The Pacific Coast of North America

doi:10.1017/CHO9781139017831.080

2.32 - The Pacific Coast of North America

from VI. - The Americas

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2014

Terry L. Jones

Edited by

Colin Renfrew and

Paul Bahn

Show author details

Terry L. Jones: Affiliation:
California Polytechnic State University
Colin Renfrew: Affiliation:
University of Cambridge

Book contents

Get access

Summary

The Pacific Coast of North America, extending from 23° to 60° N latitude, encompasses three broad environmental-cultural areas: the Northwest Coast (the western flank of the coastal mountains of British Columbia and the Cascades), Alta California and the Baja California Peninsula (Map 2.32.1). Throughout its prehistory the region was the domain of hunter-gatherers who varied in population density and relative sociopolitical complexity (Fig. 2.32.1), but cultivated no crops other than tobacco. Understanding of the region’s prehistory has advanced dramatically in the last two or three decades as a result of refined radiocarbon dating and increased recognition of the coast as a corridor for linear travel and cultural transmission (e.g., see Stanford 2006: 18). The latter contributed substantially to evolution of the diverse ethnolinguistic mosaic recorded in the region historically.

Environment

Rainfall generally decreases from north to south, with areas of the northern Northwest Coast recording 240–325 cm per year (Suttles 1990: 18), while some portions of the Baja Peninsula deserts receive zero precipitation per year. The Northwest Coast, Alta California and northern Baja receive most of their rain during the winters, which are relatively mild. The southern half of the Baja Peninsula receives its rainfall in the summer from monsoons. River systems are more substantial in the north and provide resources and habitat suitable for riverine adaptations. Baja California lacks this resource base.

Type: Chapter
Information: The Cambridge World Prehistory , pp. 1256 - 1273

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CHO9781139017831.080 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2014

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Book purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Ackerman, R. 2008. Continental shelves, sea levels, and early maritime adaptations in the North Pacific region. North Pacific Prehistory 2: 49–90.Google Scholar

Ames, K. M. & Maschner, H. D. G. 1999. Peoples of the Northwest Coast: Their Archaeology and Prehistory. Thames & Hudson: London.

Arnold, J. E. 1992. Complex hunter-gatherer-fishers of prehistoric California: chiefs, specialists, and maritime adaptations of the Channel Islands. American Antiquity 57 (1): 60–84.Google Scholar

Arnold, J. E. (ed.) 2004. Foundations of Chumash Complexity. Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, University of California: Los Angeles.

Arnold, J. E. 2007. Credit where credit is due: the history of the Chumash oceangoing plank canoe. American Antiquity 72 (2): 196–209.Google Scholar

Arnold, J. E., Walsh, M. R. & Hollimon, S. E. 2004. The archaeology of California. Journal of Archaeological Research 12 (3): 1–74.Google Scholar

Barnosky, A. D., Koch, P. L., Feranec, R. S., Wing, S. L. & Shabel, A. B. 2004. Assessing the causes of Late Pleistocene extinctions on the continents. Science 306 (5693): 70–5.Google Scholar

Bard, E., Hamelin, B., Arnold, M., Montaggioni, L., Cabioch, G., Faure, G. & Rougerie, F. 1990. Deglacial sea-level record from Tahiti corals and the timing of global meltwater discharge. Nature 382: 241–4.

Bartelink, E. J. 2009. Late Holocene dietary change in the San Francisco Bay area: stable isotope evidence for an expansion in diet breadth. California Archaeology 1 (2): 227–52.Google Scholar

Basgall, M. E. 1987. Resource intensification among hunter-gatherers: acorn economies in prehistoric California. Research in Economic Anthropology 9: 21–52.Google Scholar

Baumhoff, M. A. 1978. Environmental background, pp. 16–24 in (Heizer, R. F., ed.) Handbook of North America Indians, vol. 8. California. Smithsonian Institution: Washington, DC.

