WELCOME TO VENTURA COUNTY ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY

Happening Now: Virtual Speaker Series

During this time, we offer Speakers in a safe manner by virtual remote meetings!

VCAS members will automatically receive a link via email for admission to the presentation.

All are welcome and please consider joining our great group!

Non-members and guests interested in joining our presentation and to be admitted to the meeting. should email VCAS.ARCH@gmail.com

Links are non-transferable

November 12th, 2024 at 7pm via Zoom

Mr. Nick Hearth, M.A., RPA

Presentation: So, You Want to Get Paid to be an Archaeologist?: The How-Tos

Nick Hearth, M.A., RPA, will present his advice and core professional benchmarks as a practicing archaeologist with over 20 years of experience in CRM archaeology (and a little bit in academics). Yes, he’s heard “What are you going to do with a degree in anthropology?” from concerned parents. Yes, he’s worked year-round in areas where the ground freezes. Yes, he worked continuously since before completing his bachelor’s degree. Yes, it’s hard work, but is it still ‘work’ if it’s fun? If these thoughts or comments have dogged you, but you are still interested in having a career working every day as an archaeologist, you are in the right place.

Nick will explain what CRM is, talk about the kind of projects you’d likely work on when first starting, give some company examples, explain the requirements of different roles and positions, some laws mandating and regulating the industry, and what professional advancement entails. The all-important, what kind of pay can be expected, will, of course, be discussed!

After completing his archaeological field school in Santa Barabara, Honduras, Nick started in CRM while working toward his bachelor’s degree as an archaeological laboratory technician at the University of Massachusetts Archaeology Services. After graduating, he continued to work there as Lab Director and a Field Technician but also shovel bummed around with another firm in Connecticut for a few years before returning to the archaeology of Central America by joining the Yalahau Region Human Ecology Research Project in Quintana Roo, Mexico. This led to an opportunity to start graduate school at the University of California, Riverside. Having been bitten by the experimental archaeology bug at the Lithic Technology Laboratory at UCR, he continued his work in the Yalahau with his graduate advisor for a couple of seasons but kept his hands in the private sector at a CRM firm in southern California. After publishing about the lack of flaked stone technology in Yalahua, he thought it best to move on to a region with many stone tools and artifacts. At the site of Chan, near the Belize and Guatemala border, there were hundreds of thousands relating to domestic-scale production of stone axes, just waiting for analysis.

While this work has been published, completing a PhD just wasn’t in the cards for Nick, and he continued to work first in Utah and Nevada, then in the Upper Midwest, and a swing through the Southwest in New Mexico on his way back to New England. Upon returning to California in 2011, he has worked here continuously and has been lucky enough to lead all phases of archaeology, from simple desktop reviews to extensive excavations. Working with Tribes has always been a passion of Nick’s after spending summers on the La Courte Oreilles Reservation as a teenager, and his professional career has provided opportunities to collaborate with tribes across California. He is now part of a broad multidisciplinary team of archaeologists, paleontologists, architectural historians, planners, biologists, visual resource specialists, and ecological restoration specialists. His career has evolved, and now he leads a fantastic team managing the cultural resources on large-scale utility projects, works on private land developments, guest lectures, and helps clients achieve their project goals.

October 8th, 2024 at 7pm via Zoom

Dr. Colleen Delaney

Presentation: Rancho Guadalasca: Microcosm of Ventura County's Past and Present

Join Dr. Colleen Delaney for a  5,000 year journey through Ventura County history. Dr. Delaney will discuss her recent book, Rancho Guadalasca: Last Ranch of California's Central Coast. A Mexican land grant awarded in 1836, Rancho Guadalasca lay at the western end of the Santa Monica Mountains along the eastern Oxnard Plain. Grantee Ysabel Yorba, an illiterate widow who successfully managed the ranch for over 35 years, is just one of many fascinating people who once lived there. Indigenous Chumash, Californio ranchers, Anglo-American farmers, Japanese fishermen, and Basque sheepherders all left their marks on the land, along with local institutions like Camarillo State Hospital and CSU Channel Islands.

Link for Book Purchase: https://square.link/u/8XIh9f1o
Total cost is $30.73 (25.74 with tax, plus $5 shipping)

Colleen M. Delaney spent her childhood interested in history, stories, and special places as her family moved frequently, ultimately calling eight U.S. states and Germany home. She channeled these interests into degrees in archaeological anthropology and museum studies. She uses archaeology, anthropology, oral history, and history to tell the stories of the past and present in Ventura County, California.

September 10th, 2024 @ 7pm via Zoom

Dr. Anabel Ford

Presentation: The Ancient Maya of El Pilar : A Classic Maya City Under the Canopy

The major Maya center El Pilar, found and mapped in the context of regional surveys from 1983-1989, was the subject of excavations from 1993-2004 to develop a construction chronology and understand its antiquity. The ancient monuments are surrounded by 2,334 “housemounds” that were mapped guided by Lidar from 2014- 2023.

This presentation will provide an overview of the constructions at El Pilar, and trace the expansion from the Preclassic into the Late Classic. Temples, palaces, and plazas make up the ancient monuments that are centered in a binational protected area called the El Pilar Archaeological Reserve for Maya Flora and Fauna. The monumental core stretches from the Preclassic Citadel on the east in Belize, across the main core then along a causeway to Pilar Poniente of the west in Guatemala.

The Classic Maya El Pilar was once a city of more than 4,000 persons dominating a greater 1,300 sq km area with an estimated population of 182,000. The city’s domestic structures that surround the monumental core number 2,334 and are grouped into 725 primary residential groups and 495 secondary residential units of single structures. Located on the well-drained uplands at the ecotone of the interior Petén with some of the best agricultural soils, the site overlooks the Belize River valley and supported an average some 200 persons per sq km, greater than the Ming dynasty China.

