About 10,000 years ago, the North American climate began to change: the world became dried and the great grasslands and forests began to shrink. The continental ice sheets had withdrawn and the melt-water from them filled basins and the shorelines of the continents began to change. These new climatic and geographic conditions altered the animal life and also forced the people into different ways of life. There was a relatively sudden disappearance of many types of animals. Most of these animals were the so-called megafauna, or large mammals such as the mastodons, mammoths, giant ground sloths, and other large-bodied herbivores. As these animals became extinct, so too did many of the carnivores that preyed upon them - the Alaskan lion, the saber-toothed cats, and the dire wolf, to name a few. Other species did not become extent, but underwent rapid selection for smaller forms. For example, the giant bison of the late Ice Age was replaced around 12,000 years ago by forms directly ancestral to the modern bison. And still other life forms, such as small mammals, reptiles, birds, insects, amphibians, fish, and most plants were relatively unaffected. Exactly why these animals died out is subject to debate. At one time, some scientists argued that the ancestral American Indians of the Paleo-Indian period hunted these animals into extinction. But today such an hypothesis receives little support. Instead, modern scientists point to a period of rapid global warming at the end of the Ice Age. As the climate changed, sea levels rose, growing seasons became longer, and snowfall and annual precipitation decreased significantly. While many smaller animals could adapt to these shifitng conditions by modifying their ranges, the larger ones, placing greater demands on their environments, could not cope with the transforming world and were pushed beyond the brink to extinction.
In response to the changing world, the ancestral American Indians began to change their subsistence patterns, which in turn caused important changes in other aspects of their lives. In some areas people began to hunt small game; in others, fish and shellfish became a major food; and in still others the food was mostly wild plants, especially seeds. But in most areas, people changed their diets to include several such food sources. These new subsistence patterns led to other patterns. Instead of wandering over broad areas in search of food, people began to use more of the food resources they could find locally. In other words, while the people expanded their diets they limited the geographical range over which the travelled. As a result, individual groups of people began to differentiate from each other according to the specific regions they settled in.
This shift in lifeways, from a concentration on a few resources to an
economy varied by plants and animals, is called the Archaic. T
he Archaic Period began in California about 11,000 years ago
and lasted until about 4,000 years ago, though its length varied from region
to region (in some areas of California, such as the southeastern deserts,
some groups were following an essentially Archaic way of life well into
the 19th century). The changeover did not occur simultaneously across the
state, nor were the adaptations the same. Unlike the lifeway that characterized
the Paleo-Indian societies, with their seemingly unvarying patterns of subsistence
and settlement regardless of where the people lived, the Archaic period
witnessed the blooming and profusion of many different lifeways. Also, because
Archaic cultures evolved from Paleo-Indian ones, it's often impossible to
draw a sharp boundary between the two since some features remained: a seasonally
migratory way of life, gathering and hunting as the primary subsistence
pattern. Yet important differences arose. People made new kinds of tools
(especially tools for processing hard seeds and nuts, as well as baskets,
nets, and fishing and birding tools), developed new techniques for making
and using already existing tools. During the Archaic period we see the first
evidence of many significant cultural developments among the California
peoples, including far-flung regional trade networks (allowing for the exchange
of raw materials, food items, exotic goods), the invention of boats, the
rise of part-time and later full-time occupational specialization.
A diffuse economy
- a shift from hunting of large (and now extinct) game animals to foraging
for seeds, nuts, roots, greens, insects combined with hunting medium and
small game animals
A seasonal round
- subsistence patterns characterized by moving several times a year across
several kinds of econiches combined with exploitation of multiple ecozones
Increasingly diverse,
and often specialized, adaptations to local environments - beginning
with the chaparral, then expanding into coastal tidelands, marshes, and
estuaries, later spreading into almost all environmental niches.
