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Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine if natural asphaltum sources used among the Tongva (Gabrieleño) of Santa Catalina Island were lineage group or Tongva elite controlled resources, and was asphaltum an exchanged commodity between Catalina Island and the California mainland. This pilot study compared the chemical signatures of 6 modern asphaltum seep and beach wash samples collected on the California mainland and the southern California Channel Islands with the chemical signatures of 21 previously excavated archaeological asphaltum samples from Santa Catalina Island dating to the Intermediate (3000 BC-AD 500) and Late Period (AD 500-1769). Archaeological asphaltum samples were obtained from three main habitation sites on Santa Catalina Island: Little Harbor Mesa, Two Harbors (Isthmus Cove), and White's Landing. Two archaeological asphaltum samples were also obtained from the Ralph Glidden collection (Glidden). Hierarchical cluster analyses (HCA) was performed on Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) biomarker ratio data for seeps and archaeological samples in order to correlate archaeological samples with their most likely seep sources. Seep samples were first clustered into groups and mapped. Data from artifacts were then combined with the seep data and artifacts were clustered with their most likely seep source. The distances between artifacts and seeps were calculated and mapped. This study used Renfrew's (1975) model of exchange to make inferences about artifact types and exchange patterns that may have occurred between Catalina Island and the California mainland. The findings of this study are promising. Whereby five artifacts were not correlated with any seeps, one artifact was specifically correlated with one seep. Seven artifacts were correlated with three seeps on Catalina Island and seven artifacts were correlated with two Catalina Island seeps and one California mainland seep. The results of this study show that seeps can be differentiated using GC-MS and that archaeological samples can be correlated with seep sources and vice-versa. The results also suggest that asphaltum seeps were not controlled but accessible to everyone, and that asphaltum may have been an exchanged material between Catalina Island and the California mainland. This research is the first to examine asphaltum source areas used by the Tongva of Santa Catalina Island.

Details

Title
Asphaltum sourcing among the Tongva of Santa Catalina Island
Author
Jacobsen, David M.
Year
2012
Publisher
ProQuest Dissertations & Theses
ISBN
978-1-267-85774-3
Source type
Dissertation or Thesis
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
1271627665
Copyright
Database copyright ProQuest LLC; ProQuest does not claim copyright in the individual underlying works.