We look at the land use and subsistence strategies of the Maya milpa forest garden system and demonstrate how this sophisticated system observed at the conquest and known today is resilient and flexible as it emerged under conditions of significant climate change. Our intention at El Pilar is to highlight the living art of the Maya forest garden by proposing a new archaeological interpretation of ancient monuments that leaves to the imagination. We are engaging the local farmers in managing the forest as a garden at El Pilar and leverage the natural resource ethics that promote the conservation of the flora and fauna by promoting Archaeology Under the Canopy.

Dr. Anabel Ford is an archaeologist and anthropologist, a specialist in the Maya lowlands for more than four decades. Since 1986, she has been the director of the MesoAmerican Research Center (MARC) at the University of California at Santa Barbara. In 2000 she became the founding President of the non-profit Exploring Solutions Past that promotes the Maya forest Garden and El Pilar.

In 1983, developing a cultural and historical ecological investigation studying the regional, intersite, and intrasite ancient Maya settlement patterns, she encountered the Maya forest city, El Pilar, straddling Belize and Guatemala. Her intensive investigations at El Pilar began in 1993 – and continue to the present. Ford has recently incorporated the new technology of LiDAR to her survey work. Among the numerous results of her research, one of her central objectives has been promoting the protection of the El Pilar as a binational “Peace Park” and to build confidence among the people of Belize and Guatemala with Archaeology Under the Canopy.

The academic research project developed by Dr. Ford focuses on topics the incorporate: Relations between humans being and the environment; Complex societies and pre-industrial economies; Strategies for the conservation of the forest and cultural heritage; Maya traditional knowledge; Sustainability with climate change and use of the natural resources. Community outreach projects are the domain of the non-profit organization Exploring Solutions Past to promote the values of the Maya forest and the exchange and succession of knowledge on forest management.

Dr. Anabel Ford has written more than a hundred articles, as well as books, focused on the Maya. She has directed more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate theses and encourages volunteers and interns on her project. Among numerous awards and recognitions, Ford has been the beneficiary of uninterrupted financing thanks to the transdisciplinary approach of her project. She has also been honored three times with the Fulbright award; is on the list of eminent scientists, awarded the Rolex Award for her initiative to protect cultural heritage, and recognized by the United States Senate as educator of the year.

Her sensitive and unique anthropological and archaeological vision, reflected in the development of her remarkable transdisciplinary project, integrating by specialists from archaeology, botany, geography, soil science, among other sciences, represents a break with the hypothesis that the Mayas caused its decline as a result of a overpopulation and environmental degradation. Founded on empirical data, Dr. Ford states that the Maya achieved a successful balance with their environment and that their skills, methods, and techniques should be applied today.

May 14, 2024 @ 7pm VIA Zoom

DR. RANDEE FLADEBOE

Dr. Randee Fladeboe of the Environmental Archaeology Program at the Florida Museum of Natural History and adjunct professor of Anthropology at Santa Fe College in Gainesville. Dr. Fladeboe, is currently focused on revealing how several major populations occupying prehistoric Southwestern U.S. and Northern Mexico between approximately A.D.800 and 1450 traded and raised gloriously colored scarlet macaws (Ara macao) imported from numerous southern tropical habitats. She links numerous research disciplines including zooarchaeology, archaeology, zoology, ethology, and ethnography to reconstruct the relationships between the humans and birds, defining the lives and meaning of these birds: how they were kept from both an instrumental view (i.e., the practical techniques utilized to maintain them), along with the rationality that governed the treatment of macaws as quasi-human beings within these societies. This interpretive framework draws from Amerindian ontological precepts of animism and familiarization and allows insights into the complex network of relationships and ethical obligations to other creatures that structured the daily lives and metaphysical realities of past Indigenous peoples.

April 9th, 2024 @ 7pm VIA ZOOM

Dr. Jelmer Eerkens

Presentation: Archaeoforensics and Human Identification: Recent examples from Late 18th and 19th Century San Francisco Bay Area

Improvements in analytical techniques in bioarchaeology, such as proteomics, stable isotopes, chromatography, and ancient DNA, open new possibilities for human identification in archaeological contexts. In addition to helping give names to human remains, this growing field of “Archaeoforensics” (not be confused with “Forensic Archaeology”) also facilitates life history reconstruction of people that gives us a richer perspective on their lived experiences. This talk will focus on three recent case studies, one from the late 1700s, one from the 1870s, and one from the 1890s, all from the San Francisco Bay Area, where we were able to compare bioarchaeological information with historical records, and make a strong case for the identity of the remains. My goal in the talk is to help introduce some of the analytical techniques we use, as well as “flesh out” the lived experiences of these three people.

Dr. Jelmer Eerkens is a professor of Anthropology, and a member of the Forensic Sciences Graduate Group, at UC Davis, where he directs the Archaeometry lab. His research centers on reconstructing life histories of people from archaeological contexts, and how the experiences of individuals vary within societies. He is especially interested in using archaeometric techniques to tell the stories of people who did not, or were unable to, write down their own history, including children and the socially marginalized. 

March 12th, 2024 at 7pm Via Zoom

MS. Stephanie Rice

Presentation: The Baskets of Berenike: A look at the basketry, cordage, and matting used in life and death at a Ptolemaic-Roman port on the Red Sea coast

Berenike is a unique port city that was founded by Ptolemy II in the 3rd century BCE to import elephants into Egypt for use in war. It was later used by the Romans to connect Egypt with trade routes across the Indian Ocean. The basketry, cordage, and matting found at this site provide a look at the way techniques and materials traversed long-distance trade networks to be used in the daily lives and burial practices of the people who lived in this port city.

