California Prehistory

Colonization, Culture, and Complexity

Contributions by Ivano Aiello, Mark W. Allen, R Scott Anderson, Mark E. Basgall, Viviana Bellefemine, David G. Bieling, Brian F. Byrd, Robert Cartier, Jim Cassidy, Joseph L. Chartkoff, Jon M. Erlandson, Jason A. Eshleman, Richard T. Fitzgerald, David A. Fredrickson, LynnH Gamble, Jill K. Gardner, Donna Gillette, Amy J. Gilreath, Michael A. Glassow, Victor Golla, Andrew Gottsfield, Randy G. Groza, William R. Hildebrandt, Richard E. Hughes, Kathleen L. Hull, Mark G. Hylkema, Deborah A. Jones, Don Laylander, Alan Leventhal, Patricia M. Masters, Kelly R. McGuire, Randall Milliken, Michael J. Moratto, Tom Origer, Jennifer E. Perry, Judith F. Porcasi, L Mark Raab, Torben C. Rick, Michael F. Rondeau, Jeffrey S. Rosenthal, Glenn S. Russell, Jerry Schaefer, David Glenn Smith, Nathan E. Stevens, Eric Strother, Mark Q. Sutton, James A. Wanket, G James West, Gregory G. White, Randy Wiberg, Wallace Woolfenden Edited by Terry L. Jones, Kathryn A. Klar

Publication date:

16 April 2010

Length of book:

408 pages

Publisher

AltaMira Press

ISBN-13: 9780759119604

Some forty scholars examine California's prehistory and archaeology, looking at marine and terrestrial palaeoenvironments, initial human colonization, linguistic prehistory, early forms of exchange, mitochondrial DNA studies, and rock art. This work is the most extensive study of California's prehistory undertaken in the past 20 years. An essential resource for any scholar of California prehistory and archaeology!

Chapter 1 Archaeological Progress since 1984
Chapter 2 Late Pleistocene and Holocene Environments
Chapter 3 Post-glacial Evolution of Coastal Environments
Chapter 4 One if by Land, Two if by Sea: Who Were the First Californians?
Chapter 5 Colonization Technologies: Fluted Projectile Points and the San Clemente Island Woodworking/Microblade Complex
Chapter 6 Linguistic Prehistory
Chapter 7 Northwest California: Ancient Lifeways Among Forested Mountains, Flowing Rivers, and Rocky Ocean Shores
Chapter 8 Punctuated Culture Change in the San Francisco Bay Area
Chapter 9 The Central Coast: A Mid-Latitude Milieu
Chapter 10 The Central Valley: A View from the Catbird's Seat
Chapter 11 Models Made of Glass: A Prehistory of Northeast California
Chapter 12 The Sierra Nevada: Archaeology in the Range of Light
Chapter 13 Prehistory of the Northern California Bight and the Adjacent Transverse Ranges
Chapter 14 Prehistory of the Southern Bight: Models for a New Millennium
Chapter 15 Advances in Understanding Mojave Desert Prehistory
Chapter 16 The Colorado Desert: Ancient Adaptations to Wetlands and Wastelands
Chapter 17 Prehistoric Material Conveyance
Chapter 18 Rock Art in the Golden State: Pictographs and Petroglyphs, Portable and Panoramic
Chapter 19 Prehistoric Mitochondrial DNA and Population Movements
Chapter 20 Colonization, Culture and Complexity
21 References

Editors Terry Jones . . . and Kathryn Klar . . . have done an outstanding job of assembling a vast store of information and making it readable and understandable to the non-expert. It is an essential resource for anyone interested in California archaeology and a model for other regions to emulate.