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3. While buried sites are often temporally discrete they can also be chronologically mixed.
Archaeological materials deposited over periods of long-term land stability may be discarded (superimposed) on a common surface, whether or not that surface was subsequently buried. In addition, since human occupation was seldom continuous on aggrading landforms, archaeological materials found deeper in a soil profile are often the result of downward mixing from natural and cultural processes (biogenic and anthropogenic, respectively). Thus, deeper archaeological materials found in stable landforms may be no older than shallower materials.
These observations about the structure of the archaeological record should, in part, dictate the types of sampling strategies and methods employed during the identification phase and subsequent testing and data recovery investigations for archaeological studies. As an initial step, research on the age of project area landforms should be completed prior to any field investigations. This will allow for a focused study of landforms with a potential for buried deposits, and minimize effort in landforms lacking buried site potential. In addition, field methods should be designed to account for both the horizontal and vertical extent of Holocene-age geological deposits at an individual archaeological site or within a particular study area. These deposits will be bounded by stratigraphic unconformities, typically distinguished by buried soil profiles. The timing of soil development and alluvial and colluvial deposition has important implications for bracketing the age of buried archaeological sites, as well as defining the timing and nature of Holocene landscape evolution. Consequently, future studies should seek to identify and obtain radiocarbon dates for buried land surfaces and capping deposits to better refine the natural chronostratigraphic sequence of depositional landforms within District 6/9.
Further, the age of surface landforms is also relevant for identifying under-represented portions of the archaeological record, particularly sites older than latest Holocene in age. As shown in Figure 24, while most (86%) surface cultural contexts date to less than 2000 cal BP, nearly three-fourths (~73%) of buried natural contexts date to more than 2000 cal BP, as do more than one-third (~37%) of those from known buried cultural contexts. It should be expected, therefore, that older landforms and buried surfaces will contain earlier and/or under-represented portions of the archaeological record, which will have elevated significance from the standpoint of archaeological research and legal compliance. Thus, an informed and integrated geoarchaeological approach would likely help future archaeological studies in the region address these research and methodological issues.
USING THE BURIED SITE POTENTIAL MODEL
At a general level, it is relatively easy to predict that buried archaeological sites will be found in Holoceneage depositional landforms. Predicting exactly where they are located, however, is a far more difficult task which some have likened to “looking for a needle in a haystack.” While the needle cannot be made larger, the size of the “Holocene haystack” can be reduced by dividing it into smaller and more manageable zones of buried site potential using the predictive model developed here. This approach should reduce the amount of area (i.e., volume of sediments) that may need to be searched and increase the likelihood that buried sites will be identified, if present.
At the same time, the buried site potential zones must be considered a best approximation, because their boundaries are derived from a number of working assumptions using a variety of different datasets. We do not believe the boundaries of sensitivity zones should be considered rigid depictions of where and where not to do subsurface explorations, but rather, should be employed in combination with professional judgment based on field observations.
The chances of actually finding a buried site are reduced even further when the search is confined to an auger or core hole, hand-excavated test unit, or backhoe trench, especially if a proper sampling interval is not used. We believe the success rate can be improved overall, however, by focusing the majority of the field effort in Moderately High to Very High zones and employing tight sampling intervals when buried soils are identified.
Zones of Moderate and Moderately Low potential should be tested occasionally using a more intuitive approach with broader sampling intervals. If the model is correct, buried sites will not usually occur in zones of Low and Very Low potential, so these areas should only rarely be investigated. The actions and level of effort suggested for each of the buried site potential categories are summarized in Table 28. 615
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Table 28. Suggested Actions and Level of Effort for Zones of Buried Site Potential.
BURIED SITE POTENTIAL
(SCORE)
% COMPARED
TO.CHANCE
PREDICTIVE
VALUE
SUGGESTED ACTION/
EFFORT LEVEL
SUGGESTED SAMPLING
INTERVAL
Very High 22.5% positive Testing almost always required 20 to 30 meters High 2.3% positive Testing often required 30 to 50 meters Moderately High 8.7% positive Testing usually required 50 to 100 meters Moderate -0.2% neutral Testing occasionally required Intuitive Moderately Low 0.5% neutral Testing occasionally required Intuitive Low -9.1% positive Testing rarely required Intuitive
Very Low -24.7% positive Testing almost never required None From a management perspective, probably the most important variable to consider when choosing subsurface sampling locations is the depth and nature of proposed project-related impacts. Depending on the scope of the project, it might be reasonable to sample areas in the lowlands where earthmoving will be substantial, or where large foundations or footings will extend well below surface, regardless of sensitivity (although different sampling methods or intervals may be applied to different zones). Furthermore, depth of disturbance becomes more of an issue around valley margins where buried sites are expected to occur in shallower contexts, but less of an issue in valley bottoms where sites are likely to be buried much deeper. If no buried soils are present within the depth-range of project impacts in the valley bottoms, then additional subsurface testing may not be necessary.