Stephanie is an Egyptologist who specializes in basketry. After deciding it was time for a career change, she went to Moorpark College and gained her first archaeological experience in Ventura County. Then she transferred to UCLA where she studied Egyptology and discovered an interest in researching baskets. She recently returned from an excavation in Egypt where she worked in a field lab to study the basketry, cordage, and matting excavated from the Ptolemaic-Roman port of Berenike.

February 13th, 2024 at 7pm Via Zoom

Ms. Donna P. Crilly, M.A.

Presentation: Working CRM in traditional Stó:lō territory in the Fraser Valley, British Columbia

The Fraser Valley in Southern British Columbia has been home to the Stó:lō peoples since time immemorial. Stó:lō, meaning “river” in Halq’emeylem, refers to what is known by westerners as the Fraser River in traditional S'ólh Téméxw territory, which stretches eastward from the greater Vancouver area along the Stó:lō/Fraser River. The Stó:lō Nation is a political amalgamation of several Stó:lo communities in S'ólh Téméxw, which was formed in order to protect, revive, and maintain Stó:lō identity and cultural values. Likewise, not all First Nations and bands within S'ólh Téméxw identify with the Stó:lō Nation political entity, and affiliation with the political entity shifts depending on many factors. Despite shifting politics, the main takeaway here is that the Fraser Valley is home to thriving, culturally rich and diverse First Nation communities.

Ms. Crilly will discuss her experience working in cultural resource management in British Columbia, in S'ólh Téméxw in particular, for the Stó:lō Research and Resource Management Centre (SRRMC), part of the non-profit Stó:lō Service Agency and Stó:lō Nation political entity. British Columbia has its own set of archaeological regulations, distinct from other Canadian provinces and governed largely by the Heritage Conservation Act (HCA), which protects heritage sites and resources dated before 1846. Working in S'ólh Téméxw for SRRMC, one must prioritize the needs of the Stó:lō peoples, whose cultural heritage continued well beyond 1846, while likewise operating under the HCA. 

Ms. Crilly received a Masters of Arts in Cultural Anthropology from Cal State Northridge, graduating with distinction in 2023. Her thesis, “Hopepunk as a process: hope in times of crisis,” was selected for the 2023 Carol McWirter Best Thesis award.

January 9th, 2024 at 7pm via Zoom

Dr. Lee Panich

Presentation: Unearthing Indigenous Histories at the California Missions

Archaeological investigations at numerous California missions provide new insights into the lives of Native people during the colonial period. While archival documents offer evidence of the overall impacts of the mission system on California’s Indigenous societies, few observers wrote about the daily lives of the thousands of men, women, and children who inhabited the missions. Through excavations within the Native rancherías associated with missions across the region, archaeologists are filling in the gaps in the documentary record to reveal the persistence of Native Californian cultural practices. The material evidence offers clues to clandestine activities within the mission estate as well as previously undocumented connections to autonomous communities in the colonial hinterlands. These findings encourage us to rethink the scholarly and popular portrayal of Native Californians during the mission period.

Lee Panich is a Professor of Anthropology at Santa Clara University. In his research and teaching, he uses a combination of archaeological, ethnographic, and archival data to examine the long-term interactions between California’s Indigenous societies and colonial institutions, particularly the mission system. He has conducted investigations of Native life at various colonial-era sites in central California as well as at Mission Santa Catalina in Baja California, Mexico. On these projects, he has partnered with the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe and other Native Californian communities. Among other publications, Lee is the author of Narratives of Persistence: Indigenous Negotiations of Colonialism in Alta and Baja California (2020).

December 12, 2023 at 7pm

HYBRID Meeting: IN PERSON / ZOOM

In person Location: Anderson Hall at Stagecoach Inn

Dr. Matthew Des Lauriers

Presentation: Two ends of a fluid "History"

The earliest entry of people into the Americas is a question that has been central to both the Oral Traditions of First Nations Peoples as well as the learning process that more recent arrivals have engaged in (sometimes very poorly) over the last 500 years.  Many new ideas have been proposed, and older notions reexamined over the last 20 years.  Where does the state of knowledge stand in 2023?  Some perspectives and a few new discoveries from the Californias may contribute to this understanding.  On the other end of the spectrum, we are coming to terms with a long history of Colonialist views and research into the history of Native People of the Americas.  Not the "People without History" as earlier generations of Western scholars termed them, but a resilient, proud people who have survived into the 21st Century.  Recent legislative gains and increases in their ability to have their voices heard, not just in the media, but in the halls of political decision-making have changed some of the dynamics of how Tribal people engage with history.  Some insights and thoughts on how this can be an opportunity to build a better archaeology not just for California, but for the world, can be discussed.

Matthew Des Lauriers is an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the
California State University, San Bernardino and Director of the M.A. in Applied Archaeology.
His recent research focuses on the Coastal Archaeology of Baja California, México, working on issues of human migration in the
Americas, hunting and gathering ecology, landscape learning and ancient technologies. He
earned his PhD in Anthropology from the University of California, Riverside, in 2005. His
first book, Island of Fogs (2010), based on the ground-breaking research on the
archaeology of Isla Cedros, Baja California, won the prestigious Book of the Year award
from the Society for American Archaeology.

November 14, 2023 at 7pm

RAFAELLA LISBOA, M.A., RPA 

Presentation: The Central Role of Fiber on Isla Cedros: Crafting the Earliest Maritime Hunter- Gatherers of Baja California

Her presentation will explore the lithic and shell tool technologies of the earliest occupations of Isla Cedros and will highlight the central role of fiber production in these early maritime societies.  Using quantitative analysis, Ms. Lisboa will detail how archaeological data from three early occupation sites on the island are used to define the technological traditions that involved use of fiber and were associated with maritime subsistence practices of Terminal Pleistocene/Early Holocene life on the island. Putting fiber at the center of archaeological inquiry helps close the gap between the fishhooks and the person who fished; it also helps bridge the gap between variety of fish species found in the archaeological record and the people who worked together to gather and eat them. These archaeological data reveal a well-established technological organization based on marine resources and the use of fibers, suggesting that the focus on marine resources was not the result of an adaptation driven by lack of terrestrial resources, but rather an ever-present maritime culture.

