Part 1 (1/2)

A Burial Cave in Baja California.

by William C. Ma.s.sey and Carolyn M. Osborne.

PREFACE

In 1888 an archaeological collection of material from Bahia de Los Angeles in Baja California was deposited in the United States National Museum by Dr. Edward Palmer. Although the material was duly catalogued, together with Dr. Palmer's notes, it has gone undescribed until the present.

Dr. Robert F. Heizer called this collection to the attention of the senior author in 1948. At that time the archaeology of Baja California was receiving emphasis at the University of California because of the interest of the a.s.sociates in Tropical Biogeography, under the chairmans.h.i.+p of Dr. C. O. Sauer. The late Professor E. W. Gifford, then Curator of the Museum of Anthropology at the University of California, arranged with Dr. T. Dale Stewart of the United States National Museum for a temporary study loan of the collection.

From the beginning, the division of labor between the authors has been primarily in terms of ”hard” and ”soft” artifacts. Ma.s.sey has handled the a.n.a.lyses of the imperishable artifacts, their ethnographic and archaeological distributions, and the distributions of all artifacts for Baja California. Mrs. Osborne has dealt with the netting, textiles, and cordage, and the distribution of their techniques outside Baja California. Dr. Lila M. O'Neale began the a.n.a.lysis of the textiles and netting and directed it until her untimely death. Professor E. W.

Gifford advised on the initial description of the imperishable artifacts.

This presentation has been delayed for many reasons, but the intervening years have added much detailed information to the original data, both in the literature of anthropology and in subsequent field work.

We are very grateful to friends, past and present, for their help and encouragement. We wish to acknowledge the support of the Department of Anthropology, University of California, for the photographs of the imperishable materials. Thanks are due Bob Ormsby, a University of Was.h.i.+ngton student, for the drawings of netting. All other drawings and the maps were done by June M. Ma.s.sey. We acknowledge with thanks the a.s.sistance of Mrs. Gene Marquez, whose services as a typist were provided by the Department of Biological Sciences of the University of Florida.

Above all we wish to dedicate this small work to the memories of two tireless teachers and workers in anthropology--and in humanity: Dr. Lila M. O'Neale and Professor E. W. Gifford.

W.C.M.

C.M.O.

INTRODUCTION

In December of 1887 Dr. Edward Palmer, the naturalist, set sail from the port of Guaymas in Sonora, crossed the Gulf of California, and landed at Bahia de Los Angeles on the peninsula of Baja California. Then, as now, there was a modest gold-mining operation at the bay. During his brief stay at the mining station, Dr. Palmer excavated a small natural cave which had been used by the Indians who were then extinct in that part of the peninsula.

Seven partially disturbed skeletons and a variety of a.s.sociated artifacts were collected and deposited at the United States National Museum. The collection also included some potsherds and sh.e.l.ls from a midden on the sh.o.r.es of the bay. All of these items were listed and briefly described in the Annual Report of the United States National Museum for the year 1888 (pp. 127-129).

Aside from the intrinsic value of presenting archaeological material from the little-known area of Baja California, the Palmer Collection has particular importance because of its immediate geographic source. Bahia de Los Angeles lies in that part of Baja California most accessible to the Mexican mainland (map 1). Not only is there a relative physical closeness, but the Gulf islands form here a series of ”stepping stones”

from Bahia de Los Angeles across to Tiburon Island, home of the Seri, and thence to the adjacent mainland coast of Sonora.

The bay lies in the north-central desert region of the peninsula, where the environment is especially difficult because of extreme aridity, scarcity of surface water, and the consequent dearth of plant and animal life.

In view of these conditions, it has been suggested that the Seri may be descendants of people who, hard-pressed by the environmental poverty of this section of Baja California, may have moved across the Gulf to Tiburon Island and Sonora (Kroeber, 1931, pp. 5, 49-50). This hypothesis has appealed to one California archaeologist, although at present there is insufficient evidence from archaeology or ethnography either to support or to deny it (Rogers, 1945, p. 194). However, the archaeological collection from Bahia de Los Angeles does indicate trade and some contact across the Gulf.

In this paper emphasis is placed on the evaluation of the Palmer Collection with respect to the known archaeology and ethnography of Baja California.

ETHNOGRAPHIC BACKGROUND