Conversely, if soils buried by Holocene-age deposits are found within the range of impacts, then these soils should be targeted and explored to determine if archaeological remains are present.
Since the model’s overall utility can only be evaluated if it is systematically tested, most of the subsurface survey effort should first be directed to Very High potential zones. If no buried sites are encountered in these areas after a reasonable amount of investigation (i.e., several moderate to large projects), then the model should be reevaluated. If buried sites are regularly found in Very High sensitivity zones, then additional effort by future projects should also be devoted to zones with High and Moderately High potential. This should be done to determine if the potential for buried sites in these zones is higher than currently estimated (i.e., 2.3-8.7%). If few or no sites are found in these areas after a reasonable number of projects, then field investigations should focus on the zones of Very High potential. Although subsurface exploration will generally not be needed in zones of Moderate and Moderately Low potential, some limited investigation may occasionally be warranted if additional information becomes available or if a buried site is uncovered by earth-moving activities. Finally, the zones of Low and Very Low potential should not be investigated unless there is a compelling reason to do so, such as field observations that suggest the mapping is inaccurate.
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APPENDICES A–G
INCLUDED ON CD INSIDE BACK COVER
(Appendix G is also included as fold-out maps in back pockets.) 651
652
Counties:
Fresno
Kern
Kings
Madera
Tulare
Inyo
Mono
Keywords:
Buried Sites
Buried Soils
Geoarchaeology
Landform Evolution
Late Quaternary
Owens Valley
Radiocarbon
San Joaquin Valley
Stratigraphy
Submitted to:
California Department of
Transportation, District 6
2015 East Shields Ave
Fresno, CA 93726
Volume II: Appendices
A Geoarchaeological Overview
and Assessment of
Caltrans Districts 6 and 9
Cultural Resources Inventory of Caltrans District 6/9
Rural Conventional Highways
EA 06-0A7408 TEA Grant
By:
Jack Meyer
D. Craig Young
Jeffrey S. Rosenthal
February 2010
Prepared and Edited by:
FAR WESTERN ANTHROPOLOGICAL RESEARCH GROUP, INC.
2727 Del Rio Place, Suite A, Davis, California, 95618
http://www.farwestern.com 530-756-3941
653
654
Volume II: Appendices
A Geoarchaeological Overview
and Assessment of
Caltrans Districts 6 and 9
Cultural Resources Inventory of Caltrans District 6/9
Rural Conventional Highways
EA 06-0A7408 TEA Grant
By:
Jack Meyer
D. Craig Young
Jeffrey S. Rosenthal
February 2010
Submitted to:
California Department of Transportation, District 6
2015 East Shields Ave
Fresno, CA 93726
655
656
APPENDICES
Appendix A. Radiocarbon Dates Documenting Tulare Lake Level History.
Appendix B. Radiocarbon Dating Methods, Results, and Database.
Appendix C. Soil Types, Age Assignments, and Definitions for Soil Horizons and Layers.
Appendix D. Obsidian Hydration Methods, Results, and Database.
Appendix E. Extent of Buried Site Potential along each State Route in District 6/9 Based on Landform Map and Predictive Model.
Appendix F. Known Buried Prehistoric Archaeological Sites in Caltrans District 6/9.
Appendix G. Quaternary Geology Map and Buried Site Potential Map for District 6/9. (Also included as fold-out maps in back pockets.)
657
658
APPENDIX A
RADIOCARBON DATES
DOCUMENTING TULARE LAKE LEVEL HISTORY
659
660
Appendix A. Radiocarbon Dates Documenting Tulare Lake Level History County, Area,or Site Number
Sample
Elevation (m) Context Deposit Type Location, Provenience, and/or Description Material Min. Depth (cm)
Max. Depth (cm) 14C BP ± 12C/13C
Min. Cal BP
Cal BP (med. prob.)
