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<< Our Photo Pages >> Los Osos Back Bay - Ancient Village or Settlement in United States in The West

Submitted by C_Michael_Hogan on Wednesday, 06 February 2008  Page Views: 30303

Multi-periodSite Name: Los Osos Back Bay
Country: United States Region: The West Type: Ancient Village or Settlement
Nearest Town: Morro Bay  Nearest Village: Los Osos
Latitude: 35.324903N  Longitude: 120.819447W
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
2 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
3 Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
2 Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
4

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Los Osos Back Bay
Los Osos Back Bay submitted by C_Michael_Hogan : Los Osos Back Bay stabilized sand dune. The dune is stabilized by some admixture of silt and sage scrub ecological community. Most of this Chumash archaeological site extends to the east toward Los Osos Creek. (Vote or comment on this photo)
Ancient Village or Settlement in San Luis Obispo County, California.
Los Osos Back Bay is the largest extant Native American midden in San Luis Obispo County, California. This somewhat rectangular Chumash site is situated on a low lying sand dune near Morro Bay, comprising roughly 23,000 square meters in extent. Three distinct settlement eras have been deduced from excavations generally about one meter in depth, with remnants of a sweat-lodge, residential structures and numerous fire pits.

The site has yielded large quantities of shell material as well as beads, stone tools, animal bones, charcoal and thermal fractured rock. The research herein is based upon my on site visit of January, 2007 as well as archival review of literature and artifacts.

OCCUPATION Excavation reveals the site was occupied as early as the period 800 to 1200 AD. There are three distinct periods of occupation, with the middle period manifesting the largest number of inhabitants. (Hoover, 1977) The Chumash peoples who lived here clearly exploited marine resources from the nearby back bay of Morro Bay (photo). This late Holocene occupation is consistent with regional analysis of fishing strategies of native peoples of the California Central Coast, in which smaller sized taxa are prevalent into the Late Prehistoric Period. I concur with other authors (Rick, 2000) that such a trend in marine species size is evidence of over-harvesting of near shore marine fauna. This factor may partially explain the decreased population of the latest occupation period of the Los Osos Back Bay site.

Occurrence of the Medieval Climatic Anomaly in this region between about 900 to 1300 AD (Boxt, 2000) may argue for the first era of occupation at around 800 AD, since the aridity of the dune coupled with low flow of Los Osos Creek would have made this site particularly inhospitable during the four century drought; this would also explain the rather clear layering between oldest and middle occupation periods. The site choice is also consistent with known higher sea levels of a millennium earlier, since that would have positioned the bay shoreline slightly closer without inducing salinity to Los Osos Creek.

In the early period level remains of a sweat-lodge or ‘'temescal'‘ were uncovered with a hut diameter of as great as six meters. In both the early and middle occupation periods, there is evidence of dwellings situated on an elaborate terraced system leading toward Los Osos Creek. In some cases the density of shell middens were actually used structurally to support terrace edges in the nature of a retaining wall for the otherwise sandy strata. A thick charcoal layer along with thermal fractured rock was present at one of the residential hearths. Numerous dense ash, shell and charcoal lenses are found throughout the site, but principally at the early and mid-occupation periods, suggesting that the later occupation was more sporadic and with far less population. A cemetery area lies at the east of the Los Osos Back Bay site.

ENVIRONMENT The site is positioned on a low lying silty stabilized sand dune above the northwest edge of Morro Bay, whose waters today lie about 700 meters to the northwest. Situated primarily on the southern flank of the large dune, the site receives shelter from prevailing northwest winds. The arid sandy soils are not hospitable to agriculture, but are covered with low lying sage scrub, as they likely would have held millennia past. Los Osos Creek is a proximate source of fresh water, lying at the eastern downslope edge of the site as it flows into Morro Bay. Therefore the location of this settlement was cleverly optimized to achieve proximity to the shellfish resources of Morro Bay, but also an even closer presence to the freshwater source; furthermore, the gradient of Los Osos Creek channel is steep enough to block tidal saline intrusion to the water supply. Note this situation is not common, since many Central Coast creeks manifest low channel gradients, leading to deep inland estuarine penetration.

