California State University at Dominguez Hills is conducting its field school this summer in the Los Padres National Forest, between June 23 and July 18, 2008. Marketing director for the school Keith Otterberg sent along this description of the fieldwork.
Los Padres National Forest, California
Photo Credit: Joan Brandoff-Kerr
From the Santa Barbara coastline to Big Sur, the Los Padres National Forest includes some of the most spectacular scenery and fascinating archaeology in North America. Join Forest Archaeologist Joan Brandoff-Kerr and her staff for a four-week applied archaeology field school in the Transverse and Coastal Ranges of central California.
This four week program is designed for the beginning archaeologist who wants to explore a future career in cultural resource management and preservation. The field school will include archaeological survey in an area of both prehistoric and historic sites and excavation at prehistoric sites, artifact processing and analysis, workshops on heritage management and the challenges of preserving Americašs past.
The area where the survey portion is being held is near Mt. Pinos (also the name of the Ranger District of the Los Padres) in a mixed conifer/juniper woodland at the approximately 5500 foot elevation. This was part of the interior Chumash area where we find prehistoric and early historic Native American sites, including rock art. It is also an area with some of the earliest gold mining in addition to early homesteads. In the survey area, which was part of the Day Fire (2006), we expect students to gain experience in recording sites from a wide range of history and prehistory.
The excavation portion is in an interior valley just over the Santa Ynez Range from Santa Barbara (about 1 hour distant over mountain roads) on the Santa Barbara Ranger District. Excavation will be at an ethnographic Chumash village set in oak woodlands along the Santa Ynez River at about 1600 foot elevation. This village had some of the first (and last) inhabitants from interior villages baptised at Mission Santa Barbara, and was one of the first interior villages visited by presidio soldiers associated with the mission. The Chumash had a complex social and political system with strong ties to the coast, including economics and the distribution of foods and resources.
Students will have opportunities to experience Chumash archaeology in two separate areas of the interior and see some of the internationally known rock art.
University Credit available: 6 semester units of upper division Anthropology credit). Cost: $1950 (includes university credit, food, camping fees). Contact and other information available on the project website.
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