A specialized technology
- many different tools, each with a very specific function and used for
processing many different kinds of foods
Increasing social complexity - large group
size and more groups
Trade - the exchange of raw materials and
finished artifacts appear for the first time
Unlike their forebears who tended to concentrate on just a few widely distributed species of plants and animals, the Archaic people made use of a great many kinds of resources, with no one or two being the single most important ones. Not only did the Archaic people diversify their subsistence base, but they also shifted the focus toward a greater reliance on plants for food, craft materials, and medicine so that towards the end of the Archaic period (about 5,000 - 4,000 years ago) hundreds of plant species were being exploited. However, there is no evidence to suggest that resources were gathered and saved for use late in the year. Instead, they were used when and where available.
Also unlike their Paleo-Indian ancestors, who tended to restrict themselves to exploiting resources in just a few econiches, the Archaic folks learned how to exploit resources in many different environments, scheduling their movements to correspond with the seasonal availability of resources. In other words, camps were moved from one environment to another as part of a carefully scheduled seasonal round. In some parts of the state the annual round consisted of simply moving uphill or down with the seasons, spending the winter in a camp at lower elevations, migrating in the spring to the hills where they would remain until fall, when they returned to their base camp. This allowed people to reach several different ecozones when its most important seasonal resources were available.
Among the many new habitats that came to be exploited by people in the Archaic period were the chaparral, the coastal littoral, the coastal and interior valley parklands, and the oak-pine-grass woodlands. The brushy, drought-resistant plants that characterize the chaparral produce large quantities of hard seeds, rich in protein. The chaparral also attracts several kinds of birds and game animals.
California has more than a thousand miles of coastline, made up of a series of microenvironments: sandy and rocky shores, sea cliffs, salt- and freshwater marshes, tidepools, estuaries, bays, river mouths, and grassy headlands. Each of these has its own complex of resources: shellfish, fish, mammals (both land and sea), birds, and potentially useful plants.
Grassy parklands dotted with groves of trees are found throughtout most of non-desert California, from the great Central Valley to the numerous smaller valleys of the Sierra Nevada foothills and coastal mountain ranges. In many of these parklands the dominant plant forms are oaks and grasses; the former provided the Archaic people with abundant supplies of acorns (once they learned how to remove the bitter tannic acid) while the various grass species were not only sources of edible seeds, but also niches were animals, birds, and insects could be taken.
In many parts of California the lower elevations of the various mountain ranges support a diverse array of plants and animals. The lower elevations are dominated by groves of blue oaks and buckeyes while at higher elevations are groves of digger pines and black oak, all of which provided edible nuts, as did the small and medium sized animals (deer, rabbits, rodents) that live here. Additionally, many other plants grow here which were of use to the native people for food, raw materials from which to fashion tools, and for medicine.
Although most of the great inland lakes of the ice-age had disappeared, other lakes persisted and provided support for Archaic populations in the North Coast Range and in the southern San Joaquin Valley. In these regions many useful animals and plants were exploited, including seasonal and permanent waterfowl, fish and shellfish, along with food and industrial plants. And all across California the numerous large and small rivers and streams provided distinctive plant and animal associations useful to the native peoples. The watercourses of the central and north Coast Ranges were home to tremendous number of anadromous fish (fish that are born in freshwater, migrate to the sea to grow to maturity, then return to their home rivers to spawn), including salmon, steelhead trout, and in the north, lamprey eel. Growing alongside these watercourses were many plants useful for food, medicine, and industrial purposes, while these same river margins were home to a variety of animals and birds.
Exploiting many different kinds of resources was made possible by the development of a specialized technology. In addition to the tool types of their forebears, the Archaic period folks created entirely new kinds of tools and technologies. Of the many technological achievements which helped Archaic societies exploit many new niches and perform subsistence tasks more efficiently, three stand out: the making of baskets, the production of milling tools, and the increasing technological sophistication of their hunting and fishing tools and techniques.
