38. TH   CURE    STATUS OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS

IN OWENS VALLEY, CALIFORNIA

Harry S. Riddell, Jr.

Francis A. Riddell

Of the slightly more than 400 sites from Inyo County, east central

California, on file- with the University of California Archaeological Survey
office, more than half are from Owens Valley. The major portion of the

known sites in Owens Valley have been investigated by Mr. and Mrs. Harry
Riddell, and exhaustive surface collections were made by them from these
sites. These collections, totaling approximately 10,000 specimens, are

now being cataloged by the University of California Museum of Anthropology
and will become a part of the permanent collections of that institution.

Not until this task is completed will it be possible to study the collection
in detail. However, for the purposes of this report it is possible to pre-
sent, with reference to the collection, acne information on the archaeolo-
gical aspects of Owens Valley.

Controlled archaeological excavations by trained individuals in the
immediate Owens Valley area consist solely of the excavation of a proto-

historic and historic Paiute village site, Iny-2, in Cottonwood Canyon, and
the excavation of several small rock shelters and caches. The excavation

of the late village site has appeared in published form in the UCAS Reports
(Riddell, H., 1951). All of the specimens from this excavation are in the
UC Museum of Anthropology at Berkeley. The material from the rock shelters
and caches form a part of the collection now in the process of being cata-
loged by the UCMA. These excavations, plus the test excavation of a deep,
culturally stratified site, have been made by Mr. and Mrs. Harry Riddell.

Owens Valley, lying east of the Sierra Nevada, was at time of contact

inhabited by a southern segment of the Northern Paiute. Extensive ethnograph-
ic investigations of these and neighboring peoples have been made by Julian
Steward (1933) and others. Prom the work of these various ethnographers
we have a rather comprehensive picture of the life of the native peoples

of this general region at the time of white contact. However, the archaeo-

logical picture must be presented in order to obtain any depth to our under-
standing of the area. The present archaeological investigations have begun
to give us a view into the prehistory of the valley, and it is hoped that

the studies currently being carried on will help define the cultural rela-

tionships of the Southwest and the Yuman area with the Owens Valley region.
It is also expected that the question of the place and time of origin of

the Owens Valley Brown Ware will be answered. These studies also will aid
in the clarification of problems regarding the amount, type, and time of

cultural contact with the southern San Joaquin Valley and the coastal region
of California, as well as those of cultural affinities between the people

of Owens Valley and other regions of the Great Basin. We already know from
ethnographical and archaeological sources that the Owens Valley people had

late contact with the groups to the west over the Sierra. This relationship
is observable in projectile point types, shell beads and other artifact

types. A comparable earlier contact will likely be demonstrated as research
progresses in the Owens Valley area.

- 28 -

The locally manufactured pottery has been described (Riddell, H.,

1951, pp. 20-23); it is now known as Owens Valley Brown Ware (and will hence-
forth in this paper be indicated by "OVBW"). This utility ware is the same
as the pottery made in recent times by the Mono and Yokuts on the west side
of the Sierra, as recorded by Gayton (1929). Owens Valley Brown Ware is

quite similar to Southern Paiute Utility Ware described by Baldwin (1950),
but was not made with the use of the paddle and anvil as described for the

latter. There are other differences in firing and vessel shapes Neverthe-
less we recognize that close relationshipa between the two wares probably
exist, and a determination of these relationships is sought.

Figure 1 illustrates a selection of pottery rim sections and pottery
vessel shapes. The rims of the OVBW fall roughly into two distinct types:

outcurving, and straight to incurving. Straight to incurring rims are most
common and are from bowls of various sizes. This rim type usually occurs

with vessel Types 1, 2, and 3 (Fig. 1). The outcurving rims are generally

associated with Type 4. Types 1 and 3 are forms illustrated by Gayton (1929)
for the Mono and Yokuts; not illustrated, however, are large vessels (like
Type 2) with rounded, conical bases, nor vessels like Type 4. Bases of

Type 1 vessels may often be slightly concave. The vessels of OVBW range in
diameter from a few inches to approximately a foot, and they may stand as
high as 12 or more Inches (cf. Steward, 1933, pp. 266-269). As is usual
in pottery-using areas cracked pots are mended by the technique of crack
sewing.

