Cleaning Up California Culture History: The Malaga Cove Leaf Projectile Point Type

ABSTRACT

The Malaga Cove Leaf projectile point was originally defined based on three specimens from CA-LAN-138, the Malaga Cove Site, and nine from other sites in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties. The point’s time range was somewhat ambiguous, and it showed a wide range of sizes and weights. A larger sample of 151 points, including the original Malaga Cove specimens along with points from two single-component sites in San Luis Obispo County (CA-SLO-9 and CA-SLO-239), one ethnographic village (CA-SLO-51/H), and two multi-component sites (CA-SLO-2 and CA-SLO-585) was evaluated here. Based on measurements (weights and the Hildebrandt-King Index), we show that the Malaga Cove Leaf can be divided into two size-based subtypes: a smaller variant associated with bow and arrow and dating ca. 600–120 cal BP, and a larger subtype used with a different pre-arrow weapon system, dating ca. 1,700–560 cal BP.

RESUMEN

La punta de proyectil Malaga Cove Leaf se definió originalmente en base a tres especímenes de CA-LAN-138, el sitio de Malaga Cove, y nueve de otros sitios en los condados de Santa Bárbara y San Luis Obispo. El rango de tiempo del punto era algo ambiguo y mostraba una amplia gama de tamaños y pesos. Una muestra más grande de 151 puntos, incluidos los especímenes originales de Malaga Cove junto con puntos de dos sitios de un solo componente en el condado de San Luis Obispo (CA-SLO-9 y CA-SLO-239), un pueblo etnográfico (CA-SLO-51/H), y aquí se evaluaron dos sitios de componentes múltiples (CA-SLO-2 y CA-SLO-585). Según las medidas (pesos y el índice de Hildebrandt-King), mostramos que la hoja de Malaga Cove se puede dividir en dos subtipos según el tamaño: una variante más pequeña asociada con el arco y la flecha y que data de ca. 600–120 cal BP, y un subtipo más grande usado con un sistema de armas anterior a la flecha diferente, que data de ca. 1,700–560 cal BP.

KEYWORDS:

• Central California
• Santa Barbara County
• San Luis Obispo County
• Malaga Cove
• projectile point types
• projectile point typology
• chronology building
• culture history

Acknowledgments

We thank Luther Bertrando from the San Luis Obispo County Archaeological Society (SLOCAS) for granting us access to the CA-SLO-2 point collection. We are deeply indebted to the SLOCAS for providing funds for radiocarbon dating for CA-SLO-239. We are also most grateful to Richard T. Fitzgerald and Peter Hanchett of the State Archaeological Collections Research Facility for providing us access to the collection from CA-SLO-239. Figures 1 and 4–7 were prepared by the lead author while Figures 2 and 3 were drawn by Rusty van Rossmann. We are especially indebted to Matthew Goldman and Mona Tucker, representatives of yak tityu tityu Northern Chumash Tribe, who consulted on the excavation projects at CA-SLO-9, CA-SLO-51/H, and CA-SLO-585. We are honored to be able to continue our collaboration with them.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Dating of cultural periods follows Jones et al. (2007) for the central California coast: Milling Stone/Lower Archaic = 10,000–5700 cal BP; Early = 5,700–2,550 cal BP; Middle = 2,550–950 cal BP; Middle-Late Transition = 950–700 cal BP; Late = 700–180 cal BP; post-contact = after 180 cal BP.

2 The indeterminate leaf-shaped point in Greenwood’s (1972) original collection (Specimen No. 1161) was placed in the large subtype group for all comparative figures. After evaluating the projectile point in person and calculating its Hildebrandt-King Index number, we determined that it aligns more closely with the large points.

3 We attempted to visit the Southwest Museum to record information on the collection directly, but at the time of our request the museum stated that the collections were not in a condition to study. Therefore, we had to use the minimal metric information that was provided on their collection’s website.