Cotsen Institute / Archaeology

The archaeology and historical ecology of Late Holocene San Miguel Island.

Revising his Ph.D. dissertation for the University of Oregon (no date noted), Rick (anthropology, Southern Methodist U.) examines social, economic, and ecological developments among the Chumash and their predecessors on the westernmost of California's northern Channel Islands, off the coast of Santa Barbara during the past 3,000 years. Among his topics are environments and peoples of the Channel Islands, late Holocene occupation of Otter Harbor, and the historical period. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Kasapata and the archaic period of the Cuzco Valley.

The Cuzco Valley in Peru is known as the heartland of the Incas and host, however exacting, to the people before them from about 9000 to 2200 BCE. This collection of articles describes findings of recent surveys and excavations that show those early people were not a few farmers in scattered villages as previously thought but a significant population with a complex culture. Focusing on the excavation site at Kaspata, contributors describe the research, the lithic assemblage, human skeletal materials, faunal remains, the sources of archaic obsidian materials, and the overall impression of the archaic period in the valley. The illustrations and photographs are particularly good and an appendix includes radiocarbon dates from the excavation site. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)