Ms. Lisboa received her Master’s Degree in Public Archaeology with distinction from California State University, Northridge. She is currently Project Manager for the Pasadena Office of SWCA Environmental Consultants.

October 10, 2023 at 7pm

Dr. Steven Shackley, Emeritus Professor of Geoarchaeology, University of California, Berkeley

Presentation: Natural and Cultural History of Obsidian Butte, Imperial County, California

Obsidian Butte is volumetrically the largest source of archaeological obsidian in southern Alta California, and northern Baja California.  Located above the San Andreas fault in Imperial County, California the dome complex erupted during the Holocene about 2 ka during the southern California Late Archaic.  During six in-fillings of Lake Cahuilla during the Holocene, the source was underwater and unavailable.  When the Patayan ancestors of the Kumeyaay moved from what is now Arizona and the western shores of Lake Cahuilla, they brought the obsidian into southern California and maintained territorial possession of the source until the modern period.  While Obsidian Butte was not the only source used in far southern California and northern Baja California, it is numerically dominant during the Late Prehistoric and has been found in late period sites throughout San Diego, Imperial Counties and sporadically in Riverside, Orange, and Los Angeles Counties in diminishing frequency moving north.  This lecture will include discussions of the geological origin and cultural history of this important source of archaeological obsidian in far southern California and northern Baja California.

M. Steven Shackley is Emeritus Professor of Geoarchaeology, University of California, Berkeley, and Director of the Geoarchaeological XRF Laboratory, Albuquerque, New Mexico (http://swxrflab.net/swobsrcs.htm). Shackley is the recipient of the Society for American Archaeology's Fryxell Medal for Interdisciplinary Research (Physical Science) in 2019 and the Award for Excellence in Archaeological Analysis in 2011. He received undergraduate degrees in Environmental Geology and Anthropology from San Diego State University (1979), a Master's degree in anthropology from SDSU (1981), and a PhD in Anthropology from Arizona State University (1990). Field and laboratory work in archaeological geochemistry includes all continents, particularly the Caucasus in Russia for Neanderthal obsidian procurement, East Africa for early hominid obsidian studies, Mesoamerican obsidian studies, but mainly the North American Southwest since the mid-1980s.  Since the mid-1980s Shackley has directed the Southwest Archaeological Obsidian Project, of which Obsidian Butte and the northern Baja California obsidian sources are a part.

September 12, 2023 at 7pm

Mr. Austin Ringelstein & Ms. Alexis N. Francois

Presentation: We are Still Here: Past, Present, and Future at an African American Homestead in the Santa Monica Mountains

The speakers will be Austin Ringelstein, Senior Archaeologist for PAX Environmental, Inc., and Alexis N. Francois, Lead Archaeologist with the Bureau of Land Management, Barstow Field Office (California Desert District) and lecturer in anthropology at California State University Northridge (CSUN). Their combined presentation is based on archaeological investigation and artifacts discovered at the Alice Ballard (nee Boinettio) homestead in our nearby Santa Monica Mountains which were exposed after the massive 2018 Woolsey Fire. This site provides a special opportunity to investigate lifeways from the Jim Crow civil rights era of American history.

Ms. Francois received a BA in anthropology from UCLA and an MA in public archaeology from CSUN. She has participated in many California cultural resource management projects and has specialized in archaeology as it deals with groups that have special and direct connections with the land. She is the author of numerous articles, especially including some dealing with bio-archaeology, Blacks in the American West, and public land management.

Austin has 12 years of experience in California archaeology, including 7 years with the National Park Service Santa Monica National Recreation area. He has a BS from the U.S. Naval Academy, an MA from the University of California Santa Cruz, and an MA in Public Archaeology from CSUN.

May 9th, 2023 at 7pm

Al Knight

Presentation: The Warpath to Cahuenga: The story of Native American participation in the conquest of California during the Mexican-American War

The Naval Battalion of Mounted Volunteer Riflemen, or the California Battalion, was one of the most ethnically diverse military formations in American history. The battalion was commanded by John C. Fremont, future candidate for President of the United States. When at full strength in November 1846, the battalion consisted of some 428 men, about 60 of which were Native Americans from half a dozen different tribes.  This is their story.

Al has been working in California archaeology (field work and report writing) for more than 40 years and has also served as an Anthropology Associate at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History.  He is also a consultant with the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians and the Fernandeno-Tataviam Band of Mission Indians.  In Ventura County he recently participated as field director at the Saticoy Village site and as field director of the field survey and national register of historic places nomination for the Mt. Pinos traditional cultural property.  He is the author of approximately 30 published papers on Native American rock art, ethnography, and history, and is the founder and chair of the California Rock Art Project.