Beck, C. & Jones, G. T. 2010. Clovis and Western Stemmed: population migration and the meeting of two technologies in the Intermountain West. American Antiquity 75 (1): 81–116.Google Scholar

Borden, C. E. 1950. Preliminary report on archaeological investigations in the Fraser delta region. Anthropology in British Columbia 1: 13–27.Google Scholar

Broughton, J. M. 1999. Resource Depression and Intensification during the Late Holocene, San Francisco Bay: Evidence from the Emeryville Shellmound Vertebrate Fauna. Anthropological Records 32, University of California: Berkeley.

Butler, V. L. & Campbell, S. K. 2004. Resource intensification and resource depression in the Pacific Northwest of North America: a zooarchaeological review. Journal of World Prehistory 18 (4): 327–404.Google Scholar

Carlson, R. L. 1960. Chronology and culture change in the San Juan Islands, Washington. American Antiquity 25 (4): 562–86.Google Scholar

Carlson, R. L. 1990. Cultural antecedents, pp. 60–9 in (Suttles, W., ed.) Handbook of North America Indians, vol. 7. Northwest Coast. Smithsonian Institution: Washington, DC.

Carlson, R. L. 1994. Trade and exchange systems in prehistoric British Columbia, pp. 307–62 in (Baugh, T. G. & Ericson, J. E., eds.) Prehistoric Exchange Systems in North America. Plenum: New York.

Carlson, R. L. 2008. The rise and fall of native Northwest Coast cultures. North Pacific Prehistory 2: 91–120.Google Scholar

Carlson, R. L. & Dalla Bona, L. R. (eds.) 1996. Early Human Occupation in British Columbia. University of British Columbia Press: Vancouver.

Cassidy, J. 2008. What if by sea? An assessment of the colonization of coastal and insular North America by maritime societies during the Early Holocene. North Pacific Prehistory 2: 15–48.Google Scholar

Chartkoff, J. L. & Chartkoff, K. K. 1984. The Archaeology of California. Stanford University Press: Stanford, CA.

Davis, L. G. 2003. Geoarchaeology and geochronology of pluvial Lake Chapala, Baja California, Mexico. Geoarchaeology 18 (2): 205–23.Google Scholar

Davis, L. G. 2006. Geoarchaeological insights from Indian Sands, a Late Pleistocene site on the southern Northwest Coast, USA. Geoarchaeology 21 (4): 351–61.Google Scholar

Dixon, E. J. 2006. Paleo-Indian far Northwest, pp. 129–47 in (Ubelaker, D. H., ed.) Handbook of North America Indians, vol. 3. Environment, Origins, and Population. Smithsonian Institution: Washington, DC.

Erlandson, J. M. 1994. Early Hunter-Gatherers of the California Coast. Plenum: New York.

Erlandson, J. M., Moss, M. L. & Des Lauriers, M. 2008. Living on the edge: early maritime cultures of the Pacific Coast of North America. Quaternary Science Reviews 27 (23–4): 2232–45.Google Scholar

Erlandson, J. M. & Rick, T. C. 2002. Late Holocene cultural developments along the Santa Barbara coast, pp. 166–82 in (Erlandson, J. M. & Jones, T. L., eds.) Catalysts to Complexity: Late Holocene Societies of the California Coast. Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, University of California: Los Angeles.

Etnier, M. A. 2002. The Effects of Human Hunting on Northern Fur Seal (Callorhinus ursinus) Migration and Breeding Distributions in the Late Holocene. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Washington.

Fedje, D. W. 2003. Ancient landscapes and archaeology in Haida Gwaii and Hecate Strait, pp. 29–38 in (Carlson, R. L., ed.) Archaeology of Coastal British Columbia: Essays in honour of Professor Philip M. Hobler. Archaeology Press, Simon Fraser University: Burnaby, Canada.

