Daisy Cave (official site designation CA-SMI-26) is a rockshelter located in the northern Channel Islands off the coast of California in the western United States. The lowest occupation levels of this cave date to the terminal pleistocene, between about 12,300-11,120 years ago, and thus Daisy Cave is a Paleoindian site. There are also later occupations in the upper levels.
The people who lived in Daisy Cave lived on marine resources such as fish, shellfish and marine mammals. Cordage has been recovered from Daisy Cave, and may represent early evidence of footwear, in addition to basketry. Because Daisy Cave is on an island, the age of the site is important, for it indicates that some sort of ocean-going vessel was used to get there during Paleoindian times. Daisy Cave would, therefore, be an example of a site that might have been occupied by people traveling along the western coast to enter the new world.
Daisy Cave was excavated in the 1990s by University of Oregon archaeologist Jon M. Erlandson.
Sources
Connolly, Thomas J., Jon M. Erlandson, and Susan E. Norris 1995 Early holocene basketry and cordage from Daisy Cave, San Miguel Island, California. American Antiquity 60(2):309-318.
Kennett, Douglas J. 2005. The Island Chumash: Behavioral Ecology of a Maritime Society. University of California Press, Berkeley.
Rick, Torben C., Jon M. Erlandson, and Rene L. Vellanoweth 2001 Paleocoastal Marine Fishing on the Pacific Coast of the Americas: Perspectives from Daisy Cave, California. American Antiquity 66(4):595-614.
This glossary entry is part of the Dictionary of Archaeology. Any mistakes are the responsibility of Kris Hirst.
