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Pacific Archaeological Sciences Team (PAST) conducted an archaeological monitoring program on property at the edge of the Nipomo Mesa within an unincorporated portion of southwestern San Luis Obispo County, California. This investigation follows recommendations made in an earlier archaeological survey report for the project prepared by Robert O. Gibson (2001) and in Exhibit B of the Conditions Of Approval – D000398P by the County of San Luis Obispo. The archaeological monitoring program, which met all of the required conditions, was conducted by archaeologists from PAST and consultants form the Northern Chumash Council of Oceano and Arroyo Grande. The fieldwork portion of the archaeological monitoring program was conducted by John E. Atwood of PAST, and Peggi Weigold-Odom and Matthew Goldman of the Northern Chumash Council. Following the requirements placed on the project by the County’s Condition of Approval (2001), all earth disturbing activities within the project area were monitored by the project archaeologist and a Chumash consultant. The monitoring program included observation of all vegetation removal activities, trenching operations, and excavations. After the various ground disturbance work was completed, each area was carefully examined for archaeological materials. All of the recovered samples from the monitoring project were transported to the Laguna Niguel office of PAST for cataloging and analysis by Principal Investigator Barbie S. Getchell of PAST. On the first day of the project, a portion of a human burial was impacted during the trenching operations. All work on the project was stopped and a telephone call was made to the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff-Coroner’s office to notify them of the discovery. Subsequently, Officer C. Pirotte of the South Station of the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff-Corner’s office came out to the project site to inspect the find and to file a report on the matter. Following the inspection by Officer Pirotte, Rob Wood of the Native American Heritage Commission (NAHC) was contacted by the Coroner’s office. The NAHC then identified Art Lopez, Chairperson of the Santa Ynez Tribal Elders Council (SYTEC) as the Most Likely Descendant (MLD) for the project. Following a telephone discussion with Suzy Harrison and Art Lopez of the SYTEC, they declined to personally inspect the human remains in person and assigned members of the Northern Chumash Council to act as their representatives in the matter. Based on a results of a discussion between all involved parties, it was determine that since the majority of the burial was located at the base of the utility trench it was feasible to replace the disturbed portion of the human remains back with the intact portion and cover the burial with soil and place a cement cap over the remains to protect them from further impact. At the request of the Chumash, no detailed examination or analysis of the remains took place and no direct photographs were taken. Although ground surface visibility in the area was considered extremely poor, an attempt was made to identify the boundaries and size of the archaeological deposits by evaluating the topography, soil profile at the edge of the terrace and the distribution of shell. The dense vegetation in the area prevented a thorough evaluation of the surface and the majority of the artifacts seen during the investigation were noted in the sidewalls of the various trenches and within the sidecast soil. Based on the limited information that was obtained during the monitoring program, site P-40-002193 appears to have been used during the Early Period of Chumash prehistory. The analysis of two single shell samples submitted for radiocarbon dating techniques indicates that the Chumash people used the area at approximately 4690 BCE and at 2110 BCE. It is also likely that the site area was used prior to, as well as, after these dates. Overall, the deposit referred to as site P-40-002193 can be characterized as a medium density shell and stone tool deposit. The function of the site appears to associated with food procurement as evidenced by the shells, bone, and stone tool assemblage. |
