This paper presents a comprehensive assessment of megafauna confrontation using pikes, as recorded in historical accounts and ethnographic studies depicting techniques of hunter-gatherers, pastoralists, colonial hunters and others. In contrast to the two other basic spear types, the lance and the javelin, the impalement force of the pike is derived from the mass and speed of the charging or lunging animal. The historical data demonstrate that pike bracing was a common and fundamental technique used by spear-wielding individuals challenging megafauna, including ursids, pantherids, suids, bovids, and mounted equids, that confront humans aggressively and are not disadvantaged. In hunting, pikes were used most often in situations where the hunter influenced the animal’s behavior to draw a charge, leap or lunge. Braced spears (pikes) were also important for defending against predators and cavalry mounts that attacked in these ways. We examine such variables as animal size, trajectory and momentum, weapon rotation on its base, shaft diameter, frequency of cross bars, and point material (wood, osseous, lithic and metal). Variability in pike use is of significance to numerous archaeological and evolutionary topics that require assessment of human confrontation with Pleistocene megafauna, and approaches to archaeological pike identification are considered.

Little is known about the sanitation and disposal practices of the people who lived and worked in the stockade complex at Colony Ross. Historic accounts indicate the Russians maintained the stockade as a secure space kept clean of garbage and waste. Yet archaeological research at Fort Ross State Historic Park has yet to detect any substantial middens associated with the Russian-American Company's (RAC) occupation of the stockade complex (CA-SON-190). If archaeologists could determine where materials were discarded, then this could provide new insights into the daily practices of the RAC officials in the stockade complex. This paper examines the possibility that materials were transported out of the south portal of the stockade and pitched down the steep slope of the nearby marine terrace. A landslide unleashed by torrential rain provided a unique opportunity to examine cultural material from the terrace slope that may have originated from the stockade complex. Se sabe poco sobre las pr & aacute;cticas de saneamiento y eliminaci & oacute;n de desechos de quienes viv & iacute;an y trabajaban en el complejo de empalizadas de la Colonia Ross. Los relatos hist & oacute;ricos indican que los rusos manten & iacute;an la empalizada como un espacio seguro, libre de basura y desechos. Sin embargo, la investigaci & oacute;n arqueol & oacute;gica en el Parque Hist & oacute;rico Estatal de Fort Ross a & uacute;n no ha detectado ning & uacute;n basurero sustancial asociado con la ocupaci & oacute;n del complejo de empalizadas por parte de la Compa & ntilde;& iacute;a Ruso-Estadounidense (RAC) (CA-SON-190). Si los arque & oacute;logos pudieran determinar d & oacute;nde se desechaban los materiales, esto podr & iacute;a proporcionar nuevos conocimientos sobre las pr & aacute;cticas diarias de los funcionarios de la RAC en el complejo de empalizadas. Este art & iacute;culo examina la posibilidad de que los materiales fueran transportados fuera del portal sur de la empalizada y arrojados por la empinada ladera de la terraza marina cercana. Un deslizamiento de tierra provocado por lluvias torrenciales brind & oacute; una oportunidad & uacute;nica para examinar material cultural de la ladera de la terraza que podr & iacute;a haberse originado en el complejo de empalizadas.

