PLANT REMAINS FROM PFEIFFER BEACH (CA-MNT-798)

Edwards, R. L., G. S. Breschini, T. Haversat, and C. Simpson-Smith 2000 Archaeological Evaluation of Sites CA-MNT-798, CA-MNT-799 and CA-MNT-800, in the Pfeiffer Beach Day Use Area, Big Sur, Monterey County, California. Archives of California Prehistory No. 48. Coyote Press, Salinas, CA CA-MNT-798.—This site was tested during the summer of 1994 by the Cabrillo College Archaeological Field School, under the direction of Rob Edwards, and with the support of the U.S. Forest Service. The discovery of a single glass bead (approximately 20 cm below a Desert-Side-notched point) suggests an historic component for at least a portion of the deposit. Radiocarbon dates agree with this, and suggest a Late Period occupation as well. MNT-798 190 ± 60 AD 1521 (mult) 1953 Beta-82143 310 ± 60 AD 1661 (1834) 1950 Beta-82141 330 ± 50 AD 1658 (1816) 1950 Beta-82142 440 ± 60 AD 1511 (1676) 1950 Beta-82140 Charcoal South face, 134-144 cm Shell-Mytilus c. Unit A: 60-70 cm Shell-Mytilus c. Unit A: 100-110 cm Shell-Mytilus c. Unit A: 40-50 cm Radiocarbon dates from: Ethnography of the Esselen - by Gary S. Breschini and Trudy Haversat 2004 in Ethnographic Overview of the Los Padres National Forest. Prepared for U.S. Department of Agriculture Southern California Province Angeles National Forest Arcadia, CA. https://scvhistory.com/scvhistory/nlf_entradasouth_deir_app5-5.pdf accessed 3/9/2019 PLANT REMAINS FROM PFEIFFER BEACH (CA-MNT-798) Charles H. Miksicek BioSystems Analysis, Inc. Santa Cruz, CA Six flotation samples and two macrobotanical specimens were analyzed from the Pfeiffer Beach site (CA-MNT-798) in the Big Sur area of central California. Even though these samples contained only a relatively low density of charred plant remains, they yielded an unexpectedly diverse mixture of taxa for what appears to be a small, limited activity site. METHODOLOGY All of the flotation samples were processed using a continuous-flow flotation device designed by this author which was modeled after the SMAP machine (Watson 1976). Each soil sample was first measured in a large graduated cylinder to determine the volume. The matrix was then poured into the float machine and gently stirred. Overflow from the machine containing carbonized seeds and wood charcoal was collected in nylon mesh with 0.25 mm openings. Sample processing continued until all charcoal was collected in the nylon netting which was then hung from a clothesline and dried. The remaining coarse sediments were then scanned for bone, lithics, and other artifactual material. After drying, each sample was first passed through a nested series of geological sieves with mesh sizes of 4.0, 2.0, and 0.5 mm. This pre-sorting removes many modern rootlets and produces subsamples with similar-sized particles which are more effectively scanned by the analyst. Each fraction was then sorted at 7X under a binocular dissecting microscope into its component parts. Uncharred seeds were counted and identified to evaluate the modern seed rain and to provide a measure for the degree of bioturbation and mixing within the soil column. To provide an additional monitor on the amount of faunalturbation in each sample, rodent fecal pellets and insect parts were quantified on a relative scale ranging from 0 (none) to 5 (abundant). All pieces of charcoal large enough to manipulate were identified from each sample. Each fragment was first fractured to give fresh transverse and radial sections and then identified at 30x under a binocular dissecting microscope. All seed and wood identifications were based on modern comparative material collected from central California and standard seed and wood keys such as Musil (1963), Martin and Barkley (1973), and Miles (1978). Taxonomic nomenclature follows Hickman (1993). All botanical materials identified in the Pfeiffer Beach samples are listed in Table @.1 along with ethnographic uses from Mead (1972) and seasonality data from Hickman (1993). Raw data are reported in Table @.2. This table includes sample volume before flotation, richness (the average number of charred seed taxa per liter), density (the average number of charred seeds per