March 14th, 2023 at 7pm

DR.Amy Gusick

Presentation: Terrestrial sediments on the seafloor: Refining archaeological paleoshoreline estimates and Paleoenvironmental reconstruction off the California coast

On global, regional, and local scales, sea level histories and paleoshoreline reconstructions are critical to understanding the deep history of human adaptations in island and coastal settings. The distance of any individual site from the coast strongly influences decisions about the transport of coastal resources and has a direct impact on human settlement and resources procurement strategies. Our ability, then, to identify relic productive habitats, such as wetlands, that were subaerial during time periods relevant to human occupation, is critical to models of human settlement and resource patterning that guide our search to identify cultural resources. Accurate location of productive habitats becomes more critical when searching for terminal Pleistocene sites submerged by postglacial marine transgression. While paleoshoreline reconstructions and sea level histories can provide a baseline for identifying drowned and ancient coastal ecosystems, post-transgressive sediment deposited on the seafloor can skew acute paleoshoreline location. To correct for this, we used sub-bottom profiling data from the southern California Coast to determine revised paleoshoreline locations and to identify sonar signatures indicative of paleogeographic contexts that may harbor wetland environments. These data were used to define core sample locations that resulted in the identification of submerged, preserved paleosols. The paleosols data have provided information on ancient landscapes and relic habitats that were subaerial prior to postglacial sea level rise. In our study area on the continental shelf off the California Channel Islands archipelago, the paleosols correspond to a critical period of shifting habitats, evolving landscapes, species extinctions, and the arrival of humans into a rapidly changing ecosystem.

Dr. Gusick is Curator of Anthropology and Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) Officer at the Natural History Museum Los Angeles County. As an archaeologist she researches human-environmental dynamics, the development of maritime societies, peopling of the Americas, and maritime cultural landscapes. Dr. Gusick uses both terrestrial and underwater archaeological methods in her studies, which have been supported by the National Science Foundation, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Geographic Society, the National Park Service, and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, among others. Since joining the Natural History Museum in 2018, her field research has increasingly focused on maritime landscape studies and development of technologies and methods to increase efficiency in underwater archaeology. Her work with collections at the museum has focused on providing access to descendant populations and collaborative projects that uplift Indigenous histories.

February 14th, 2023 at 7pm

MR. neil thompsett, M.A.

Presentation: In favor of February, Mr. Thompsett has prepared a brief history of the valentine’s day holiday presentation for the VCAS. The evening will cover its origins, its myths, and why American society is so obsessed with chocolates, roses, teddy bears, and hallmark cards. Please join President Thompsett, as we partake in a historical exploration of Valentine’s Day.

Current VCAS President Neil Thompsett, M.A. is a working CRM Archaeologist employed by PanGIS, Inc. Thompsett graduated with a Master in Anthropology from the California State University of Northridge. During his time at CSUN, he was a graduate research fellow for ARCS studying NASA’s JPL. Thompsett has had an interest in two core things: Stories, and Archaeology. He is fascinated by Paleo, Pre-contact, ancient trade routes, and many other historical aspects of California Archaeology. He had spent two years as an excavation volunteer at the La Brea Tar Pits. He was also a Freelance writer of history articles for the website www.ancient-origins.net. Under the alias “B.B. Wagner”.

Before Mr. Thompsett returned to Graduate School, he had a decade-long career as a VFX artist, supervisor, and global trainer in Mumbai, India, Jinan China, and Vancouver, BC Canada. Most of his work specialized in the digital reconstruction of faces, digital makeup, removal of anomalies and artifacts (not what you arch’s think), rig removal, and going to different countries to collaborate with international VFX artists and the global cultures inspired by western cinema.

January 10th, 2023 at 7pm

Dr. Chester King

Synopsis: I am researching the problem of why nations form. I am using mission records, Harrington notes and published sources to obtain a greater understanding of the social organization of southern California nations at the time of European contact. My presentation will include a discussion of how Quemeya organization differed from that of Takic speaking people to the north who lived within clan territories. It will also include information concerning Cupeño kaval clans, Luiseño clans, and the Cahuilla settlement of Jabana at Palm Spring station.

Dr. Chester King is an archaeologist with extensive experience in the archaeology of southern California and has studied California archaeology and ethnohistory since 1960. He is the sole proprietor of Topanga Anthropological Consultants. His dissertation, The Evolution of Chumash Society, describes a detailed temporal sequence of artifacts used in the area historically occupied by the Chumash and explains the changes as responses to the evolution of society. He recieved his degree from UC Davis in 1981. His publications include descriptions of Southern California archaeological sites and discussions of Chumash ethnohistory and archaeology.

December 13th, 2022 at 7pm

Annemarie Cox, Archaeologist/Marketing Manager

Presentation: Rediscovering the Mira Mar Restaurant and Hotel

The Mira Mar Restaurant in Oceanside, popular with locals and travelers along the coast road between San Diego and Los Angeles, was originally built in 1887 as the Couts family home. First converted to a restaurant in the 1930s, it expanded over the decades to include a hotel, coffee shop, and nautical-themed bar. During 2018, project excavations near the property turned up a host of artifacts from the Mira Mar’s past. This lecture, presented by Annemarie Cox, one of the archaeologists on the project, will describe how compliance archaeology can produce collections that are quite “revealing”.

Annemarie Cox, Archaeologist/Marketing Manager, is employed by PanGIS, Inc., an environmental consulting and GIS firm in Carlsbad, CA. Ms. Cox is a professional editor with experience marketing environmental and geospatial services to local, state, federal, private and public firms and agencies. She assists with customized proposal and qualification packet preparation for large scale utility, transportation and land planning projects. She provides geodatabase development for cultural and historical resources, data analysis and report writing, environmental compliance services, artifact curation, marketing, public outreach and advocacy. She has serves as California Archaeology Month coordinator for the Society for California Archaeology, is a California Project Archaeology Facilitator and has completed training as a California Site Steward for CASSP.

Ms. Cox has over 28 years of experience in the cultural resource management field. Experience includes conducting archaeological field surveys, archaeological site recording, testing, construction monitoring, and other fieldwork duties; conducting laboratory work, including prehistoric and historic artifact identification, cataloging, and analysis. Extensive experience completing Sacred Lands File and Native American Contact List (NAHC) requests, conducting records searches at CHRIS and preparing resource documentation (DPR forms) for submission to the appropriate IC.