STONE TOOLS Most of the stone tools were recovered from the earliest settlement era. Chert and sandstone implements are quite common, reflecting the abundance of these rock types in the local coastal hills. (Fitzgerald, 2000) With less than one percent of the total site having been excavated, the quantity of tools found classify Los Osos Back Bay as a highly intensive lithic manufacturing site. This finding is particularly remarkable in that no stone material occurs naturally in the native soil. Tools fall into the following groups: projectile point, chopper, drill, scraper, hammer-stone, pitted stone (or "acorn cracker"), rubbing stone and preform.

25 chert projectile points have been recovered, all of which are consistent with the Late Prehistoric Chumash. Some of these points are classified as the "Canilino" type similar to some found in the Santa Barbara Channel area; this type has also been found in the Burton Mound.. (Harrington, 1928) Two choppers were found, one of chert and the other of shale. Six chert drills were recovered, with five being designed for very fine drilling; re-enforcing the concept that this site was a major bead manufacturing locus. Further five basalt hammer-stones, four chert scrapers, one pitted stone and a large number of preforms and cores were retrieved. .

BEADS, ANIMAL BONES AND HOUSEHOLD ITEMS An enormous volume of beads (including a small number of steatite) were recovered along with a spectrum of mano, metate, pestle, basket and rubbing-stone items. Beads include shell derived specimens such as "Olivella diplicata", "Mytilis Californianus" disks and fishhook, "Dentalium neohexagonum" tubes, and "Tivela stulturum" disks, "Macoma nasuta" disks, "Haliotis rufescens" disk and "Haliotis cracherodii" disk. Other shell species found were "Acanthina spirata" and "Protothaca staminea". A specimen of drilled sea lion tooth was also recovered from the excavations. Hoover suggests that the site may have been a "major staging point" for obsidian trading with the Owens Valley and for plant and animal products from the San Joaquin Valley Yokuts.

Manos were made of either sandstone or basalt, and all save one had a unifacial working surface. Fragmentary baskets bore evidence of sealing with local asphaltum to achieve waterproofing. Bone awls were also recovered, which items would have been needed for manufacture of baskets. Six chunks of red ochre were found, which would typically have been used as body paint for religious ceremonies.

REFERENCES
* Robert L. Hoover and W.B.Sawyer (1977) ‘'Los Osos Junior High School Site 4-SLO-214'', addendum to Applegate's ‘'Chumash Place Names'‘, Occ paper #9, by Kathryn A.Klar, San Luis Obispo County Archaeological Society
* Torben C.Rick and Jon M.Erlandson (2000) ‘'Early Holocene Fishing Strategies on the California Coast: Evidence from CA-SBA-2057'', J. Arch. Sci. 27, 621-633
* Matthew A. Boxt, L.Mark Raab, Owen K.Davis and Kevin O.Pope (2000) ‘'Extreme Late Holocene Climate Change in Coastal Southern California'‘, University of California Long Beach
* Richard T.Fitzgerald (2000) ‘'Cross Creek: An Early Holocene/Millingstone Site'‘, Calif. State Water Project, Coastal Branch Series, Paper #12, San Luis Obispo County Archaeological Society
* John Peabody Harrington (1928) ‘'Exploration of the Burton Mound in Santa Barbara County'‘, Bureau of American Ethnology Annual Report 56:25 168, Washington D.C.

(The above is original work of C.Michael Hogan prepared for the Megalithic Portal. I am grateful to the San Luis Obispo County Archaeological Society, which provided valuable insights as well as access to elements of the Society's Chumash artifact collection.)
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Los Osos Back Bay
Los Osos Back Bay submitted by C_Michael_Hogan : Pencil drawing of Artifact 469, a double notched chert arrowpoint recovered from the Los Osos Back Bay archaeological site. The drawing was made by C. Michael Hogan based upon the site specific research monograph by R.L. Hoover and W.B.Sawyer. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Los Osos Back Bay
Los Osos Back Bay submitted by C_Michael_Hogan : Chumash drills in the collection of the San Luis Obispo County Archaeological Society. This drill type is that of the recovered specimens at the Los Osos Back Bay site. Photograph is courtesy of the San Luis Obispo County Archaeological Society. (U.S. quarter is shown for reference size) (Vote or comment on this photo)

Los Osos Back Bay
Los Osos Back Bay submitted by C_Michael_Hogan : Part of the Los Osos Back Bay site which has been destroyed by construction of a school. In the background to the northeast are the Nine Sisters mountain range of volcanic cones. (Vote or comment on this photo)

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