PCAS Activities: General Meetings
Monthly lecture meetings feature noted archaeologists and anthropologists who provide insight into a variety of topics. Lecture meetings are held at the Irvine Ranch Water District 15600 Sand Canyon Avenue (between the I-5 and I-405, next to the Post Office) in Irvine, on the second Thursday of each month, at 7:30 pm. See site map of the Irvine Ranch Water District and general vicinity map. For additional directions, please call Scott Findlay, 714-342-2534.
You are invited to join the speaker and PCAS members for dinner before the general meeting. It's an informal opportunity to visit with an acknowledged expert. We meet at 6:00 pm at Knowlwood Restaurant, 14952 Sand Canyon Avenue, Irvine; 949-857-8927.
Schedule and Speakers
Please note that last minute changes may occur.
March 11, 2010
Dr. Gary Stickel
Ice Age Man in Malibu? The Clovis Culture Discovery at Farpoint
Dr. Gary Stickel will present his research team's exciting new discovery of a Clovis site located on the Southern California coast at Malibu. The Clovis Culture is the oldest identifiable culture in the New World. The two major competing theories on the origin of Clovis will be discussed, and it is quite possible that the Farpoint Site will yield data to support the correct theory. The site is important to our worldwide understanding of how the planet was originally inhabited by early peoples. The ingenious hunting system with which Clovis hunters brought down the mammoths and other megafauna will also be presented, and Dr. Stickel will discuss the importance of protecting this nationally significant site.
Dr. Gary Stickel received his B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. (the latter in 1974) all at UCLA. His master's degree was based on the ancient Rincon Cemetery (ancient Chumash Culture between Ventura and Santa Barbara). His doctorate was based on Swiss Neolithic underwater archaeology in Lake Zurich. He has been a faculty member at the CSU Long Beach, CSU Los Angeles and at CSU Northridge, and he has taught archaeology at UCLA. He has lectured at the University of Sheffield in England, the University of the Sorbonne in Paris, the University of Florida, and the University of Georgia. Dr. Stickel has published technical books and professional articles on his research such as his article in the landmark book Models in Prehistory—the first international book on "The New Archaeology" edited by Lord Colin Renfrew, now of Cambridge in England. Dr. Stickel has directed major excavations at such sites as Achilleion, legendary birthplace of Achilles of the Trojan War and at Machu Picchu (subject of a previous lecture to the PCAS), where he was the first American since its discoverer Hiram Bingham of Yale to excavate there.
Dr. Stickel has also created a major art project called "The Homeric Project" which is designed to introduce new audiences to Homer's great epic poems—the Iliad and the Odyssey. His play on the Odyssey won the California Senate's "Outstanding" Award, and it has been playing to sold out audiences at such venues as the Bowers Museum where it was recently performed. It will next be performed at Orange Coast College on April 16th at 7 pm.
Dr. Stickel has been involved in California archaeology since 1965 and has conducted many major excavations around the state including at the oldest site in the San Francisco Bay area, at the old Spanish Mission San Buenaventura, and most recently at the Farpoint Site, where his team discovered the first Clovis Culture site on the west coast of the Americas. That discovery was announced in the media to the world by the London Times which called Dr. Stickel the "real-life Indiana Jones," because he was the one and only archaeologist who consulted with Lucasfilm Ltd. in the production of the film series.
April 8, 2010
Dr. Nancy
Anastasia Wiley
Bolsa Chica Archaeology: A Tribute to Hal Eberhart
Part One: The Sites
The first professional investigations for prehistoric culture on Upper Bolsa Chica were conducted in the 1960s by Dr. Hal Eberhart. Leading a joint effort comprised of CSULA and PCAS scientific teams, Dr. Eberhart oversaw three expeditions to investigate archaeological deposits on the Cogged Stone site (CA-ORA-83), the Alika Herring’s Site E (CA-ORA-86), and what came to be known as the Eberhart site (CA-ORA-85).