Firestone, R. B., West, A., Kennett, J. P., Becker, L., Bunch, T. E., Revay, Z. S., Schultz, P. H., Belgya, T., Kennett, D. J., Erlandson, J. M., Dickenson, O. J., Goodyear, A. A., Harris, R. S., Howard, G. A., Kloosterman, J. B., Lechler, P., Mayewski, P. A., Montgomery, J., Poreda, R., Darrah, T., Que Hee, S. S., Smith, A. R., Stich, A., Topping, W., Wittke, J. H., Wolbach, W. S. 2007. Evidence for an extraterrestrial impact 12,900 years ago that contributed to the megafaunal extinctions and Younger Dryas cooling. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 104 (41): 160, 16–21.Google Scholar

Fitzgerald, R. T., Jones, T. L. & Schroth, A. 2005. Ancient long distance trade in western North America: new AMS radiocarbon dates from southern California. Journal of Archaeological Science 32 (3): 423–34.Google Scholar

Fujita, H. 2006. The Cape Region, pp. 82–98 in (Laylander, D. & Moore, J. D., eds.) The Prehistory of Baja California. University Press of Florida: Gainesville.

Gallegos, D. R. 2002. Southern California in transition: Late Holocene occupation of southern San Diego County, pp. 27–40 in (Erlandson, J. M. & Jones, T. L., eds.) Catalysts to Complexity: Late Holocene Societies of the California Coast. Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, University of California: Los Angeles.

Gamble, L. H. 2008. The Chumash World at European Contact: Power, Trade, and Feasting among Complex Hunter-Gatherers. University of California Press: Berkeley.

Gilbert, M. T. P., Jenkins, D. L., Götherstrom, A., Naveran, N., Sanchez, J. J., Hofreiter, M., Thomsen, P. F., Binladen, J., Higham, T. F. G., Yohe, R. M., II, Parr, R., Cummings, L. S. & Willerslev, E. 2008. DNA from pre-Clovis human coprolites in Oregon, North America. Science 320 (5877): 786–9.Google Scholar

Goebel, T., Waters, M. R. & O’Rourke, , D. H. 2008. The Late Pleistocene dispersal of modern humans in the Americas. Science 319 (5869): 1497–1502.

Grayson, D. K. 1993. The Desert’s Past: A Natural Prehistory of the Great Basin. Smithsonian Institution Press: Washington, DC.

Hanson, D. H. 2008. Salmon and models of social complexity on the Northwest Coast. North Pacific Prehistory 2: 121–50.Google Scholar

Hebda, R. & Whitlock, C. 1997. Environmental history, pp. 227–54 in (Schoonmaker, P. K., von Hagen, B. & Wolf, E. C., eds.) The Rainforests of Home: Profile of a North American Bioregion. Island Press: Washington, DC.

Hildebrandt, W. R. 2007. Northwest California: ancient lifeways among forested mountains, flowing rivers, and rocky Pacific shores, pp. 83–98 in (Jones, T. L. & Klar, K. A., eds.) California Prehistory: Colonization, Culture, and Complexity. AltaMira Press: New York.

Hildebrandt, W. R. & Jones, T. L. 1992. Evolution of marine mammal hunting: a view from the California and Oregon coasts. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 11: 360–401.Google Scholar

Hildebrandt, W. R. & McGuire, K. R. 2002. The ascendance of hunting during the California middle archaic: an evolutionary perspective. American Antiquity 67 (2): 231–56.Google Scholar

Hill, C. 2006. Geologic framework and glaciation of the western area, pp. 47–60 in (Ubelaker, D. H., ed.) Handbook of North America Indians, vol. 3. Environment, Origins, and Population. Smithsonian Institution: Washington, DC.

Hughes, R. E. 1994. Mosaic patterning in prehistoric California-Great Basin exchange, pp. 363–84 in (Baugh, T. G. & Ericson, J. E., eds.) Prehistoric Exchange Systems in North America. Plenum: New York.

Hyland, J. R. 2006. The central Sierras, pp. 117–34 in (Laylander, D. & Moore, J. D., eds.) The Prehistory of Baja California. University Press of Florida: Gainesville.

Jackson, T. K. & Ericson, J. E. 1994. Prehistoric exchange systems in California, pp. 385–415 in (Baugh, T. G. & Ericson, J. E., eds.) Prehistoric Exchange Systems in North America. Plenum: New York.