Historical and ethnographic sources depict use of portable braced shaft weapons, or pikes, in megafauna hunting and defense during Late Holocene millennia in North and South America, Africa, Eurasia and Southeast Asia. Given the predominance of megafauna in Late Pleistocene North America during the centuries when Clovis points appeared and spread across much of the continent (13,050-12,650 cal BP), braced weapons may have been used in hunting of megaherbivores and defense against megacarnivores. Drawing from historical examples of pike use against lions, jaguars, boars, grizzlies, carabao and warhorses we consider the possibility of a fluted lithic pike. Associated osseous rods have been problematic as Clovis foreshafts due to the bevel angle and the apparent weakness of the splint haft when great strength is needed for deep penetration in megafauna hunting. However our review of Late Holocene pike use in megafauna encounters indicates the sharp tip becomes less important after hide or armor has been pierced because compression is sustained. Thus, foreshaft collapse after hide entry may not limit but rather increase the efficacy of the braced weapon. We conduct preliminary static experiments to model a fluted pike that adjusts during compression such that haft collapse and point detachment (when point jams on impact with bone) preserve the fluted biface, beveled rod and wooden mainshaft tip. In addition to Clovis point attributes and association with osseous rods, potential archaeological correlates of Clovis pike use include the high frequency of Clovis point isolates and concentrations of complete points with unbutchered mammoth remains at sites such as Naco in Arizona.

Abstract In the study of colonialism, the archaeology of islands and coasts is crucial in examining the multifaceted processes and outcomes of Indigenous and colonial encounters that took place with the rise of the early modern world from the 1400s to the mid-1800s. European global expansion ensued with advances in oceanic sailing technology, the opening of maritime highways, and the establishment of an extensive coastal infrastructure with port facilities near good harbors and anchorages. This chapter highlights how island and coastal archaeology provides important insights about the earliest encounters between Indigenous populations and foreign intruders; about the onslaught of managerial, missionary, and settler colonies onto native homelands; and about later processes of urbanization, intensification, and landscape modifications that continue to impact many coastal places today. The authors emphasize how archaeological investigations of coastal ports provide exceptional opportunities to examine ancient Indigenous history and the various permutations of colonialism that subsequently unfolded in native lands with the rise of the early modern world.

The Amah Mutsun Tribal Band (AMTB) has stewarded terrestrial and aquatic resources in central California since time immemorial. Successive waves of European and Euro-American colonization have sought to suppress and erode AMTB's relationship with land, stewardship, and natural resources. The Tribe has mobilized anthropological and historical ecological data that demonstrate the effect of long-term Indigenous stewardship through cultural burning and other resource stewardship strategies. These Indigenous landscape legacies have influenced ecosystem structure and the sustainability of culturally important species. This paper focuses on the process of bridging archaeological research with contemporary stewardship efforts related to protecting, preserving, and caring for Tribal cultural heritage that exists from a landscape perspective. The collaborative research has helped clarify the record of Tribal relationships with the environment and how those relationships have changed due to colonial land use regimes. In doing so, we highlight how an archaeological research program can be a building point of access to ancestral places, which is a critical step in Tribal-led initiatives of restoring traditional resource management and ecological resilience of plant and animal life on public lands. In addition, we discuss the benefits and limitations of applying eco-archaeological research toward Tribal environmental stewardship.

In addressing the question of how and why Indigenous people initiated diverse kinds of engagements with colonial agents, this chapter highlights two crucial variables that should be considered in any archaeological investigation of colonialism. One concerns Indigenous sociopolitical and economic organizations, including dimensions such as polity size, polity structure, landscape management practices, and regional sociopolitical relationships. The other involves the various permutations of colonial programs that encroached on tribal lands, as exemplified by managerial, missionary, and settler colonies. A significant challenge in the study of colonialism is that Indigenous people did not encounter one type of colonial program over time but rather a plethora of colonial agents with divergent policies and practices. This chapter argues for archaeological investigations of colonialism that take a long-term perspective in examining the full range of colonial succession patterns that unfolded in tribal lands and how Native people created innovative strategies for mitigating colonialism and making the most of new technologies, trade connections, settlement arrangements, and economic opportunities. The chapter concludes with several examples of resourceful pathways that Native people initiated in their entanglements with colonial agents.

Public Archaeology & Climate Change is an urgent wake-up call about the significant, accelerating, and widespread threats that climate change poses for archaeological sites and other cultural herit...

