Archaeological Investigations of the San Antonio Terrace, Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, in Connection with MX Facilities Construction. Appendix I. Ethnohistoric Background

摘要

This report presents the results of archaeological research undertaken in support of the construction of MX missile test facilities on northern Vandenberg Air Force Base, Santa Barbara County, California. During 1980-1982, all lands potentially subjected to construction impacts (the project area) were surveyed, and test excavations took place at 24 sites in order to define their boundaries and assess their significance. At eight of these sites excavations were more intensive in order to collect additional information on site significance and to mitigate unavoidable impacts. In addition to presenting the results of the analyses of the different classes of items in the collections, the report includes interpretations of the place of the sites in regional subsistence-settlement systems. All sites investigated appear to have been used by the Purisimeno Chumash Indians and their prehistoric predecessors within the last 2,000 years as seasonal residential bases or short-term occupation sites. Hunting terrestrial game appears to have been the dominant activity undertaken in the project area, as reflected in the high proportions of chipped stone artifacts in the site collections. Although a two-part chronological sequence for the sites is not firmly grounded, there is evidence indicating that the earlier inhabitants of the project area were relatively more mobile in their settlement pattern than the later inhabitants.