Shorelines in the Desert: Mapping Fish Trap Features along the Southwest Coast of Ancient Lake Cahuilla, California

ABSTRACTIn the desert of southeastern California, the geological and archaeological remnants of a once massive lake, Lake Cahuilla, are still visible. One of the most distinctive features marking Lake Cahuilla's relic shorelines is a series of rock fish trap features that, in some cases, stretch across thousands of square meters. These fish traps are severely understudied, and systematic archaeological survey can help scientists reconstruct the dynamic human-environmental history of the region. The large number of fish traps along with the rocky desert terrain, however, make traditional pedestrian archaeological surveys both difficult and inefficient. We used unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology along with traditional archaeological methods to conduct surveys and identify patterning in the shapes, orientations, and frequencies of fish traps. Our study demonstrates the potential of emerging archaeological field technology to better understand the nature of human-environmental ecodynamics through time and space.

Cluster Analysis of Paleofecal Data Sets: A Test of Late Prehistoric Settlement and Subsistence Patterns in the Northern Coachella Valley, California

Data from human paleofecal samples can be used to address a variety of questions, primarily the reconstruction of diet, but also the analysis of nutrition, health, technology, and behavior Statistical analyses of constituents can be used to broaden the potential of paleofecal data, as well as to detail cuisine and to address larger issues of settlement/subsistence models. This potential is illustrated with a cluster analysis of paleofecal constituents from three late prehistoric period sites along the northern shore of ancient Lake Cahuilla, located in the Coachella Valley of southern California. These data were used to test competing settlement/subsistence models: one of large permanent lakeside villages dependent on lacustrine resources, and the other of seasonal, rather than permanent, lakeshore occupation. In addition, the analysis revealed additional details of diet and cuisine in the late prehistoric period.

Late Holocene Lacustrine Chronology and Archaeology of Ancient Lake Cahuilla, California

Freshwater lakes existed intermittently in the Salton Trough of southern California during the late Holocene. The lakes formed north of the subaerial Colorado River Delta whenever the Colorado River flowed west into the trough instead of south to the Gulf of California. Water filled the trough to a maximum altitude of 12 m. Stratigraphy, radiocarbon dates, and supplementary evidence document four lacustral intervals of Lake Cahuilla between A.D. 700 and 1580. Archaeological sites are associated with the 12-m shoreline and their occupation correlates with these lacustral intervals.

The “Ancient Stone Fish Traps” of the Coachella Valley, Southern California

A group of small stone enclosures, supposed by some to be of natural origin and by others to be the works of man, lies on a rocky travertine-encrtfsted talus slope at the base of the Santa Rosa Mountains on the west side of the Coachella Valley in Riverside County, California. These phenomena are known locally as the "Ancient Fish Traps." They occupy a series of rocky terraces some 90 feet below the maximum high-water shore line of Ancient Lake Cahuilla (called by some Blake Sea), whose basin is now partly occupied by the Salton Sea. The “traps” consist of 85 to 100 bowl-like depressions composed of a travertine-encrusted granite talus debris. They are arranged in three rows, each of which follows the exact contour of one of the old recessional terraces of the lake (Pl. XIX).