Jones, T. L., Brown, G., Raab, L. M., McVickar, J., Spaulding, G., Kennett, D. J., York, A. & Walker, P. L. 1999. Environmental imperatives reconsidered: demographic crises in western North America during the Medieval Climatic Anomaly. Current Anthropology 40 (2): 137–56.Google Scholar

Jones, T. L., Fitzgerald, R. T., Kennett, D. J., Miksicek, C. H., Fagan, J. L., Sharp, J. & Erlandson, J. M. 2002. The Cross Creek Site (CA-SLO-1797) and its implications for New World colonization. American Antiquity 67 (2): 213–30.Google Scholar

Jones, T. L. & Klar, K. A. 2005. Diffusionism reconsidered: linguisitic and archaeological evidence for prehistoric Polynesian contact with southern California. American Antiquity 70 (3): 457–84.Google Scholar

Jones, T. L., Porcasi, J. F., Gaeta, J. & Codding, B. F. 2008. The Diablo Canyon fauna: a coarse-grained record of trans-Holocene foraging from the central California mainland coast. American Antiquity 7 (2): 289–316.Google Scholar

Kennedy, M. A. 2004. An Investigation of Hunter-Gatherer Shellfish Foraging Practices: Archaeological and Geochemical Evidence from Bodega Bay, California. Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Davis.

Kennett, D. J. 2005. The Island Chumash: Behavioral Ecology of a Maritime Society. University of California Press: Berkeley.

Kennett, D. J. & Kennett, J. P. 2000. Competitive and cooperative responses to climate instability in coastal southern California. American Antiquity 65 (2): 379–95.Google Scholar

Kennett, D. J., Kennett, J. P., Erlandson, J. M. & Cannariato, K. G. 2007. Human responses to Middle Holocene climate change on California’s Channel Islands. Quaternary Science Reviews 26 (3–4): 351–67.Google Scholar

Kennett, D. J., Kennett, J. P., West, G. J., Erlandson, J. M., Johnson, J. R., Hendy, I. L., West, A., Culleton, B. J., Jones, T. L. & Stafford, T. W., Jr. 2008. Wildfire and abrupt ecosystem disruption on California’s northern Channel Islands at the Ållerød-Younger Dryas Boundary (13.0–12.9 ka). Quaternary Science Review 27 (27–8): 2528–43.Google Scholar

Kennett, J. P. & Ingram, B. L. 1995. A 20,000-year record of ocean circulation and climate change from the Santa Barbara Basin. Nature 377: 510–14.Google Scholar

Lambert, P. M. 1994. War and Peace on the Western Front: a Study of Violent Conflict and Its Correlates in Prehistoric Hunter-Gatherer Societies of Coastal California. Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Santa Barbara.

Laylander, D. & Moore, J. D. 2006. The Prehistory of Baja California. University Press of Florida: Gainesville.

Lepofsky, D., Lertzman, K., Hallett, D. & Mathews, R. 2005. Climate change and culture change on the southern coast of British Columbia 2400–1200 cal. B.P.: an hypothesis. American Antiquity 70 (2): 267–94.Google Scholar

Lightfoot, K. G. 1993. Long-term developments in complex hunter-gatherer societies: recent perspectives from the Pacific coast of North America. Journal of Archaeological Research 1 (3): 167–202.Google Scholar

Lillard, J. B., Heizer, R. F. & Fenenga, F. 1939. An Introduction to the Archeology of Central California. Department of Anthropology Bulletin 2. Sacramento Junior College: Sacramento, CA.

Lyman, R. L. 1991. Prehistory of the Oregon Coast. Academic Press: San Diego, CA.

Massey, W. C. 1966. Archaeology and ethnohistory of lower California, pp. 38–58 in (Eckholm, G. F. & Willey, G. R., eds.) Handbook of Middle American Indians, vol. 4. Archaeological Frontiers and External Connections. University of Texas Press: Austin.

