SAS Webinar

Saturday, June 12, 2021

2:00 p.m.

“The Olmec Cascajal Block through the Portable Portals”

by Joanne Carpenter

The Cascajal Block is a tablet-sized writing slab in Mexico made of serpentinite which has been dated to the early first millennium BCE. It is incised with hitherto unknown characters that may represent the earliest writing system in the New World. Joanne will discuss the possible link between this discovery and the Olmec civilization. The Cascajal Block was first discovered in 1999 and refused as a possible connection to the Olmec; however many archaeologists are academically finding evidence to prove its arrival is connected to Olmec representation.

Joanne Carpenter is a native Hawaiian.  James Booth Cummings of the Cummings Clan is her great grandfather her and her great grandmother; Sarah Nela Kaimu Kuhaulua is a third generation Native Hawaiian. She resides on the big island and has a AA and BA in Anthropology. She is a member of the Sacramento Archeological Society and with pleasure she has served as the Vice President with Travis County Archeological Society in Texas for years. She has 18 years of archaeology experience in the field and taught grade school. At an early age she searched the ground for artifacts and still does. 

SAS Webinar

Saturday, May 8, 2021

2:00 p.m.

Polynesian Contact with the Americas: An Update

By Terry Jones, Department of Social Sciences, California Polytechnic State University

and Kathryn A. Klar, University of California, Berkeley

The possibility of prehistoric Polynesian contact with the Americas has been considered by historians, archaeologists, and other scholars for centuries. Most evidence and most scholarly discourse have focused on South America, but as early as the 1930s, Alfred Kroeber suggested that cultural similarities between southern California and Oceania could be the product of prehistoric trans-oceanic diffusion. This talk reviews archaeological, linguistic, and other evidence for such contact in North and South America with an emphasis on recent genetic studies that challenge some longstanding ideas.

Dr. Terry Jones joined the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo faculty in 1998. His research interests include North American prehistory, hunter-gatherer ecology, and maritime adaptations. His area of geographic expertise is the central California coast, where he has conducted field research for the last 35 years. He is actively involved in research on a number of issues related to the archaeology and ecology of prehistoric California including: the impacts of late Holocene droughts on indigenous populations, the effects of human-caused extinction of the flightless duck (Chendytes lawi) on nearshore ecology during the Holocene, the prehistory of fishing on the central California coast, and possible pre-Columbian Polynesian contact with the New World. His most recently published books focus on the archaeology and prehistory of the Pecho Coast and Morro Bay in San Luis Obispo County.

Dr. Kathryn Klar is a historical/comparative and anthropological linguist. Her specialties are California Indian languages, especially Chumashan languages, and Celtic languages and cultures. She was a lecturer in the Celtic Studies at UC Berkeley, and is now retired. She has a special interest in the original peopling of the Americas, and long-distance relationships between languages. She works with the Northern Chumash people on their language revitalization program.

SAS Webinar

Saturday, April 10, 2021

2:00 p.m.

‘Evaluating the Dog as A Hunting Tool in Prehistoric Alta and Baja California: Preliminary Results’

by Jessica Morales

California hunter-gatherer(-fishers) archaeology has long focused in understanding forager decision making related to mobility, residency, subsistence practices, and technology. Notably, stone tools have dominated the discussion of technology in relation to human adaptation through time and space. Jessica’s dissertation project aims to bring dogs to the discussion of tools employed by California hunter-gatherers. The goals of Jessica’s study are to (1) identify dogs from other canids in the archaeological record, (2) identify hunting dogs from other dogs, and (3) examine changes in key prey before and after the adoption of dogs. The first step involves a combination of traditional zooarchaeological methods, geometric morphometrics, and stable isotopes. This first step is crucial to begin to address the second and third steps. The preliminary results of the first step are presented in this webinar.

Jessica Morales is a graduate student at University of California Davis. She received an M.A. from California State University, Los Angeles in 2019 and a scholarship from SAS in 2020 to support her hunting dogs research..

SAS Webinar
Saturday, March 13, 2021
2:00 p.m. PDT
Seven Outstanding Petroglyph Sites in Central and Northwest California: Tales of Discovery and Collaboration
By Dan Foster

This presentation will discuss the early years of the Archaeology Program at the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CalFire), and its successful outreach utilizing volunteers, landowners, and archaeologically-trained personnel. The result was some remarkable petroglyph site documentation. Dan Foster, a retired Cal Fire Archaeologist has first-hand experience with the discovery and recording of California petroglyphs.