Max. Cal BP Lab or Sample No. Source Reference
KIN, Tulare Lake 63.6 Below Lake Lacustrine Rambla Shoreline, DWR Trench 2a, Unit 7b Shell-f (gastropod) 101 101 820 40 nr -1 99 229 Beta-170149 Negrini and Wigand in Gardner 2002KIN, Tulare Lake 64.0 Below Lake Lacustrine Rambla Shoreline, DWR Trench 2 Bone (fish) 53 74 100 50 - 9 119 151 Beta-170147 Negrini et al. 2006 KIN-32, Witt Locality 59.4 Below Lake Surface deposit MPS 13S/21W per G. Fenenga, Hopkins Locus 6 Shell-f (Anodonta) 0 1 830 70 -6.8 -1 124 254 Beta-097873 Fenenga pc 2009KIN-32, Witt Locality 58.8 Below Lake Surface deposit VDE 127N/25W per G. Fenenga, Hopkins Locus 6 Shell-f (Anodonta) 0 1 130 80 -7.1 -4 145 292 Beta-097876 Fenenga pc 2009 KIN, Tulare Lake 64.0 Below Lake Lacustrine Rambla Shoreline, DWR Trench 2a, Unit 10 Bone (fish, Sac. sucker) 53 74 180 50 nr 60 173 233 Beta-170150 Negrini and Wigand in Gardner 2002KIN, Dalton Site 60.0 Below Lake Surface deposit Dalton Site south of Utica Road per G. Fenenga (Dr-9 10N1W) Shell-f (Anodonta) 20 30 190 50 -8.2 60 177 233 Beta-070678 Fenenga pc 2009KIN, Tulare Lake, Omaha Canal 63.1 Below Lake Surface deposit Whole shell in growth position at contact of Cu horizon with 2Ab Shell-f (Anodonta) 50 60 200 20 -7.6 145 177 215 OS-73445 This Report KIN-66, Redtfeldt Mound 64.6 Above Lake Surface deposit TU-5, freshwater clam shell Shell-f (freshwater) 20 30 900 40 -6.8 57 190 290 Beta-098150 Siefkin 1999 KIN-66, Redtfeldt Mound 63.8 Above Lake Surface deposit TU-1, freshwater clam shell Shell-f (freshwater) 100 110 910 60 -5.8 0 193 313 Beta-097873 Fenenga 1996; Siefkin 1999 KIN-32, Witt Locality 58.1 Below Lake Surface deposit Flooterville per G. Fenenga, Hopkins Locus 6 Shell-f (Anodonta) 30 50 300 60 -7.9 275 378 502 Beta-070679 Fenenga pc 2009 KIN-32, Witt Locality 58.3 Below Lake Surface deposit Witt Site per G. Fenenga, Hopkins Locus 5 Shell-f (Anodonta) 10 20 350 60 -8.3 302 401 506 Beta-061917 Fenenga pc 2009 KIN-32, Witt Locality 58.3 Below Lake Surface deposit Corral Site per G. Fenenga (12S/0E), Hopkins Locus 7 Shell-f (Anodonta) 10 20 410 60 -6.8 417 451 531 Beta-070675 Fenenga pc 2009KIN-66, Redtfeldt Mound 64.6 Above Lake Surface deposit TU-2, freshwater clam shell Shell-f (freshwater) 20 30 1210 60 -6.6 365 491 618 Beta-098147 Siefkin 1999 KIN, Ewe 20 58.2 Below Lake Surface deposit Ewe-20 Site south of Utica Road per G. Fenega Shell-f (Anodonta) 0 50 470 60 nr 427 512 562 nr Fenenga pc 2009KIN, Dalton Site 60.2 Below Lake Surface deposit Dalton Site south of Utica Road per G. Fenenga, TU-1 (Dr-7) Shell-f (Anodonta) 0 10 520 50 -8.0 497 543 567 Beta-070677 Fenenga pc 2009KIN, Dalton Site 60.0 Below Lake Surface deposit Dalton Site south of Utica Road per G. Fenenga (Dr-Z #243) Shell-f (Anodonta) 0 50 1310 70 -6.3 463 567 668 Beta-061918 Fenenga pc 2009KIN-32, Witt Locality 59.4 Below Lake Surface deposit MPS 23S/21W per G. Fenenga, Hopkins Locus 6 Shell-f (Anodonta) 0 1 600 60 -7.5 526 600 666 Beta-097875 Fenenga pc 2009 KIN-66, Redtfeldt Mound 64.3 Above Lake Surface deposit TU-4, freshwater clam shell Shell-f (freshwater) 50 60 1460 70 -6.4 537 679 824 Beta-098149 Siefkin 1999 KER-1627 66.1 Above Lake Surface deposit Trench cut C, Strat. Unit E, overlies hardpan with fossil mammal remains Soil (SOM) 27 27 940 90 - 685 850 989 Beta-012278 Breschini et al. 1985; CRD 1996KIN, Dalton Site 59.8 Below Lake Surface deposit Dalton Site south of Utica Road per G. Fenenga (Dr-5 2N3W) Shell-f (Anodonta) 40 50 1650 50 -6.8 724 850 958 Beta-070676 Fenenga pc 2009 KIN, LTNS-C12-1 65.2 Above Lake Surface deposit Column sample from TEU1, Stratum II Shell-f (Anodonta) 20 30 1750 70 - 786 960 1131 Beta-184260 Chatters and Fogerty 2003KIN, Croissant Site 63.1 Below Lake Surface deposit Croissant Site south of Utica Road on Dudley Ridge Shell-f (Anodonta) 0 50 1950 60 nr 1020 1169 1288 nr Fenenga pc 2009KIN, LTNS-C12-1 65.1 Above Lake Surface deposit Trench 1, Feature 01, soil from base of Stratum II Soil (SOM) 30 33 2005 35 - 1876 1955 2044 SR-6594 Chatters and Fogerty 2003 KIN, Tulare Lake 54.9 Below Lake Lacustrine Core 2, Blakeley Canal Silt Organic Sediment 80 90 2030 80 nr 1818 1997 2160 A-5412 Davis 1999 KIN, Tulare Lake 56.5 Below Lake Lacustrine Lake Basin, CSUB Trench E, Unit 04 Shell-f (Anodonta) 71 76 2740 40 nr 1898 2032 2149 Beta-170146 Negrini and Wigand 2002KIN-80, Tulare Basin 68.1 Above Lake Buried alluvium Rambla Shoreline Ditch Exposure Shell-f (Anodonta) 106 106 2880 40 nr 2096 2214 2322 Beta-167851 Gardner 2002; Gardner et al. 2005KIN-32, Witt Locality 58.9 Below Lake Buried lacustrine Snail from intact dune sand 2A/Cox contact below disturbed sand with paleo-artifacts, N bank of Blakely Canal Shell-f (gastropod) 45 50 2250 30 -10.8 2156 2232 2266 OS-73446 This ReportKIN, Tulare Lake 56.5 At Lake Level Buried soil/marsh Lake Basin, CSUB Trench E, Unit 04 Organic Sediment 71 76 2370 40 nr 2331 2412 2494 Beta-170145 Negrini and Wigand in Gardner 2002 KIN, Tulare Lake 56.5 At Lake Level Buried soil/marsh Lake Basin, CSUB Trench E, Unit 04 Organic Sediment 71 76 2410 40 nr 2345 2446 2542 Beta-170144 Negrini and Wigand in Gardner 2002 KIN, Tulare Lake 57.6 At Lake Level Buried soil/marsh Arroyo Robador fan, CSUB Trench B, Unit 04, N of Kettleman City Organic Sediment 122 140 2510 70 nr 2430 2577 2745 Beta-170148 Negrini and Wigand in Gardner 2002KER-1627 65.8 Above Lake Buried soil Trench cut C, strat. Unit A Soil (SOM) 52 52 2950 70 - 2926 3119 3335 Beta-012279 Breschini et al. 1985; CRD 1996 KIN, Tulare Lake 58.8 At Lake Level Buried soil/marsh Arroyo Robador fan, CSUB Trench B, Unit 04, N of Kettleman City Organic Sediment 122 140 3340 80 nr 3393 3579 3729 Beta-170143 Negrini and Wigand in Gardner 2002 KIN-80, Tulare Basin 67.4 Above Lake Buried soil Rambla Shoreline Ditch Exposure Bone (human) 177 177 4360 70 nr 4827 4954 5077 Beta-167852 Gardner 2002; Gardner et al. 2005