Masters, P. M. & Aiello, I. 2007. Postglacial evolution of coastal environments, pp. 35–52 in (Jones, T. L. & Klar, K. A., eds.) California Prehistory: Colonization, Culture, and Complexity. AltaMira Press: New York.

Matson, R. G. & Coupland, G. 1995. The Prehistory of the Northwest Coast. Academic Press: New York.

Meltzer, D. J. 2009. First Peoples in a New World. University of California Press: Berkeley.

Molto, J. E. & Kennedy, B. V. 1991. Diet of the Las Palmas Culture of the Cape Region, Baja California sur. Pacific Coast Archaeological Society Quarterly 27 (4): 47–59.Google Scholar

Moratto, M. J. 1984. California Archaeology. Academic Press: New York.

Newsome, S., Phillips, D. L., Culleton, B. J., Guilderson, T. P. & Koch, P. L. 2004. Dietary reconstruction of an early to Middle Holocene human population from the central California coast: insights from advanced stable isotope mixing models. Journal of Archaeological Science 31 (8): 1101–15.Google Scholar

Pettigrew, R. M. 1990. Prehistory of the Lower Columbia and Willamette Valley, pp. 518–29 in (Suttles, W.. ed.) Handbook of North America Indians, vol. 7. Northwest Coast: Smithsonian Institution: Washington, DC.

Preston, W. P. 2004. Serpent in Eden: dispersal of foreign diseases into pre-mission California, pp. 184–202 in (L. M. Raab & T. L. Jones, eds.) Prehistoric California: Archaeology and the Myth of Paradise. University of Utah Press: Salt Lake City.

Raab, L. M., Cassidy, J., Yatsko, A. & Howard, W. 2009. Mariners to Messiahs: New Perspectives on Maritime Prehistory from San Clemente Island, California. University of Utah Press: Salt Lake City.

Rick, T. C. & Erlandson, J. M. 2008. Human Impacts on Ancient Marine Ecosystems: A Global Perspective. University of California Press: Berkeley.

Ross, R. E. 1990. Prehistory of the Oregon Coast, pp. 554–9 in (Suttles, W., ed.) Handbook of North America Indians, vol. 7. Northwest Coast. Smithsonian Institution: Washington, DC.

Sassaman, K. E. 2004. Complex hunter-gatherers in evolution and history: a North American perspective. Journal of Archaeological Research 12 (3): 227–80.Google Scholar

Southon, J. 2002. A first step to reconciling the GRIP and GISP2 ice-core chronologies, 0–14,500 yr. b.p. Quaternary Research 57 (1): 32–7.Google Scholar

Stanford, D. 2006. Paleo-Indian: introduction, pp. 16–22 in (Ubelaker, D. H., ed.) Handbook of North America Indians, vol. 3. Environment, Origins, and Population. Smithsonian Institution: Washington, DC.

Stine, S. 1994. Extreme and persistent drought in California and Patagonia during mediaeval time. Nature 369: 546–9.Google Scholar

Suttles, W. 1990. Environment, pp. 16–29 in (Suttles, W., ed.) Handbook of North America Indians, vol. 7. Northwest Coast. Smithsonian Institution: Washington, DC.

Sutton, M. Q., Basgall, M. E., Gardner, J. K. & Allen, M. W. 2007. Advances in understanding Mojave Desert prehistory, pp. 229–46 in (Jones, T. L. & Klar, K. A., eds.) California Prehistory: Colonization, Culture, and Complexity. AltaMira Press: New York.

Tushingham, S. 2009. The Development of Intensive Foraging Systems in Northwestern California. Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Davis.

Waters, M. R. & Stafford, T. W. 2007. Redefining the age of Clovis: implications for the peopling of the Americas. Science 315 (5815): 122–6.Google Scholar

West, G. J., Woolfenden, W., Wanket, J. A. & Anderson, S. 2007. Late Pleistocene and Holocene environments, pp. 11–35 in (Jones, T. L. & Klar, K. A., eds.) California Prehistory: Colonization, Culture, and Complexity. AltaMira Press: New York.