liter), the total weight of all charcoal fragments larger than 0.5 mm, the bug part index, the rat pellet index, uncharred seeds, carbonized plant remains, and wood charcoal. It is most likely that all of the uncarbonized remains are recent intrusives and are not associated with the prehistoric use of the site. Charred seeds and non-woody plant parts are summarized in Table @.2 as ubiquities defined as the percent of analyzed samples that contain a given taxon. Charcoal types are summarized as relative percentages. Raw data are presented in a "structured table" format (Van der Maarel, Janssen, and Louppen 1978). This is a semi-graphical method of data presentation commonly used in European phytosociology (plant ecology). Plant taxa are grouped by their order of appearance and the depth to which they persist in the soil column. This method gives a quick visual impression of which categories of plant remains co-occur which may not be evident from other data presentation formats. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The discussion of the Pfeiffer Beach plant remains will be framed in terms of research questions relevant to understanding prehistoric activities at the site. How intact are the cultural deposits at CA-MNT-798? Based on the archaeobotanical analysis, the Pfeiffer Beach deposits seem relatively undisturbed. Only a few uncarbonized seeds (lupine, miner's lettuce, catchfly) are present in the upper samples (above 104 cm, Table @.2). Intrusive insect parts or uncharred rodent fecal pellets are not very common in the soil samples. Several carbonized rodent fecal pellets are present in Lot 55, but these macrofossils often suggest cooking small game or storing plant resources. What charred plant remains are present in the Pfeiffer Beach samples? Some carbonized seeds are present in all flotation samples, as are abundant fragments of charcoal. The most common plant macrofossils are nuts (acorn, baynut, thinshelled pine), but a few berries (manzanita, nightshade), spinach-like greens (clover, goosefoot), and edible seeds (grasses, tarweed, goosefoot, buckwheat) are also represented. Monocot rhizome (root) fragments, which may represent either a utilitarian or food plant, are present in 67% of the analyzed samples. These fragments are too small to identify with any greater degree of taxonomic specificity. Acorn shell fragments are present in half of the float samples even though no oak wood was identified in the charcoal assemblage. Acorns may have been brought to the site as a stored food and not collected in the immediate vicinity of the site. Oak often accounts for almost half of the charcoal assemblage of most central coast archaeological sites, when acorns are identified with any degree of regularity (Miksicek 1992a, 1992b, 1993a). Even at Wilder Ranch, where no acorn macrofossils were identified, oak charcoal accounted for 4% of the identified assemblage (redwood, pine, cypress, and willow were overwhelmingly the dominant taxa, Miksicek 1992b). Unknown vesicular material (present in four out of six samples) describes amorphous plant material without diagnostic anatomical details (like vessel elements). It may represent fragments of nutmeats, starchy roots, or a processed plant food like seedcakes or gruel. The nightshade seeds may represent either an edible berry, a medicinal herb, or a utilitarian plant. Although a few species of Solanum have edible fruits (like the Old World eggplants, the South American "tree tomato" or tomarillo, or the native local Solanum douglasii) most species are quite toxic and would probably make a good fish poison. Nightshade seeds were also identified from Wilder Ranch (CA-SCR-123, Table @.3 and Miksicek 1993b), a site in a similar coastal setting. Pine is the dominant charcoal type, accounting for 33% of the identified sample. Willow (19%), cypress (14%), and shrubby members of the sunflower family (21%, like coyotebrush) are also abundant. All of the woody taxa could be found in the immediate vicinity of the site today or they could be collected from the beach as driftwood. At what season of the year was the site utilized? Two types of deposits were sampled for plant remains