Baskets. The ancient Californians became so skillful at basketmaking that by the time of European contact they were among the world's best basketmakers. Because baskets are highly perishable, few survive in the archaeological record, and so we are uncertain when the ancient Californians first began to make them. But indirect evidence (bone awls and needles know from historic times to have been used in basket making) suggests that by middle, and certainly, late Archaic times they had become an integral part of the California material culture inventory.
According to a Pomo legend, when the mythical hero Marumda created the
world, he gave its women kubum - the general
term for all of the plants that could be used in basketry. Baskets
were made in all sizes and shapes to serve the many needs of the
Native Californians. Infants were put in basketry
cradleboards soon after birth. Baskets were used to reap plants
and trap animals, and for processing, cooking, and eating food. Big conical
baskets were used to transport firewood, roots, and other large items. Storage
baskets held everything from seeds to dried fish to clothing. Once acorns
became the staff of life for most central and southern coastal people, they
were stored in capacious basket granaries propped on stilts and lined with
aromatic herbs to repel insects and retard moulding. Such granaries held
anywhere from 100 pounds of acorns to several times that amount. The huge,
woven willow-twig granaries that stood beside a typical Chumansh home could
hold up to 1,000 pounds!
Throughout the state, a special class of baskets were woven so tightly they could hold water. These were used to cook many kinds of foods, from soups and stews to biscuits and mush. This was done by dropping heated rocks into large watertight baskets filled with water and the raw food. This technology has its origins in middle archaic times, as is shown by the vast quantities of burned and fire-cracked rock in habitation sites.
Other similarly tightly woven baskets, often lined with asphaltum or pine pitch, were used to transport and store water. Prized gift baskets, decorated with feathers, abalone tinklers, or bone beads held personal items and family treasures. People wore basketry hats, rain cloaks, sandals, and belts. Basketmaking techniques were used to make matting to cover house floors and walls. And in many areas of the state, the houses themselves resembled huge baskets set upside down.
Milling Stones. Just as Just as baskets played an important role
in Archaic and later cultures, so too did milling stones. Made
of stone that was shaped by pecking
and abrading rather than by flaking, these tools took two basic forms: the
mortar and pestle, and the milling stone and mano, or handstone. Mortars
(see image at right) and pestles were used primarily for pounding nuts,
small seeds, acorns, and the bodies of small animals; the milling stone
and handstone for grinding hard seeds. Millingstones appeared earlier and
were more numerous than mortars and pestles until the Formative Period when
acorn processing grew in importance. In addition to portable millingstones
(if a 75 - 100 pound mortar can be called portable!), by the end of the
Archaic some communities began to make additional mortars and milling surface
on large rock outcrops, usually at campsites near oak groves and streams.
Some of these bedrock milling stations are truly monumental. At Chaw'se
Indian Grinding Rock State Historic Park, located in the hilly and wooded
Sierra Nevada foothills, is an outcropping of marbelized limestone with
1,185 mortar, holes, the largest concentration of bedrock mortars in North
America. Undoubtedly, such features served as the hub of village life, a
gathering place where women could relay news while they ground the day's
acorn meal.
Although many of the innovations of the Archaic emphasize the importance of plants, other subsistence technologies also became more specialized. Hunters developed a wide array of new and innovative tools which increased the amount of animal protein in Archaic diets. New fishing tools, such as pronged spears, nets, toggles, hooks, and basketry traps, were developed. Specialized nets, looking something like tennis nets, were used during communial rabbit drives. Various nets and snares were used to take birds while large game animals were hunted using a spear-thrower.