ABSTRACT The Farallon Islands are a cluster of small islands ∼32 km off the coast of San Francisco Bay. These islands total < 1 km2 in area and lack surface freshwater, but are home to scores of breeding seabirds and seals and sea lions. At least three archaeological projects have been conducted on Southeast Farallon, focusing on the islands’ two known archaeological sites (CA-SFR-1 and CA-SFR-24), both primarily related to an early nineteenth century Russian fur trade hunting camp with no evidence of prehistoric human occupation. Little has been published on these expeditions despite their implications for understanding colonialism and culture contact, historical ecology, and the history of San Francisco. We synthesize the history of archaeological research on the Farallon Islands. We discuss the artifacts and faunal remains recovered from these projects, the state of the collections, and how these data articulate with broader California archaeology and the archaeology of small islands.

Archaeological sites represent long-term biological repositories, relevant for understanding ancient economies and ways of life that can provide historical baseline data for contemporary conservation biology, restoration ecology, and fisheries management. Small-scale excavations at nine archaeological sites within Point Reyes National Seashore, on the central California coast, led to the recovery of a large assemblage of fish remains from deposits dated from 800 to 770 cal BC to the historical era. These assemblages contained over 9000 fish remains identified to at least a family. Applying quantitative analysis and morphometric studies, these data suggest the indigenous fishery of Point Reyes in the homeland of the Coast Miwok people was directed toward the acquisition of mass-captured forage fish from the families Clupeidae, Atherinopsidae, and Engraulidae in addition to Embiotocidae. Perceived declines in contemporary forage fish populations within Point Reyes National Seashore, specifically Pacific herring (Clupea pallasii), an important keystone, indicator, and umbrella species, suggest further protections are needed to ensure continued ecosystem services and prevent ecological extinction.

Recent advances in mission archaeology advocate for studies beyond the mission church and quadrangle in order to better understand their spatial organizations and how they were embedded within the landscapes of indigenous populations. This raises the question of how to implement such studies in areas impacted for years by urban development, which has made it difficult to detect archaeological remains using standard pedestrian-survey methods. This article advocates for the use of geophysical survey as part of the mix of field strategies. Archaeologists undertook fieldwork at Mission San Francisco Solano in Sonoma, California, to assess the potential of employing geophysical-survey methods in contexts characterized by extensive post-mission reuse. The results indicate that ground-penetrating radar and resistivity surveys are capable of detecting earlier mission architectural remains that can be differentiated from the remains of post-mission urban development from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Metini Village: An Archaeological Study of Sustained Colonialism in Northern California synthesizes the results of over two decades of collaborative archaeological research carried out by UC Berkeley, the Kashia Band of Pomo Indians, and California State Parks at Fort Ross, California. This volume makes the case for an archaeology of colonialism that bridges studies of early colonial encounters with analysis of settler colonial relations. Featuring analysis of archaeological data, tribal histories, and ethnographic and historic sources related to Metini Village and related sites across the Kashia homelands, the volume documents the strategies the Kashia people used to negotiate two colonial programs over five decades. This study highlights how despite the onslaught of settler colonists into their territories and in the face of colonial violence, the Kashia maintained their relations within a broader indigenous landscape. The volume outlines a methodology for undertaking the study of sustained colonialism employing an innovative low-impact approach designed specifically to produce the least amount of disturbance to ancestral archaeological remains while obtaining substantial knowledge about Metini Village and other settlements under investigation.  The volume includes 158 pages of text, 76 figures, 16 tables, and 13 appendices.

This paper explores the merits of interpreting central California shell mounds as purposefully constructed monuments. The authors employ three expectations from the recent literature to evaluate if Native Californians built monuments from shell. The results indicate that they did not erect standalone monuments during large communal gatherings in one or more rapid pulses of construction as described for huntergatherers elsewhere. However, there is evidence that the sites were monumental in their meaning to local groups. The authors explore an alternative pathway to monumentality that involves the long-term buildup of shell-rich deposits resulting from a diverse range of cultural and ceremonial practices.