Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T21:26:37.494Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Datable Chumash Pictograph from Santa Barbara County, California

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

James Deetz
James Deetz*
Affiliation:
University of California, Santa Barbara, University, California
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Pictographs in southern California, while spectacular, are of little interpretive value to the archaeologist unless they can be assigned a date and a cultural affiliation. The nature of most pictograph sites has precluded any normal archaeological dating, such as through portable art found in stratified cave fill. A sandstone slab recovered from a historic Chumash site in 1961 bears recognizable pictographs which make it possible to assign at least some of the cave pictographs to the Chumash during the late 18th century. Although it is still not possible to determine the function of pictographic art in Chumash culture, its presence in villages suggests a somewhat different distribution of these paintings than was formerly suspected.

Type
Facts and Comments
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 29 , Issue 4 , April 1964 , pp. 504 - 506
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1964

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.)

References

Deeiz, James and Dethlefsen, Edwin 1963 Soil pH as a Tool in Archaeological Interpretation. American Antiquity, Vol. 29, No. 2, pp. 242–3. Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Fenenga, F. 1949 Methods of Recording and Present Status of Knowledge Concerning Petroglyphs in California. Reports of the California Archaeological Survey, No. 3. Berkeley.Google Scholar
Fergusson, E. J. and Libby, W. F. 1962 U. C. L. A. Radiocarbon Dates, No. II. Institute of Physics, University of California at Los Angeles. Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Grant, Campbell 1963 The Chumash Indians of California and Their Rock Paintings. MS, Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, Santa Barbara.Google Scholar
Movius, H. and Judson, Sheldon 1956 The Rock Shelter of La Colombiére. American School of Prehistoric Research, Bulletin 19. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Steward, Julian 1929 Petroglyphs of California and Adjoining States. University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology, Vol. 24, No. 2. Berkeley.Google Scholar