at CA-MNT-798. Lot 104 in Table @.2 represents a possible hearth; a dense concentration of ash, charcoal, and other cultural materials. The plant remains from this somewhat amorphous feature are more likely to reflect a single use event or time period in the past. The other samples (Lots 53, 54, and 55) come from a stratigraphic column that brackets the time period represented by Lot 104. Although more samples were collected and processed, only six samples were analyzed because of time and budgetary constraints. Lot 104 yielded all of the acorn, tarweed, baynut, hairgrass, and ryegrass macrofossils identified from the site. If these remains represent fresh resources, collected locally, then this deposit could have been produced between early summer and the middle of fall (during the dry season). If these macrofossils represent stored and imported foods, which is possible since oak is not present in the charcoal assemblage, then Lot 104 could represent a winter visit to the area. The charred plant remains from Lots 53 through 55 seem to be more characteristic of the types of plant resources that could be collected locally from early spring (clover, tules, monocot roots) through middle summer (goosefoot seeds, nightshade and manzanita berries). There just aren't any clear-cut botanical indicators for winter occupation on the central coast of California, other than perhaps toyon or Christmas berry (Heteromeles) which is found at higher elevations. In general, the CA-MNT-798 plant remains seem to suggest short-term visits at just about any time of the year, and not a focused use of the locality at one particular season. How do the archaeobotanical remains from Pfeiffer Beach compare to other sites in the South-Central Coast Region of California? Table @.3 summarizes data from ten other sites in the region. CA-MNT-229, with an occupation from 2700 to 900 B.P., is on Monterey Bay, near Elkhorn Slough (Honeysett 1988). Wilder Ranch (CA-SCR-123) is a coastal midden site located just west of Santa Cruz, with seven radiocarbon dates ranging from 3250 to 2200 B.P. (Miksicek 1993b). CA-MNT-567 and 515 are Late Period habitation sites on Fort Hunter Liggett; CAMNT-540 may be a slightly earlier midden site in the same area (Miksicek 1992b). CAMNT-1486/H and 1485/H are two Late Period sites in the Carmel Valley (Miksicek 1992a). CA-SCL-690 (the Lick Site) is a large, Middle to Late Period cemetery in the San Jose area (Miksicek, analysis in progress). CA-SCL-732/H is another large cemetery site in the southern San Jose area (Miksicek 1993a). The "Gilroy sites" include fourteen sites ranging in age from the Early to Late Periods (Hildebrandt and Mikkelsen (1993). Intuitively we would expect the Pfeiffer Beach assemblage to be most like Elkhorn Slough or Wilder Ranch, the two coastal sites, but both are much larger midden sites. Although more taxa were identified from Wilder Ranch overall, the MNT-798 samples have slightly higher average density and richness values (2.70 and 1.56 respectively for Pfeiffer, 1.33 and 0.74 for Wilder). We should keep in mind however that the Wilder values may be reduced somewhat by the greater age of the samples and the larger analyzed soil volumes (eight versus three to four liters). Nevertheless acorns were not identified from either Wilder Ranch or Elkhorn Slough, even though they do occur at Pfeiffer Beach. Two other small coastal sites have recently yielded charred plant remains, CA-SMA-134 and CA-MNT-1765 (Moro Cojo). These are not included in Table @.3 because too few flotation samples were analyzed from both sites for reliable ubiquity calculations. A single sample from a hearth at Moro Cojo yielded an unexpectedly diverse assemblage (richness = 0.77, density = 2.22) with charred monocot rhizome fragments and native barley, reedgrass, lupine, and tarweed seeds. Also present in the sample were fish bones and scales, mussel shell, clamshell, and small animal bones. This feature, with two calibrated radiocarbon dates with midpoints averaging around AD 1650, seems to suggest a single event, late spring deposit (Miksicek 1994a). Two very small samples (both around 0.5 liter) from CA-SMA-134 yielded only a