November 8th, 2022 at 7pm

DR. JAMES SNEAD, PROFESSOR OF ANTHROPOLOGY AT CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, NORTHRIDGE

Presentation: Elizabeth Deuel and Charles Lummis: Sexual Harassment in the Archives of American Archaeology

His presentation concerns Elizabeth Deuel, a teacher and student of archaeology active in 1912-1913. Her interests brought her into contact with Charles Lummis, the noted promoter of the American West and founder of the Southwest Museum. Lummis harassed Deuel over nearly a year before she finally broke contact. Although the matter was “private” at the time, it is well-documented in various archival collections, including Lummis’s own papers. This “hidden” story of archaeology documents the human cost of such predatory activities and also requires re-assessment of “important” figures in the field such as Lummis and his associates.

Dr. Snead received his Ph.D. from UCLA in 1994 and has taught at CSUN since 2011. He has held fellowships and grants from the National Science Foundation, the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, the American Museum of Natural History, the American Antiquarian Society, the American Philosophical Society, and the Huntington Library. He is the author of several influential books including “Ruins and Rivals: The Making of Southwest Archaeology,” “Ancestral Landscapes of the Pueblo World,” and “Relic Hunters: Archaeology and the Public in Nineteenth-Century America,” which was published by Oxford University Press in 2018. His current research focuses on the history of archaeology, roads, paths, and trails in archaeological landscapes; and the historical archaeology of the Los Angeles region (particularly post-1850).

October 11th, 2022 at 7pm

Heather McDaniel McDevitt, RPA

Presentation: The Historical Context of Tribal Consultation

Ms. McDevitt’s presentation “The Historical Context of Tribal Consultation” is aimed at students, as well as new and seasoned archaeologists interested in understanding the origin of tribal consultation. This presentation will provide the history of tribal relations pre and post the formation of the United States and how these relations inform and impact current tribal consultation laws and practices. The tribal notification and consultation process is nuanced and has become increasingly dynamic and challenging. As a result, agencies are relying on cultural consultants to assist them through the process. Cultural practitioners can play a crucial role in ensuring proper and efficacious consultation is accomplished but only if they have the level of knowledge required to responsibly assist in the process

Heather McDaniel McDevitt is an archaeologist who works in the cultural resource management sector and serves as a cultural resources lead for Dudek, a nation-wide environmental firm. She conducted her graduate research on the Barbareño Chumash village of Syujtun located in present-day Santa Barbara and has experience throughout North America with a specialized geographical focus in southern and the central coast of California. Ms. McDevitt is passionate about communicating the valuable role of CRM in cultural resource preservation and how important it is to ensure we are properly training new archaeologists to enter the CRM field and retain current archaeologists by providing avenues for consistent career growth. Ms. McDevitt serves as an advisor and has provided training to professional organizations and public agencies in the proper execution of effective and respectful tribal consultation practices.

September 13th, 2022 at 7pm

Douglas Mengers, M.A., RPA – Director of Cultural Resources, PanGIS, Inc., San Diego

Linda Bentz, M.A. – Archives Committee Chair, Chinese Historical Society of Southern California, and Program Director, Ventura County Chinese American Historical Society

Presentation: Excavation of Early Chinatown and Stingaree in San Diego

Archaeological investigations for a full city block redevelopment in downtown San Diego in 2018 uncovered hundreds of artifacts associated with late 19 th and early 20 th century occupation of the site by populations not well documented. The property is located on the edge of San Diego’s former “red-light” district, known as the Stingaree, which was cleared out ahead of the Panama-California Exposition in 1915. This allowed the expansion of San Diego’s Chinatown into project area. Archaeologists recovered evidence of both Stingaree and Chinatown occupations and used artifact analysis and historic research to learn more about everyday people belonging to both groups.

Douglas Mengers is Director of Cultural Resources at PanGIS, Inc., a woman-owned environmental consulting company based in San Diego and working across the West. Mr. Mengers specializes in historical archaeology and the history of southern California and is the author of Images of Rail: San Diego Trolleys.

Linda Bentz is the Archives Committee Chair of the Chinese Historical Society of Southern California and the Program Director of the Ventura County Chinese American Historical Society and is the author of Hidden Lives: A Century of Chinese American History in Ventura County along with numerous articles on the history of the Chinese diaspora in southern California.

May 10, 2022, at 7pm

Christopher Mayo, CSUN M.A. Anthropology Candidate

Presentation: Late Holocene Fisheries of    Eel Point (CA-SCLI-43), San Clemente Island

Archaeological excavations at Eel Point, San Clemente Island (CA-SCLI-43) have yielded copious amounts of piscine material.  Fish were by far the most ubiquitous vertebrate faunal class found in late Holocene, Eel Point maritime cultural deposits and were an integral part of the subsistence economy.  Consequently, this study is focused on Loci A, C, and D archaeoichthyofaunal assemblages with samples drawn from units 24.5S/77E, 26N/20, 21E and 2N/35E. Icthyoarchaeological datasets from these units have indicated a continued reliance by the inhabitants on California sheephead (Semicossyphus pulcher) and rockfish (Sebastes spp.) with little variation in economic importance.  Further analyses of 24.5S/77E piscine material have revealed that California sheephead populations were not impacted by harvesting pressures, as sheephead size remained relatively constant throughout the occupational history of the unit.  More importantly, however, these datasets can be integrated with future southern Channel Islands fishery conservation management policies and protocols.  Protection of these vital resources should be paramount as we have begun to fish down the Channel Islands marine food webs.  Baseline datasets from this study could potentially address this issue by facilitating the return of San Clemente Island marine habitats and fish stocks to a more ecologically ‘pristine’ state.

Chris Mayo is a third year CSUN M.A. Anthropology candidate.  He has interned at STRI in Panama with Dr. Thomas Wake.    

