The Pacific Coast Archaeological Society (PCAS) was founded in 1961 as an avocational organization dedicated to the study, protection, and preservation of the cultural resources of the southern Pacific coast region, including the Baja Peninsula, with a special focus on Orange County, California.
Membership is open to all interested individuals including both avocational and professional archaeologists. An individual membership costs $45.00 per year. Other membership categories are available.
In order to meet our goals of public education and advocacy in archaeology, PCAS provides informative monthly lectures, field and laboratory research opportunities, group outings to view archaeological sites and exhibits, a scholarly publication, and a monthly newsletter.
Monthly lecture meetings feature noted archaeologists and anthropologists who provide insight into a variety of topics. Lecture meetings are held by Zoom and at the Irvine Ranch Water District Community Room, 15500 Sand Canyon Avenue (between the I-5 and I-405) in Irvine, on the second Thursday of each month, at 7:30 pm. See maps to meeting location. Meetings are free and open to the public.
Please note: Irvine Ranch Water District neither supports nor endorses the cause nor activities of organizations which use the district’s meeting rooms that are made available as a public service.
The Pacific Coast Archaeological Society Quarterly is a scholarly journal of original research concerning the prehistory and history of Orange County and other culturally related areas. The Pacific Coast Archaeological Society Quarterly invites the submission of material by both members and nonmembers. Current subscribers include some of the leading universities and research libraries in the US.
The PCAS Newsletter is a monthly publication devoted primarily to informing members of Society events and other organizational business. It also includes pertinent local news, an occasional short article or book review, and more.
In addition to the lectures and publications, the Society provides other membership benefits. Collections generated by local excavations are cleaned, studied, labeled, recorded, and prepared for storage by PCAS members at the PCAS Curation Facility. See the current Curation schedule. Many of the collections are from PCAS excavations undertaken in the 1960s and 1970s, prior to the establishment of environmental laws. PCAS also accepted collections from cultural resource management firms for many years. In fact, in 1977 PCAS was designated the official curator of archaeological materials for Orange County by the Board of Supervisors and continued as such into the 1980s.
PCAS offers numerous field trips to unique prehistoric sites.