Año Nuevo Radiocarbon Dates
By Rob Edwards, Cabrillo College
Last summer (2001) the Archaeological Technology Program’s Summer Field School worked with California State Parks archaeologist, Mark Hylkema to salvage three prehistoric sites at Año Nuevo State Reserve. These sites, CA-SMA- 238,18 and 19, have had six radiocarbon dates run for each site through the Lawrence Livermore Laboratories. The dates assessed from each site were consistent: CA-SMA-238 at 1450AD, CA-SM-18 at about 350AD, and CA-SMA-19 at about 1250AD, showing different times of occupation in the same general area.
CA-SMA-19’s column sample had a very high percentage of olivella shell remains. In the laboratory class at Cabrillo, directed by Charr Simpson-Smith, students found extensive evidence of the detritus of olivella bead manufacture. Mark Hylkema says, "The dating of this site is consistent with the South San Francisco Bay Middle/Late Transition which is a time when demand for beads as mortuary associations blossom."
(CA-SMA-19 Olivella Bead Waste Catalog #13 0.8 grams. Sketched by Maryellen Carter Student,Cabrillo and UCSC.)
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