As every archaeologist knows, attempting to reconstruct the non-material aspects of an ancient society's cultural lifeways is, at best, a difficult task. This is so because so much of what makes up a society's culture are not things (tools, houses, grave goods, etc.) but the rules, thoughts, behaviors, and interpersonal relationships that produced the things. Consequently, archaeologists must rely upon other methods to reconstruct past cultural lifeways. One fruitful technique here in California is the use of ethnographic analogies, which involves the analysis of the material culture of historically known societies to learn the relationships between present-day cultural behavior patterns and material by-products that could be discovered archaeologically. Beginning with a well-recorded historical culture, the archaeologist works by progressive stages through time, using the modern culture an an analog to explain what's found in the archaeological record. Of course, the farther back one works, the more distant the relationship between the archaeological culture and the historic culture, and the more questionable the strength of one's reconstructions. Bearing this in mind, what can we say about the culture of Archaic Period societies?
The earliest Archaic cultures were not much different from those of the late Paleo-Indian Period, but between 6,000 and 4,000 years ago, a different lifestyle had emerged. The economy was much more productive so that permanent groups of 25-100 people could be maintained, forming bands. Larger and somewhat more complex than the micro-bands of earlier times, bands were composed of several nuclear families, perhaps linked patrilineally by common descent from a parent or grandparent. It's likely that a respected older individual acted as headperson of the band, leading discussions &acting as a mediator in disputes. Such an individual had no coercive power, but relied instead on charisma and respect accorded to the position of headperson.
As noted below in the discussion
of trade, the presence of quartz and tourmaline crystals (along with "cog-stones"
and "charmstones") in middle and late Archaic times has been interpreted
as evidence of the appearance of the tradition of shamanism. If this is
so, then it marks the appearance for the first time in California Indian
history of occupational specialization. Shamans in historically known California
Indian societies were full-time specialists, combining the features of a
medical practitioner and a religious authority. Much of their time was spent
training for their roles, acquiring the complex knowledge necessary to minister
to the health and religious needs of their group's members. Thus, some of
their time was spent in non-subsistence related activities. Though we have
no way of knowing if Archaic Period shamans were full-time specialists,
as their historically known professional descendants frequently were, it's
likely the Archaic Period shamans were at least part-time specialists, providing
for some of their own needs, but also compensated for their services.
Although the exchange of raw materials and finished artifacts may have occurred during Paleo-Indians times, it was at best irregular. It's not until the Archaic Period that we have first clear evidence of economic exchange. As populations moved into more and more ecological niches and societies became more complex, trade began to flourish, playing a role in the increase in population sizes and densitites and becoming an important factor in the transformation of Archaic cultures into different, more sophisticated forms. Although not as phenomenally complex as the trading networks of the succeeding Formative Period, trade during the Archaic served several important functions, providing:
Objects for personal jewelry and ornamentation
Exotic goods for use as grave offerings
Some of the objects used in the shamanistic religion
Among the many items traded, either as raw materials or as finished artifacts, were obsidian, steatite, chert and other lithic materials, at least two kinds of seashells (abalone and olivella), and crystals of quartz and tourmaline. These last two items have significance beyond that of trade. In historically known California Indian societies, such crystals were used almost exclusively by shamans, and their appearance in the archaeological record of the Archaic suggests to some scholars that the tradition of shamanism in California has its origins at this time.
Unlike the Paleo-Indian period with its seeming uniformity of lifestyles, the Archaic period is characterized by tremendous variability as people adapted to many different environments. Each region of the state saw the emergence and development of somewhat different patterns of seasonal movement, different combinations of resources, different tools and different combinations of the same tools, along with different residence patterns. Archaeologists have defined at least a dozen regionally and temporally distinctive lifestyles of the Archaic. Among the better known ones are:
San Dieguito and Lake
Mohave Traditions of the Early Archaic (11,000 - 8,000 years ago)
Encinitas, Borax Lake,
and Northeastern California Traditions
of the Middle Archaic (8,000 - 6,000 years ago)
Windmiller Tradition of the Late Archaic
(6,000 - 4,000 years ago)
San Dieguito Tradition
At the beginning of the Archaic period, descendants of the Paleo-Indians
living in the desert regions of southeastern California shifted away from
exploitation of lakeshore resources, concentrating instead on hunting deer,
pronghorn antelope, mountain sheep, hares, and rabbits in the hills surrounding
the lakes and depending upon a much broader array of plants.