March 8th, 2022 at 7pm

Dr. John r. Johnson

Curator of Anthropology

Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History

Presentation: Tracing California Indians beyond the Mission Period: A Northern Chumash Example

In 2020, the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors directed PG&E to undertake ethnohistorical and genealogical research to identify descendants of five Northern Chumash rancherías that once existed in the Pecho Coast region. Using the technique sometimes called “reverse genealogy,” the first step was to use mission records to identify ancestors who came from these five rancherías and then follow their descendants forward through time. The existence of an 1841 padrón, created by the administrator of Mission San Luis Obispo after secularization, was a great boon to this research. Eight families listed in the 1841 padrón include virtually all Diablo Lands descendants identified in mission records who lacked burial entries, thus indicating their survival into Post-Mission times. These families therefore became the focus of research to determine if further records could be located to determine what became of them and their descendants. These family histories encapsulate the experience of Native American families during mission times, following secularization, and after the incorporation of California into the United States.

In the course of researching our region’s Native American population, I unexpectedly came across information regarding three men of African ancestry who settled in San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Ventura respectively.  All three married Mission Indians after they immigrated to the Central Coast.  Records for all of these individuals exist in mission and parish registers kept by Spanish priests, as well as other archival sources.  The stories of these individuals add to our understanding of the diverse communities that existed in nineteenth century California.

Dr. John Johnson has served as Curator of Anthropology at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History for 36 years. He received his Ph.D. in anthropology at UCSB in 1988. For seventeen years, he has taught an annual course on California Indians at UCSB, where he holds an appointment as Adjunct Professor of Anthropology. Dr. Johnson’s written contributions include more than 100 studies regarding the cultures, history, and prehistory of California’s native peoples, especially emphasizing the Chumash Indians of the Santa Barbara region.

February 8th, 2022 at 7pm

“An Evening with Thomas Blackburn”

Thomas Blackburn, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, is the author, coauthor, and editor of numerous books on California Indians, including (among others) December’s Child: A Book of Chumash Oral Narratives; Native Californians: A Theoretical Retrospective; the five-volume Material Culture of the Chumash Interaction Sphere; Time’s Flotsam: Overseas Collections of California Indian Material Culture; and Before the Wilderness: Environmental Management by Native Californians. He has been a member of the Malki Museum Press Editorial Board for many years, and has also served as Series Editor of the Ballena Press Anthropological Papers. At present he is Associate Editor of the Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology.

January 11th, 2022 at 7pm

Dr. Lynn H. Gamble, Professor Emerita

Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara

Presentation: Social Inequality, Persistent Places, and Monuments: Examples from the Chumash in Southern California

Origins of social inequality are of broad concern in this era of increasing disparities of wealth and uneven access to basic resources. Persistent social inequality has been associated with sedentary societies, and often with agricultural groups. As more examples of sedentary hunter/gatherers are documented, thinking has shifted. Archaeological investigations on Santa Cruz Island in the Santa Barbara Channel region have revealed evidence of disparities of wealth, power, and prestige among the Chumash that date back 5,000-6,000 years ago at a significant large shell mound, El Montón (CA-SCRI-333), that has over 50 house depressions visible on the surface. Analysis of multiple lines of evidence, including stratigraphic profiles, features, 93 radiocarbon dates, ground penetrating radar, and mortuary remains, supports the idea that the mound was a persistent place where early visitors feasted on marine resources, constructed dwellings, buried their dead, and performed ceremonies, including those that honored select groups of infants, children, and adults. One young woman was memorialized with 157 effigies, a rare artifact type at the site, as well as other grave accompaniments. This and other archaeological evidence from El Montón suggests that leaders with ritual power, wealth, distinction, and exotic goods emerged as social inequality increased. Associated with these patterns, the mound, which is now the largest extant shell mound in the region, became more prominent and visible as it was built higher. Recent investigations suggest that the mound was purposely built. Results from investigations at this site provide a relevant example of emergent social inequality among hunter-gatherers.

Lynn H. Gamble is Professor Emerita of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara and has been active in California archaeology for over 40 years. Her interests include shell bead money and ornamentation, emergence of inequality, cultural and ritual landscapes, social identity, mortuary patterns, long distance exchange, culture contact, climate change, and long-term transformations among hunter-gatherer societies. She is the editor of the volume First Coastal Californians, which won the 2016 New Mexico-Arizona Book Award in Anthropology/Archaeology. She also just completed a three year commitment as the Editor of American Antiquity, one of the principal journals of the Society for American Archaeology. In addition, Gamble wrote the book The Chumash World at European Contact: Power, Trade, and Feasting Among Complex Hunter-Gatherers, and is author of over 70 articles, chapters, and monographs on California anthropology.

December 14th, 2021 at 7pm

Dr. Natasha Vokhshoori, PHD

Postdoctoral Scholar at the Smithsonian Institute’s Museum of Natural History

Presentation: A window into California’s past coastal environments: using chemical tracers from bivalve shells to uncover ocean food webs of the past

Archaeological shell midden mounds provide a unique stratified record of nearshore environmental change through time. Fish stock assemblages and Native American maritime fishing in the Channel Islands of southern California have been impacted by major climatic shifts throughout the Holocene (11.7kya- present) such as the Neoglacial, Medieval Climate Anomaly and Little Ice Age. These climate regimes have affected oceanographic dynamics and algal community composition, especially in coastal systems. This study harnesses key chemical tracers to reconstruct how major oceanographic events through time affected phytoplankton communities, the baseline support of the larger food web. Nitrogen isotopes (δ15N) reflect an animal’s trophic position and base of the food web nitrogen sources, and carbon isotopes (δ13C) can be used as a “fingerprint” to identify specific primary producer communities (e.g. phytoplankton, kelp, terrestrial plants). We sampled archaeological mussel shells from San Miguel Island of the northern Channel Islands to investigate a time period where there was major civilization collapse during 1100-1300 A.D hypothesized to be related to a shutdown in food resource availability in the marine environment. We tested this hypothesis by measuring the δ13C and δ15N chemical tracers from the shell matrix protein from historical shells. We predict that δ13C- will show algal regime shifts between phytoplankton and macroalgae, while δ15N will reconstruct nutrient sources, directly indicative of upwelling strength. This research aims to address key questions related to changes in Native American subsistence patterns due to climatic regimes shifts in algal production and oceanographic conditions, and provide valuable insight into human adaptation to resource availability.