The feeling that OVBW is a relatively recent introduction to the local
cultural inventory is strengthened by the fact that in a site with a depth
of deposit of 90 inches, pottery is found only in the top 18 inches. How-
ever, pottery may have been known to the area before it became a manufac-

tured item there. Evidence of this is in the form of a few shards of cor-
rugated pottery of Pueblo II or Pueblo III derivation, recovered from the

surface of sites in Owens Valley. Just what influence the Pueblo and Yuman
pottery making traditions had on the introduction and manufacture of pottery
into Owens Valley and neighboring areas is not yet clearly understood.
This is one of the more important problems awaiting solution.

Evidence from the collections from the sites in Owens Valley indicates
the contemporaneous use of steatite and pottery vessels on the latest sites.
The absence of pottery from some sites at which steatito vessels occur is
of interest because it suggests to us a possible earlier use of steatito

vessels, and a continuation of their use after the introduction of pottery.

Steatite vessel rim sections (Fig. 2) are straight or incurving and resemble
some of the pottery rims . The steatite vessels are globular in shape but

since only fragments have been found it is difficult to determine the size
range.

The concave-based projectile point (Fig. 3, center) is of special inter-
eat because of its rather comon occurrence in Owens Valley, and its recovery
by Harrington at the important Stahl site near Little Lakee (cf. Hamilton,
1951). This artifact type was the most common variety found by Meighan

(1955) in his 1953 archaeological site survey in Mono County, California.
This specimen type may have a long and continuous history as suggested by
its occurrence at the early site at Little Lake and its recovery from the
late site in Cottonwood Canyon.

- 29 -

Pottery Rim Sections (l/1)

Pottery Vessel Types

Partial Cross-sections of Bases of Type 3 Vessels (1/1)

Fig. 1

S' K

Steatite Vessel Rim Sections (ca. 2/3)

Pottery Pipe
I"(/1

'1t (

Boatstone (l/1)

Large Projectile Points (1/1)

Fig. 2

Large Projectile Pointa (141)

Chipped Stone Knives (1/1)

Fig. 3

The projectile point types will be of considerable importance in es-

tablishing cultural and temporal differences in the Valley, and in demonstrat-
ing certain affinities with other regions of the Great Basin and California.
It appears that a number of sites from which collections have been made

yield projectile points and other artifacts of more than one period of occu-
pation. We feel justified in making this statement on the grounds of a

clearly observable difference in projectile point size and weight. Apparunt-
ly two projectile point traditions are represented in the collections...a
large point tradition and a small point tradition (cf. Fenenga, 1953).

We have ethnographic evidence (cf. Steward, 1933, pp. 259-263) that some

of the small projectile points shown in Fig. 4 were used in recent times.
We also know that these small points are to be found commonly in late and
historic Palute sites such as the one excavated in Cottonwood Canyon. It

seems possible, therefore, that nearly mutually exclusive traditions of large
versus small projectile points ultimately can be demonstrated. This opinion
is also held by Meighan as a result of his Mono County survey. He states:
"There appears to be a late proto-historic period characterized by small

corner-notched points, and an earlier period containing larger and coarser
points of several varieties" (Meighan, 1955, p. 13).