The earliest truly Archaic culture to be recognized is the San Dieguito, which takes its name from the San Dieguito River in northwestern San Diego County. Between 10,000 &8,000 years ago this tradition was widespread in southern California with the people living mainly on the chaparral-related resources of mule deer, rabbits, and plants, but not harvesting the hard seeds of the chaparral plants. Along the coast people had begun to collect shellfish and hard seeds to supplement their diet of small &medium size game animals. Group size was small, perhaps ten to twenty people, and their movements took place within the chaparral itself, rather than from one ecozone to another. Most of their tools are made from stone, including several forms of choppers, heavy scrapers, and knives. Toward the end of this tradition, bone awls and needles became common, most likely used in connection with the making of baskets, and perhaps nets and clothing. There also is some evidence to suggest that the southern Channel Islands were occupied by around 8,000 years ago.
Lake Mohave Tradition
In the interior southern deserts, people of the Lake Mohave Tradition
continued to hunt, but as time passed the subsistence base gradually grew
more diffuse and came to include fishing and a heavy reliance upon plant
resources. Group size was very small, perhaps less than 10 persons per social
unit, and sites reflect temporary occupation with camp movement taking place
mainly with a single major habitat, the valley floors and edges surrounding
the gradually shrinking lakes.
Encinitas Tradition
Between 8,000 and 6,000 years ago people all across the state began to exploit
local resources much more systematically, resulting is greater regional
differences among traditions. On the southern California coast one of the
better known traditions is the Encinitas, the sites of which are
marked by huge mounds of discarded seashells, suggesting people were systematically
harvesting this rich coastal resource. Milling stones, used for processing
large quantities of hard seeds, appear for the first time in sites located
in the coastal chaparral ecozone and the Encinitas people were the principal
colonizers of the offshore islands.
Flourishing between 8,000 and 4,000 years ago, peoples of the Encinitas tradition continued to use the game and plant resources developed by their San Dieguito predecessors, but added protein rich seeds from the chaparral ecozone, harvested vast amounts of shellfish, and took sea mammals (though not fish). Some groups lived wholly within the chaparral zone; others along the coastal littoral; and others moved seasonally between the two. As their ability to extract more energy from the environment in a more efficient manner increased, populations grew. Groups were now twice to three times as large as they had been during Paleo-Indian times, and there were many more such groups.
And as befits an Archaic Tradition, the Encinitas tool kits are more varied than their San Dieguito predecessors. While certain tools of the Paleo-Indian tradition are carried forward (the basic heavy-duty choppers and scrapers), new tool forms make their appearance, including well-made projectile points and large numbers of milling slabs, used to grind hard seeds. Encinitas people also made items, such as gearlike "cogwheels" and stone disks, for which no utilitarian purpose can be easily assigned. These items, which required a great investment of time and energy and seemingly have no direct relationship to subsistence, coupled with formalized burials (a first in California), suggest that Encinitas lifeways were richer and more elaborate than the earlier San Dieguito Tradition had been.
Borax Lake Tradition
The Coast Ranges north of San Francisco is another area where Native Californians
have lived for a very long time, from Paleo-Indian times down to today.
One of the better known Archaic period traditions in this region is Borax
Lake, which bears a strong resemblance, in its earlier phases, to the
San Dieguito: subsistence centered on generalized gathering-and-hunting.
Originally sited in the region around Borax Lake and nearby Clear Lake,
the tradition became widespread throughout the North Coast Ranges beginning
about 8,000 years ago. Tools kits include the by now ubiquitous milling
stones, implying the concentrated use of hard seeds from the chaparral,
along with a variety of scrapers and knives. And as with the Encinitas,
seemingly nonutilitarian items also occur in Borax Lake Tradition camp sites.
