Radiocarbon Chronology

As noted previously, the focus of this current research is sites for which radiocarbon dates are available. The radiocarbon dates are either derived from primarily sea shell or to a lesser extent carbonized material (see Appendix Radiocarbon Tables).

The study will begin along the Pacific Ocean coast around the area known as Red Beach at the mouth of Las Flores Creek. Las Flores Creek currently flows into a small estuary and is found along the central coast of Camp Pendleton (Figures 1.6 and 3.2).

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The data discussed in this chapter all comes from Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton and is used with permission by the Base. The database was developed mostly between 1996 and 2009 under my direction as the Cultural Resource Manager at the Marine Base. The Cultural Resource Manager is responsible for managing the cultural resources, establishing the overall facility-wide cultural resource research orientation, and establishes the projects, obtains funding, oversees development of the research designs and field work and has final approval authority of the final research outputs. The Cultural Resource Manager, while managing the work of the archaeologists is responsible for developing a unified approach to the research. In the case of Camp Pendleton, the Cultural Resource Manager moved the studies from a site-by-site study to one that was on a broader landscape scale.

The data are derived from reports, site form records, and the cultural resources GIS database at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton. The site data was collected from primary sources. These sources consisting of survey, evaluation and data recovery reports, which include information on all radiocarbon dates collected at Camp Pendleton. The presence of radiocarbon dates was a significant criterion used for including specific sites in this study. With 534 recorded sites within the boundary of Camp Pendleton, a total of 88 radiocarbon dated sites will be utilized in this study. The following information about dated sites was of particular importance for this thesis: locational data, general types of artifacts present, presence of PDL chert, presence or absence of shellfish by specie remains, and presence or absence of macrobotanical remains. These data are compiled and presented in this chapter. Field reviews were to either the specific sites or to the area of groups of dated sites.

In terms of methodology, the importance of inconsistencies in the data has been recognized. There is a danger that where data collected by other researchers has been used inconsistencies in field methods and data collection procedures may create problems for more general analysis, and

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more synthetic studies such as this thesis. Since the cultural resource manager at Camp Pendleton oversaw the data collection at the 88 radiocarbon dated sites; all dates were conducted at the same radiocarbon laboratory (Beta Analytic) and shell was corrected using the marine reservoir correction. The global marine reservoir correction was applied to all dates derived from marine shell via the Marine IntCal calibration program. This correction ranges between -200 to 500 years. These values take into account that it takes 200-500 years for present-day carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to be incorporated and distributed (equilibrated) through the ocean water

column (Beta Analytic 2014 WebSite) . The research orientation and methods,

and analytical reports were reviewed and approved by the Camp Pendleton Cultural Resource Manager thus inconsistency is considered a concern but not a significant issue.

Overall the data are presented in this thesis by study unit. The sites within the units are graphically presented on areas photographic maps by date and type. The artifacts and ecofacts recovered are presented in a tabular form. The variables for table reporting artifact material types column presented within the tables may include: debitage - flake and angular debris resulting from tool manufacturing; flaked tools - stone flakes that exhibit microscopic wear; retouched flake tools - flake scrapers and flakes used for cutting; percussion tools - includes hammers, choppers, and abraders; projectile points - arrowheads and dart points; ground stone - artifacts exhibiting use in milling seeds, grass, pulverizing meat and includes manos, metate, pestles, and mortars or stone bowls; milling features – these are found on bedrock outcrops and include metate and mortar grinding surfaces; fire cracked rock – these are rocks that were subjected to high heat in a fire hearth or other burning feature; and ceramic - pottery sherds or vessels.

The ecofacts include vertebrate faunal remains – these are the bones identifiable as either mammal, avian, and fish and include fragments to complete species specific bones. They are recorded as either present or absent. Donax gouldii, Pecten sp. and Chione sp. generally represented the

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majority of invertebrate shellfish remains by weight. When present within a site or a group of sites they are reported as present or absent. If another species including invertebrate, Protothaca sp Anadonta sp. Mytilus sp., Gastropods including Acanthine spirata, Crepidula sp., and Tegula sp. chitins, and crustaceans represents a significant recovery 10% by weight in a site they are shown as present. Invertebrates which account cumulative for 10% are combined and are reported as other invertebrates. The last identified category is macrobotanical remains such as identifiable seeds, preserved wood, and grasses.

The key elements of the sites including location, date, presence of PDL chert,

Donax gouldii and other types of shellfish, and climate for the period of use

are then compared to determine if there is a controlling factor for location of the dated prehistoric sites on Camp Pendleton. The ethnographic data are compared with the archaeological findings to see if there are cultural landscapes used in prehistoric past that compare to those seen in the Luiseno ethnography.

All of this is held together by radiocarbon dates. The dates have been collected from the CRM reports text and radiocarbon laboratory data sheets. All the dates for a given study unit are plotted graphically by site type and listed by site number. The dated sites are then plotted on maps by period (Early, Middle, and Late Holocene) and by type. These maps are used to identify and compare changes in physical landscape use over time and by types. The radiocarbon samples were collected, in the vast majority of cases, from an excavation unit level with a dry screen. To a lesser extent samples were retrieved from macrobotanical column samples recovered from an excavation unit. In both instances the physical control was the decimeter level below the surface. In a few cases, not more than three, radiocarbon samples were recovered from carbon smudges on ceramic vessels and from intact fire hearths.

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