Dan received a B.A. degree in Anthropology from California State University Stanislaus where he studied archaeology and cultural resource management under Dr. L. Kyle Napton from 1973-1977. During his 34 years of public service he developed and led an archaeology program for the CA Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to identify and protect cultural resources within the 30 million acres of State Responsibility Area lands. He has prepared detailed site records and reports for hundreds of archaeological sites including five published articles on prehistoric California Rock Art. He retired from State Service in 2012 and has become an active member of the Sacramento Archaeological Society.

SAS Webinar
Saturday, February 13, 2021
2:00 p.m.
Peopling of the Tibetan Plateau: the occupation history and high-altitude adaptation
by Peiqi Zhang
Tibetan populations have successfully settled in the Tibetan Plateau for generations. As the largest and highest highland in the world, with an average elevation of 4,000 meters above sea level (masl), the Tibetan Plateau is not only surrounded by mountains and alpine peaks but also with many selective pressures for humans to live permanently on this plateau. However, when and how Tibetan populations permanently occupied the region are still under debate. To address these questions, the occupation history and evolution of Tibetans is critical. Therefore, to understand the process of human adaptation to this harsh high-altitude environment, here, the study starts from the human occupation history since Middle Pleistocene to the Holocene, then to investigate the behavioral and biological adaptations in the high-altitude plateau.

Peiqi Zhang. PhD candidate at University of California Davis, whose research interest is the Paleolithic Archaeology and Paleoanthropology, specifically about the behaviors and dispersals of Homo sapiens in eastern Eurasia including areas of Siberia of Russia, Mongolia, and China. Her research focuses on the hunter-gatherer migrations along the Northern route of modern human dispersal, and their response to environmental pressures during the movements, as well as the high-altitude adaptations to the Tibetan Plateau. In
2018 and 2020 Peiqi received scholarships from Sacramento Archeological Society, Inc. to pursue her research.

SAS Webinar
Saturday, January 30, 2021
2:00 p.m.
Projectile point enlargement in the High Andean Archaic: an experimental atlatl study
by Caleb Chen

Archaic projectile points from the Andean Altiplano exhibit a curious trend of increasing size over time in contrast to a size reduction commonly observed throughout North America. We hypothesized that the increase compensated for decreasing dart momentum or accuracy resulting from shortening of atlatl parts as wood became increasingly scarce. Counter to expectation, our atlatl ballistic trials show that point enlargement significantly reduces penetration depth. However, we are unable to refute the accuracy hypothesis, leading us to suggest that Archaic point enlargement may have compensated for accuracy losses due to resource depletion on the Altiplano.

Caleb Chen is a graduate student at University of California Davis. He participated in the first U.C. Davis field school in the Andean Altiplano, Peru in 2019 and worked in the Forage Complexity Lab at U.C. Davis to replicated and experiment with an alpaca bone atlatl and atlatl darts to
assess projectile point trends in the Andes Mountains. Caleb also received a scholarship from Sacramento Archeological Society, Inc. in 2020.

SAS Webinar
Saturday, January 16, 2021
2:00 p.m.
‘Tocharians’
by Ranny Eckstrom

The Tocharians, or Tokharians were speakers of Tocharian languages, Indo-European languages known from around 7600 documents from around 400 to 1200 AD, found on the northern edge of the Tarim Basin (modern Xinjiang, China). The name “Tocharian” was given to these languages in the early 20th century by scholars who identified their speakers with a people known in ancient Greek sources as the Tókharoi (Latin Tochari), who inhabited Bactria from the 2nd century BC.

Ranny is an SAS member who leads “Big History” at California State University, Sacramento Renaissance Society and Sun City Lincoln Hills.

Sacramento Archeological Society, Inc.’s
Annual Meeting Webinar
Featuring
“Indus Valley Civilization”
by Ruth McElhinney and
Tule Boat Replication video
by Kevin Smith
Saturday, December 5, 2020
1:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.

At our annual meeting in addition to a review of the year, a peek into 2021 and our election of officers for 2021we are pleased to have two featured events, a video on reed boat building by Kevin Smith and a talk by Ruth McElhinney on the Indus Valley Civilization.

