The eternal frontier: an ecological history of north america and it's people

3: Selected Artifacts from the southern North Coast Ranges. The projectile points and obsidian hydration indicate a date of about 500CALYBP for the upper component (0-90 cm).ДЇig. The topsoil (a dark brown Rohnerville Loam from 0-90 cm) contains numerous hammerstones, chert and obsidian debitage, and several obsidian projectile points (Fig. The excavations also revealed that the site served as a quarry for stone tool material, and that it was probably utilized at multiple times in prehistory. As we excavated down, we discovered that the rock outcrop is polished to a depth of 2 m below the current ground surface. Additionally, an auger test within the deep unit had been excavated to a depth of 403 cm. Thus, we chose to excavate the shellmidden in order to determine its connection, if any, with Jasper Rock.Д«y the end of fall 2003, a single 1x1 m unit located within the larger 4x4 m exposure at Jasper Rock had been excavated to a depth of 280 cm. The surface of the shellmidden had revealed debitage of a material similar to the outcrop. The spring 2004 crew worked on the 4x4 m exposure, and also excavated three 1x1 m units at CA-SON-365/H, a shellmidden located 100 m south of the jasper outcrop. During the summer and fall of 2003, one of the units was expanded into a 4x4 m block exposure (Fig. In spring 2003, six 1x1 m units were excavated near the jasper outcrop. The spring and fall 2003, and spring 2004 archaeological field classes from Santa Rosa Junior College, under the direction of Thomas Origer, and a summer 2003 volunteer crew under my direction, have to date excavated approximately 30 cubic m of the site. Since 2003, archaeological excavations have been underway at Jasper Rock, a highly-polished jasper outcrop with evidence of past quarrying. A shellmidden (CA-SON-365/H) is located 100 m south of the boulder.ДЄrchaeological Investigations at Jasper Rock This site consists of a single jasper (red chert) boulder which stands about 2.5 m tall. Jasper Rock is located 3 km south of Mammoth Rocks. The four loci surround an enigmatic wetland that I believe may represent a relic animal wallow. The other two loci are smaller blueschist boulders (4 and 5 m tall). Two of the loci consist of very large blueschist seastacks (20 and 30 m tall).

the eternal frontier: an ecological history of north america and it

The Mammoth Rocks site consists of four loci of rubbing rocks, separated by about 300 m (Fig. The two main sites are referred to as Mammoth Rocks and Jasper Rock. To date, I have located six sites consisting of one or more rubbing rocks, all within an area about 4 km in diameter. The rocks are located on the coast of Sonoma County about 75 km north of San Francisco, within Sonoma Coast State Beach, a unit of the California State Park System.

(1) These are features that I believe were used for grooming by now-extinct Ice Age megafauna such as Mammuthus columbi and Bison antiquus. In 2001, I discovered what I believe to be Rancholabrean rubbing rocks on CaliforniaвЂ™s North Coast (Parkman 2002a, 2002b, 2002c).

The eternal frontier: an ecological history of north america and it's people