A "boatstone" found in Owens Valley was recorded in a private collec-
tion by H. Riddell. As shown by the drawing (Fig. 2) this artifact type

is characterized by an upper convex and a lower concave surface. At the ends
of the upper surface grooves are present which would bo useful in the lash-
ing of theso elongate stones to shaftb. Heizer and Elsasser (1953) have

noted from their own field work and a review of collections and literature

that the boatstones from California and Nevada, when found in cultural context,
are of considerable antiquity. There is no record of a boatst-one having

been found in a purely recent context. In fact boatstones have been recovered
from the Sacramento region of the Central Valley of California from Middle

Horizon sites which have a possible maximum antiquity of 4,000 years. Heizer
and Elsasser endorse the possibility that boatstones may have served as atlatl
weights, although they are anxious to see a situation in which boatstones

are in clear association with atlatl remains such as atlatl hooks and dart
points. They point out the possible genetic connection "with artifacts of
generally similar form in the Gulf Southwost States and in the states east

of the Mississippi River" (Heizer and Eleasser, 1953, p. 28). The associa-
tion of boatstones with atlatl hooks and dart points sought by Heizer and
Elsasser seems now to be a fact if the preliminary observations made by
F. Riddell of the collections obtained from the Karlo site (Las-7) near
Honey Lake in northeastern California are correct. Specimens which were
tentatively identified as boatstones, bono atlatl hooks and dart points

were excavated under F. Riddell's direction at thelarlo site during the
months of July and August, 1955. This information, when applied to the

Owens Valloy occurrence of a boatatone, lands considerable support to the
belief that there are two projectile point traditions in the Valley.

In further support of an early occupation of the Owens Valley are the
four projectile points Illustrated in Fig. 2 (lower right: numbered 1-4).
These points are not unlike specimens illustrated by Haury (1950, P1. 22)

from Ventana Cave, Arizona, and called Ventana-Amargosa I. Haury' s speci-

mens lay in a deposit of Ventana Cave below that where were found the ortho-
dox Amargosa II, or Pinto points. The two projectile points (Fig. 3, two
specimens in upper row, left) can bo typologically correlated with points

- 30

000Q03AA

Small Projectile Points (1/1)

Pumic
Drills (1/1

Drills (1/1)                 Pismo

he Arrowshaft
Smoother

(1/1)

.LJ-,

C

> Clamshell
.sc Bead
1/1)

Fig. 4

coming from the next level above in Ventana Cave, which is termed Chiricahua-
Amargosa II. Meighan (1955) in his Mono County survey also notes a suggee-
tion of this Pinto Complex.  In addition, this complex seems to be strongly
evident at the Stahl site near Little Lake (Hamilton, 1951).

Manos from Owens Valley are of several types. The most common typo
is the ovoid mano which is usually bifaced, although it may be unifaced.

Sub-rectangular manos also are common and may be ground on one or both faces.
Probably the most specialized in shape are the wedge-shaped (cross-section)
manos and the thin manos. The former have a thick edge on one side but
taper to a single edge on the other side. The thin manos are often sub-

rectangular in shape and presumably were useful when a light maro was neces-
sary for grinding.   The ordinary mano of Owens Valley tends to be quite
large and heavy, though well-made.

Common to the Owens Valley is the thin schist mutate which is said to
have been favored in historic times because of its light weight and porta-

bility. Other, heavier, metates were made of a variety of materials, although
granitic materials were favorod for the manufacture of manos. Bedrock mor-
tars with metate areas adjoining the mortar pits are found on late sites
at the higher elevations at the base of the Sierra. The postle for the
bedrock mortar is usually a crude, heavy granitic cobblo.

Tubular pipes are made either of pottery, scoria or pumice. The finding
of pumice pipe fragments at Iny-2, the late Paiuto site, shows that both

stone pipes and pottery pipes wore used in proto-historic times. A detailed
study of the collections very likely will demonstrate that the stone pipe
preceded the late occurrence of pottery and pottery pipes in the area.

Shell beads consist mainly of circular or oval beads cut from the body
whorl of the Olivella shell. There are several varieties of this type of
bead. Spire-lopped Oliv9lla beads are scarce, and so are clam-shell disc
beads. A large disc bead of tho Pismo clam is shown in Fig. 4. Abalone

shell ornaments are also uncommon. Small steatite disc beads are abundant
on some late sites as evidenced by the yield at Iny-2.

