The Prehistory of Baja California: Advances in the Archaeology of the Forgotten Peninsula

265 Pages·2006·2.97 MB·English

by  Don Laylander

The Prehistory of Baja California
Advances in the Archaeology
of the Forgotten Peninsula
Edited by Don Laylander
and Jerry D. Moore
university press of florida
The Prehistory of Baja California
University Press of Florida
Florida A&M University, Tallahassee
Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton
Florida Gulf Coast University, Ft. Myers
Florida International University, Miami
Florida State University, Tallahassee
New College of Florida, Sarasota
University of Central Florida, Orlando
University of Florida, Gainesville
University of North Florida, Jacksonville
University of South Florida, Tampa
University of West Florida, Pensacola

The Prehistory of Baja California
Advances in the Archaeology
of the Forgotten Peninsula
Edited by Don Laylander
and Jerry D. Moore
University Press of Florida
Gainesville/Tallahassee/Tampa/Boca Raton
Pensacola/Orlando/Miami/Jacksonville/Ft. Myers/Sarasota
Copyright 2006 by Don Laylander and Jerry D. Moore
Printed in the United States of America
All rights reserved
isbn 978-0-8130-2965-8 (cloth)
isbn 978-0-8130-3638-0 (eBook)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The prehistory of Baja California : advances in the archaeology of the forgotten peninsula /
edited by Don Laylander and Jerry D. Moore.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Indians of Mexico—Mexico—Baja California (Peninsula—Antiquities. 2. Ethnohistory—
Mexico—Baja California (Peninsula) 3. Archaeology—Mexico—Baja California (Peninsula)
4. Baja California (Mexico : Peninsula)—Antiquities. I. Laylander, Don. II. Moore, Jerry D.
F1219.1.B3P74 2006
972'.201—dc22 2005058574
The University Press of Florida is the scholarly publishing agency for the State University System
of Florida, comprising Florida A&M University, Florida Atlantic University, Florida Gulf Coast
University, Florida International University, Florida State University, New College of Florida
University of Central Florida, University of Florida, University of North Florida, University of
South Florida, and University of West Florida.
University Press of Florida
15 Northwest 15th Street
Gainesville, FL 32611-2079
http://www.upf.com
Contents
List of Figures and Table vii
Acknowledgments ix
1. Issues in Baja California Prehistory 1
Don Laylander
2. Baja California’s Paleoenvironmental Context 14
Loren G. Davis
3. The Indigenous Languages 24
Mauricio J. Mixco
4. Ethnohistoric Evidence 42
W. Michael Mathes
5. Ethnography 67
Miguel Wilken-Robertson and Don Laylander
6. The Cape Region 82
Harumi Fujita
7. South-Central Baja California 99
Eric W. Ritter
8. The Central Sierras 117
Justin R. Hyland
9. The Vizcaíno Desert 135
Eric W. Ritter
10. Isla Cedros 153
Matthew R. Des Lauriers
11. Bahía de los Angeles 167
Eric W. Ritter
12. The San Quintín–El Rosario Region 179
Jerry D. Moore
13. Managing Prehistoric Archaeology 196
Julia Bendímez Patterson
14. Toward a More Complex Understanding of Baja California’s Past 202
Don Laylander
References Cited 207
Contributors 241
Index 243

Figures and Table
2.1. Map of locations mentioned in the discussion of paleoenvironments 15
3.1. Linguistic map of prehistoric Baja California 25
4.1. Map of locations mentioned in the discussion of ethnohistoric evidence
43
4.2. People and artifacts of Cabo San Lucas 46
4.3. Depictions of native Baja Californians 48
6.1. Map of locations relating to the archaeology of the Cape Region 83
6.2. Prehistoric regional centers in the Cape Region 87
6.3. Isla Espíritu Santo 89
7.1. Map of locations relating to the archaeology of South-Central Baja Califor-
nia 100
7.2. South-Central Baja California artifacts 103
7.3. Great Mural pictograph site of San Borjitas 106
7.4. View of the western shore of Bahía de la Concepción 109
8.1. Map of locations relating to the archaeology of the Central Sierras 118
9.1. Map of locations relating to the archaeology of the Vizcaíno Desert 136
9.2. Archaeological Site LM-16, near Laguna Manuela 137
9.3. Vizcaíno Desert artifacts 140
9.4. Obsidian hydration readings from Vizcaíno Desert sites 143
10.1. Map of locations relating to the archaeology of Isla Cedros 154
10.2. Projectile points from Isla Cedros 160
11.1. Map of locations relating to the archaeology of the Bahía de los Angeles
region 168
11.2. Archaeological sites near Bahía de los Angeles 171
11.3. Bahía de los Angeles artifacts 173
11.4. Floor space in rock enclosures near Bahía de los Angeles 177
12.1. Map of locations relating to the archaeology of the San Quintín-El Rosario
region 181
12.2. Agave shawii plant and roasting platform 190
13.1. Some of the activities of INAH’s Centro Baja California 199
Table
8.1. Radiocarbon and calibrated ages for mortuary cave bone samples 127

Acknowledgments
Many individuals and institutions have helped to make this book possible and
to support the research that it represents. In particular, several of the authors
would like to recognize the following assistance:
Loren Davis would like to thank Drs. Alan Bryan and Ruth Gruhn, Carol
Rector, and the Huber Trust for encouraging and supporting years of research
in Baja California.
Mauricio J. Mixco would like to acknowledge the timely assistance of Pro-
fessor Miguel León-Portilla, who first brought Miguel del Barco’s Cochimí
manuscript materials to his attention in 1976, and of Fr. Ernest J. Burrus, S.J.,
erstwhile director of the Jesuit Historical Institute (Rome/Tucson), who facili-
tated access to the manuscript and microfilm materials on Cochimí and other
peninsular languages in Bologna and Rome in 1977. Mixco thanks the Kiliwa,
Kw’atl, and Pa’ipai peoples of Baja California along with academic and munici-
pal, state, and federal governmental authorities in Mexico for their hospitality
and invaluable collaboration. For support of Yumanist linguistic research in
Baja California between 1966 and 1976, Mixco thanks the Survey of California
and Other Indian Languages of the Department of Linguistics at the University
of California, Berkeley. For support of subsequent Cochimí-Yuman research
(1970–1986), he thanks faculty committees at Idaho State University and the
University of Utah, as well as the Phillips Fund of the American Philosophical
Society, the Whatcom Museum, the Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung, and the
National Science Foundation. Finally, he expresses a special debt of gratitude to
all fellow Yumanists, but especially to professors Mary R. Haas (deceased, UC
Berkeley), Margaret Langdon (deceased, UC San Diego), and Werner Winter
(retired, Christian-Albrechts Universität-Kiel).
Sincere thanks from W. Michael Mathes to all of his friends and colleagues in
Mexico, Spain, and the United States for their contributions to this study during
the past five decades. Everyone, from the rancheros of Baja California to the fine
scholars of the region, has made this chapter possible, and Don Laylander’s fine
editing made it readable.
Harumi Fujita would like to thank Mexican archaeologists Jesús Mora Ech-
everría and Baudelina García-Uranga who gave her the great motivation and
excellent orientation to study Baja California archaeology and invited her to