Dr. Natasha Vokhshoori is a postdoctoral scholar at the Smithsonian Institute’s Museum of Natural History working with Archaeologist Dr. Torben Rick. Initially an Anthropology major as an undergraduate student, Dr. Vokhshoori eventually switched her major to Earth Science and ultimately earned a PhD in Ocean Sciences from the University of California, Santa Cruz in Ocean. Although studying in other disciplines, Dr. Vokhshoori managed to preserve her interests in Archaeology to pursue research questions related to human’s interaction with their environment and vis-versa. Dr. Vokhshoori combines techniques in Ecosystem Geochemistry, Archaeology and Paleoceanography to address these research questions. Together, she uses a suite of ecological proxies measured from stable isotopes in archaeological mollusc shells to understand how climate change has affected marine food webs and maritime practices of former indigenous communities through time and space

November 9th, 2021 at 7pm

Mr. Sean Campbell, B.A. in Anthropology, Minor in Geology

Fossil Preparator at the La Brea Tar Pits

Presentation: Behind the Scenes at La Brea Tar Pits

Sean Campbell will provide a general overview of the La Brea Tar Pits as a field locality and a natural resource. He will discuss the excavation history and methods, provide a review of current research projects ongoing at the fossil locality including a virtual tour of the excavation compound, and discuss the finds from historic excavations including La Brea woman who was uncovered in Pit 10 back in 1914.

Mr. Campbell has been a fossil preparator at the La Brea Tar Pits and Museum for over 7 years. He graduated from San Diego State in 2011 with a BA in Anthropology and a minor in Geology. He has assisted multiple institutions and collected fossils from different time periods in California, North Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, New Mexico and abroad in Mexico and Argentina. His primary focus is excavating and collecting data on fossil material from Project 23, a salvage excavation from an underground parking structure dug out by LACMA in 2006. The project has been radiocarbon dated to 30,000- 50,000 years old and has uncovered hundreds of thousands of new fossils from the Rancho La Brea Land Mammal Age, most of which are perfectly preserved by rapid burial and naturally occurring asphalt.

October 12th, 2021 at 7pm

Dr. René L. Vellanoweth, PhD

Dean, College of Natural and Social Sciences

Professor, Department of Anthropology

California State University, Los Angeles

Presentation: Ancient Droughts, Fires, and Floods: Living with the Elements in the Santa Monica Mountains

The Santa Monica Mountains were home to many important natural resources and landscape features critical to human survival and spiritual sustenance. The ancestors of the modern Chumash and Tongva/Gabrielino/Gabrieleño people lived in the mountain’s drainages and flood plains, carved out intricate trail systems, and utilized its steep slopes and ridges to harvest edible and medicinal plants, hunt game, and perform rituals. Adjacent open and protected coastlines offered a bounty of marine resources and provided access to the outside world. Life in the mountains, however, was not always easy as evidence of protracted droughts, devastating fires, and massive floods document settlement/abandonment cycles linked to naturally occurring and periodic episodes of destruction. In the following talk I will share the results of recent surveys and excavations in the western Santa Monica Mountains conducted by Cal State LA, CA State Parks, and the National Park Service. These data suggest that people relied on local terrestrial and marine foods, manufactured beads and other ornaments, traded for obsidian, fused shale, and other toolstones, and distributed their settlement to take advantage of freshwater, seasonal resources, viewsheds, and proximity to trail networks. 

Dr. René Vellanoweth is the Dean of Natural and Social Sciences and Professor of Archaeology in the Department of Anthropology at California State University, Los Angeles. His research interests include coastal and island archaeology, historical ecology, environmental archaeology, historic preservation, and the use of integrative approaches to understand the past. Dr. Vellanoweth currently works in California Mexico, and Ireland and publishes widely on diverse topics in the fields of archaeology, history, and ecology. Dr. Vellanoweth is also a Governor-appointed Commissioner on the California State Historical Resources Commission, which meets quarterly and makes historical properties recommendations for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places, California Register of Historical Resources, California Historical Landmarks, and other designations. Dr. Vellanoweth is an advocate for equity, diversity, and inclusion in archaeology and historic preservation and strives to inspire underrepresented communities to preserve their past and local histories.

September 14th, 2021 at 7pm

Dr. Scott Sunell

Presentation: Local Lithic Technology and Small-Scale Change on Limuw (Santa Cruz Island)

Changing archaeological patterns linked to stone drill and shell bead production on California’s Northern Channel Islands have been linked to changes in Chumash sociopolitical structure in the late Holocene. The distribution of chert and interpretations about its use on Limuw (Santa Cruz Island) are specifically connected to evidence of independent craft specialization. I present new data from excavations in Laguna Canyon on the south side of Limuw dating from the late Middle through early Late periods. This presentation focuses on debitage assemblages from two persistent sites in Laguna Canyon, SCRI-845 and SCRI-849, identifying how archaeological patterns changed in the context of sociopolitical relationships related to stone tool use on Limuw.

Dr. Scott Sunell is a California archaeologist who completed his doctoral research on Limuw with UCLA, and now works in Cultural Resource Management