These items take various forms and are created by grinding a stone into
the desired shape. The are most frequently referred to in the archaeological
literature as "charmstones," although their specific use in the
Archaic is presently unknown.
Because of the limits of ecological diversity in the areas inhabited by peoples of the Borax Lake Tradition, groups sizes were smaller than those in southern California, perhaps no more than a few families living and camping together. Archaeological evidence suggests a seasonal migratory round, alternating between the mountains and the edges of the valley parklands, with passage through the chaparral which separates the two ecozones. People probably lived in small groups of no more than a few families and most of their camps were occupied only for short spans of time.
Northeastern California Tradition
Permanent settlement of northeastern California, a land of interior-draining
basins and arid mountain ranges, began about 7,000 - 8,000 years ago. And
although the large game animals of late Pleistocene times had disappeared
by then, lakeshore habitats survived and provided habitat for mule deer,
antelope, bison, and mountain sheep. These animals were hunted by the people
who called this area home, but they also began to make systematic use of
the hard-seed resources of the arid brushlands, and by about 6,000 years
ago had added seasonal waterfowl to their subsistence base. In fact, so
efficient had their procurement systems become that in Surprise Valley Archaic
people were able to build substantial semi-subterranean pit houses in which
they lived for most of the year.
Windmiller Tradition
In the period between 6,000 &4,000 years ago the trend toward diffuse
economies became even more pronounced with people enriching their diets
by refining their seasonal migration patterns, adding even more resources,
and perfecting techniques of leaching the poisonous tannins from acorns
and buckeyes. Late Archaic people were the first to make significant use
of salmon, although the gathering of large surpluses and storing them for
future use would not occur until after 4,000 years ago.
One of the best known new traditions from the late Archaic is the Windmiller from the Delta region of central California. It appeared sometime between 4,500 and 5,500 years ago and last until 3,000 - 3,500 years ago. Like all Archaic period people, the Windmiller folks followed a seasonal round, spending late fall and winter in the Delta region of the riverine floodplain, close to the valley-oak parklands and chaparral of the surrounding foothills. The rest of the year was spent in the foothills of the adjacent Sierra Nevada range, moving camp from one ecozone to the next as they gathered hard seeds from the chaparral zone, hunting deer and other mammals for meet and hides, and caught salmon in limited numbers. In addition to those tools already possessed by other Archaic period people, the Windmiller folks added stone mortars and pestles in limited numbers, presumably for use in acorn processing. If this is so, they were the earliest people in California to master the techniques of acorn leaching.
Much of our information concerning the Windmiller people comes from their cemeteries, where the deceased was buried in the extended supine position, accompanied by grave offerings and/or burial goods. Women were usually buried with manos and pestles while projectile points and knives were placed in the graves of men. Some burials also contain ornaments: beads and other ornaments of olivella &abalone shell (suggesting trade with coastal people); and pipe bowls and "charmstones" carved from steatite (soapstone), alabaster, schist, and diorite (see image of charmstones above).
Some scholars have suggested that the Windmiller people are the ancestors of the historically known peoples of the Central Valley and the adjacent coast: Yokut, Miwok, Maidu, Wintun, and Ohlone. All of these groups spoke closely related languages belonging to the Penutian language family. linguists believed that the ancestral stock of Penutian, called Proto-Penutian, appeared in California about 3,000 - 4,000 years ago, which coincides nicely with the appearance of the Windmiller people. Since the Delta region is the center of the area occupied historically by Penutian speakers, it's likely that the Windmiller people are ancestral, at least linguistically, to all later Penutian speakers.
By the end of the Archaic, populations were at least ten times larger than they had been at the end of the Paleo-Indian period, and might have become even larger had it not been for the limiting factors of mobility and seasonal food shortages. More dramatic population growth could not occur until adjustments were made to handle these problems. And it was just these sorts of adjustments that form of hallmarks of the succeeding period, the Formative.
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Last updated: 17 August 1999