In the last 20 years, Dr. Wiley and SRS, Inc. have conducted excavations on these three locations. Her talk will highlight the CSULA-PCAS work and subsequent expansions by SRS three decades later. Following the results of surface inspection, Eberhart placed the 1960s excavations in highly significant portions of each site; prior to the work by SRS, subsequent excavators moved away from these key deposits. Methodologically and technologically advanced methods were employed by SRS during the 20-year study to reinvestigate the Eberhart excavation areas and broaden the research approach.
This talk recognizes Dr. Hal Eberhart for his insights, professionalism, and willingness to mentor the avocational community, specifically PCAS. His work provided key information for much of the additional work carried out on Bolsa Chica Mesa.
Dr. Wiley began her career studying classical languages, and she subsequently broadened her scholarly pursuits to include research focused on both prehistoric and historic archaeology; she was certified in both subdisciplines by the Society of Professional Archaeologists. Experience in New York State prehistory and a strong classical background in history and architecture have served her well as research director and principal investigator for the oldest cultural resource management firm, Scientific Resource Surveys, Inc. (SRS) (est. 1973). Dr. Wiley has managed the longest privately funded cultural resource investigations in southern California (29 years). These investigations comprise a multi-site and multi-disciplinary project that integrates archaeological, historic, ethnographic and paleontological studies. Within the last three years, she has expanded her expertise in Native American cultural studies and has recently accepted a position as tribal archaeologist for the Chilkat Tlingit Tribal group in Haines, Alaska. She is married to a Tlingit/Southern Tutchone Native, Ted Wiley, and they have opened a branch office of SRS in Haines in order to train Native American monitors. The company is researching the Tlingit language using the Alaskan field notes of J. P. Harrington; the goal is to generate a comparative Tlingit dictionary.
May 13, 2010
Dr. Nancy
Anastasia Wiley
Bolsa Chica Archaeology: A Tribute to Hal Eberhart
Part Two: The Cogged Stones
Ever the friend of the avocationalist, Dr. Hal Eberhart (CSULA) befriended and worked with Alika Herring to map the boundaries of the Cogged Stone site (CA-ORA-83), and he encouraged Herring to prepare a manuscript documenting his extensive collection of cogged stones from Bolsa Chica Mesa. Eberhart then went on to document the larger distribution of this artifact type, to study the shape variations in order to form types of this enigmatic artifact, to attempt to source their materials, and to consider the possibility of connections with similar looking objects documented from Chile. In 1968 Dr. Hal Eberhart published a classic work on the cogged stone artifact, “The Cogged Stones of Southern California,” in American Antiquity.
Over the last 30 years, Scientific Resource Surveys, Inc. (SRS) has also been following the lead of Riverside mayor S.J. Evans, who sought all information on cogged stones. Like Evans, SRS contacted the major universities and museums in the US in order to locate a parallel industry in another culture area, if such exists, and has attempted to document all available cogged stones in southern California repositories. SRS has recovered nearly 200 additional specimens from surface collections and excavations on the Cogged Stone site. Dr. Nancy Anastasia Wiley will present this background information and provide interesting details on the SRS collection, highlighting unique shapes and rare materials. She will also present 3-D documentation, which SRS has pioneered as a technique for total data recordation prior to collection repatriation.
June 10, 2010
Roderic McLean
Buried Sites Archaeology: Life by the Lakes in Laguna Canyon during the Intermediate and Late Prehistoric Period
People have been living by the lakes in Laguna Canyon, California for thousands of years, given the reliable availability of fresh water resources. The canyon is the only good travel route through the San Joaquin Hills, linking inland resource areas with the ocean. Recent construction exposed hearth features, artifact caches, and a dog burial. This lecture will present in landscape context the results of excavations and scientific analyses of the data, including macro-botanical studies. Issues of nomadism versus sedentism will be addressed. Additionally, the limitations of hand excavations in identifying deeply buried, low density, feature based sites will be discussed.
Roderic McLean is an archaeologist with LSA Associates, Inc. with almost 30 years of experience.