From the surface of one site several small lumps of turquoise were

found. This material probably came from aboriginal minus in San Bernardino
County near the Mojave Sink (Heizer and Treganza, 1944, pp. 335-336). It
is possible, however, that these pieces came from the Burkhardt turquoise

mine located three or four miles east of Kearsargei, and at the base of the
Inyo Mountains (Ingalls, 1949, pp. 13-15). At the present time it is not

known that this mine was worked aboriginally, but the Puebloan pottery men-
tioned above may havo reached Owens Valley with Puebloan people who had come
to the region to work the Burkhardt mine.

A very common implement from the Valley is the stone tuleb knife. One
example measures 26 cm, long, 3.5 cm. wide, and 9 mm. thick. Usually these
tools are long, thin, bars of basalt which may or may not have been chipped
along the edges. Those which have had some care in their manufacture also
often show some evidence of wear through use. A local white man informed

H. Riddell that the Owens Valley Paiute had told him that these stone tools

were used in cutting tules and to open freshwater mussels. Even though they
are a rather crude implement the stono tulb knives may be useful in helping
to delimit the late cultural horizon in Owens Valley.

#- 3 1 "

The small rock shelters excavated by Mr. and Mrs. Harry Riddell have
yielded material entirely typical of the late aboriginal occupation of the
valley. Among the specimens recovered from the shelters are fragments of
open-twined burden baskets, diagonal-twined winnowing trays, open-twined
trays, cordage, tule matting, and parts of what appear to be small game

snares. One cache recovered in a shelter consisted of a nest of grass and
sagebrush bark in the center of which were 9 lengths of native rope, each
with a loop spliced-in at one end. Probably these excellently preserved
specimens were deer snares.

The foregoing has been little more than an outline of the archaeological
picture for the Owens Valley region of the Great Basin, but it shows that
it will be possible to determine cultural and temporal differencee from

the evidence, and that relationships with other regions of the Great Basin,
the Southwest and California can be demonstrated.

* 32 m

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Baldwin, Gordon C.

1950.   The Pottery of the Southern Paiute. American Antiquity, vol.

16, no. 1, pp. 50-56. Menasha.

Fe-nenga, Franklin

1953.   The Weights of Chipped Stone Points: a Clue to their Functions.

Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, vol. 9, no. 3, pp. 309-
323. Albuquerque.

Gayton, A. H.

1929.    Yokuts and Western Mono Pottory-Making.  Univ. of Calif. Pub-

ltcations in Amorican Archaeology and Ethnology, vol. 24, no. 3,
pp. 239-255. Borkeley.
Haury, Emil W.

1950.   The Stratigraphy and Archaeology of Ventana Cave, Arizona.

The Univ. of New Moxico Press. Albuquorque.

Hamilton, Andrew

1951.   Exploring the Past: America' s Oldest Houses.' Natural History,

vol. 60, no. 8 (October), pp. 361-364. New York.

Heizer, Robert F. and Albort B. Elsassor

1953. SCmae Archaoological Sites and. Cultures of the Central Sierra

Nevada. Reports of the Univ. of Calif. Archaeological Survey,
no. 21. Berkeley.

Heizor, Robert F. and Adan E. Treganza

1944.   Mines and Quarries of the Indians of California. Calif. Journal

of Mines and Geology, Report XL of the State Mineralogist,
July, pp. 291-359. Sacramento.
Ingalls, Don

1949.   Turquoise Hunters Have a Field Day. Desert Magazine, Vol. 12,

no. 5 (March), pp. 13-15. Palm Desert, California.
MOeighan, Clement W.

1955.   Notes on the Archaeology of Mono County, California. Reports

of the Univ. of Calif. Archaeological Survey, no. 28, pp. 6-28.
Berkeloy.
Riddell, Harry S.

1951.   The Archaeology of a Patute Village Site in Owens Valley.

Reports of the Univ. of Calif. Archaeological Survey, no. 12,
pp. 14-28. Berkeley.
Steward, Julian H.

1933.   Ethnography of the Owens Valley Palute. Univ. of Calif. Pub-

lications in American Archaeology and Ethnology, vol. 33, no. 3,
pp. 233-350. Berkoley.

- 33 -