Annual Meeting Program
The schedule for the event is as follows:
1:30 – Meet and Greet
2:00 – Tule Boat Replication video by Kevin Smith
2:30 – SAS Annual Meeting with election of officers for 2021
3:30 – Indus Valley Civilization by Ruth McElhinney
During the meet and greet period we will use the breakout room feature of Zoom and give attendees the opportunity to chat in small groups.
Kevin Smith who presented a webinar on October 17th will show the video that follows his process of building a tule reed boat using only stone tools. This a fantastic follow up to his discussion of ancient water craft that he gave during his webinar.
At the SAS Annual Meeting President, Tom Johansen will review SAS events for 2020, highlight expectations for 2021, and conduct an election of officers. See the Members’ Corner section of this newsletter for the list of candidates. In 2020 our typical in person presentations were replaced by monthly webinars. These will continue in 2021. Hopefully we will be able to have some face to face activities in 2021, including Lovelock Cave, Four Corners Tour. In 2020 several of the scholars were unable to use their SAS scholarships because the excavations that they were planning to attend were cancelled. We are hopeful to award more scholarships in 2021.
Following the annual meeting Ruth McElhinney will explore the Harappan Civilization of the Indus Valley located in what is today Pakistan. This culture, which peaked during the period from 2600 to 1900 BCE, featured urban planning, far reaching trade and symbols on trade seals that may have been a written language. Ruth will highlight the ancient cities of Mohenjo-Daro, Harappa and Lothal.

Ruth McElhinney, a retired economic development, community relations and legislative professional has a keen avocational interest in history, anthropology and archaeology. She has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Sacramento Archeological Society, Inc. for more than twenty years. She has participated in archaeological excavations and lab work in Italy, Mississippi, and California, has attended historical classes at Oxford University, co-led classes for the Renaissance Society, a lifelong learning community sponsored by Sacramento State University, and served as a board member of Friends of San Juan (San Juan de Oriente, Nicaragua). She has traveled widely, visiting archaeological sites in Great Britain, Ireland, Meso-America, and South Africa.

SAS Webinar
Saturday, November 14, 2020
1:30 p.m. Social Time
2:00 p.m. “Cultural Resources and Parks – A View from California and Beyond“
by John Foster

This talk will discuss the emergence of cultural resources within the Park movement in California. It will highlight the contributions of three giants who left important legacies for today- Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., Aubrey Neasham, and Francis A. Riddell. Other examples beyond California will provide context for early historic preservation activities.

John Foster attended UC Santa Barbara as an undergraduate and transferred to UCLA where he graduated in with a degree in Anthropology. He continued his studies at Long Beach State, where he was awarded an MA degree in 1973. He continued his graduate studies at the University of Arizona before returning to California to begin his career with State Parks. In 1975 John accepted a position in the Cultural Heritage Section of State Parks in Sacramento. He became the assistant archaeologist to Francis A “Fritz” Riddell, the first California State Archaeologist hired outside an academic setting. He was assigned to “ride herd on the cultural resources of the State Park System,” and that has allowed him to record, investigate and preserve historic sites and archaeological features throughout California. Prehistoric rock art became a special interest to him because it allows a glimpse into the world view of its creators. John was president of SAS for seven years and continues to be a board member.

SAS Webinar

October 17, 2020

2:00 p.m.

 “Maritime Technological Adaptations and the Peopling of the Far West of North America”

By Kevin Smith

This talk synthesizes Kevin’s dissertation research concerning the role of watercraft and lithic technologies in early subsistence and settlement systems of the Far West of North America. He specifically focuses on tule canoe production dynamics, late Pleistocene archaeology, and aquatic environments of the Great Basin and Southern California Channel Islands. Specific attention is given to stone tool manufacturing strategies and connections between California’s earliest island populations and the broader Western Stemmed Tradition. 

Kevin Smith is currently in the final phase of writing his PhD dissertation concerning the peopling of the Americas and late Pleistocene adaptations in the Far West. He is interested in hunter gatherer adaptations, maritime economies, and cultural transmission. Broader perspectives on human adaptation and evolution are supported by methods such as lithic analysis, technological analysis, and replicative studies (experimental archaeology). Kevin received his BA at Humboldt State University in 2007, his MA at Cal State LA in 2012 where he wrote his master’s thesis on late Holocene shell fishhook production on San Nicolas Island, and he is currently completing his PhD at UC Davis.