few charred elderberry and bentgrass seeds (richness and density both = 1.82), but they did contain abundant shellfish, fish, and larger animal remains. The SMA-134 deposits yielded five calibrated and marine reservoir corrected radiocarbon dates (both bone and shell) with midpoints around AD 650 (Miksicek 1994b). Including the two small sites mentioned above (SMA-134 and MNT-1765), Pfeiffer Beach is the only reported coastal site with nut remains (acorn, pine, baynut), except perhaps the possible gray pine from MNT-229 (Table @.3), which could actually be the thinshell pine identified at MNT-798, since the macrofossils are only listed as "pine" by Honeysett (1988). Pfeiffer Beach is also the only coastal site that may have been used at various times of the year, the others seem to have been visited between early spring and late summer. Overall, 31% of the 48 economic plant taxa listed in Table @.3 are present at Pfeiffer Beach. The presence of possible imported plant foods like acorns makes the Pfeiffer Beach site look more like interior sites such as those found in the Gilroy area or SCL-690, but MNT-798 has a much shorter and less intensive occupation. Most of the common central coast plant taxa, those present in at least half of the sites listed in Table @.3, are represented at MNT-798. In general small, coastal, limited activity sites like Pfeiffer Beach, Moro Cojo, and SMA-134 seem to be more than just shellfish gathering or fishing camps. Flotation sample assemblages from these sites demonstrate that a full range of subsistence related endeavors occurred at these sites including shellfish gathering, fishing, small game and/or bird hunting, large mammal procurement, and even some plant gathering and processing activities. At least at CA-MNT-798 some non-local plant resources could have been imported to be used at that locality. These sites were probably never occupied for very long at any one time, but they were visited repeatedly year after year. At least Pfeiffer Beach may have been utilized at several different seasons. Table @.1. Plant Taxa Identified from Pfeiffer Beach (CA-MNT-798). Common Name Scientific Name Part Use Catchfly ** Lupine Miner's Lettuce Monocot Rhizome Clover Fescue Grass Hairgrass Ryegrass Goosefoot Nightshade Tarweed Wild Buckwheat Tule Manzanita Oak Baynut Pine Grass Stems Buckthorn Family Sunflower Family Cypress Redwood Sycamore Willow Coralline Algae Silene sp. Lupinus sp. Claytonia perfoliata Monocotyledoneae Trifolium sp. Vulpia or Festuca Deschampsia sp. Elymus sp. Chenopodium sp. Solanum sp. Madia or Hemizonia Eriogonum sp. Scirpus sp. Arctostaphylos sp. Quercus sp. Umbellularia californica Pinus sp. Poaceae Ceanothus or Rhamnus Asteraceae Cupressus sp. Sequoia sempervirens Platanus racemosa Salix sp. Bossiella or Corallina u u u m s s s s s s s s s,m s,w s s,w s,w m w w w w w w m G G R G S? S S S,G F?,M? S S,M U,S? F,M,W N,U,W N,M,W N?,W U W W W W W M,U,W M?,U? Season Indicated spring spring late spring-summer late spring-summer late spring-summer late spring-summer summer summer summer spring-fall late summer-fall fall fall fall Key: ** - introduced species, u - uncarbonized seed s - carbonized seed, m - miscellaneous parts w - wood charcoal, S - edible seeds, G - edible greens, F - edible fruit, N - edible nut, M - medicinal U - utilitarian (fiber, basketry, etc.), W - wood, ? - possible use, R - edible root Table @.2. Plant Remains from Pfeiffer Beach (CA-MNT-798). Lot 53 54 55 104 Depth (cm) or Feature 94-104 104-114 114-124 Hearth 104 Hearth 104 Hearth 47 34-44 48 44-54 Sample Volume (L) Rat Pellet Index Bug Part Index Charred Seeds/Liter Charred Taxa/Liter 3.0 0 0 3.00 1.33 3.0 0 0 2.67 1.33 M M 3.5 1 0 2.28 2.00 3.5 0 1 2.28 1.71 4.0 0 0 2.50 1.50 4.0 0 1 3.50 1.50 Site Mean 2.70 1.56 Uncharred (Intrusive) Seeds: Miner's Lettuce Catchfly Lupine 1 1 9 Carbonized Seeds (etc.): Goosefoot Nightshade Tule Seed Seed Fragments Monocot Rhizome Thinshell Pine Vesicular Material Fescue Grass Wild Buckwheat Manzanita Clover Acorn Shell Tarweed Baynut Shell Hairgrass Ryegrass Tule Stem Grass Stem Charred Rat Pellet Coralline Algae 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 Ubiquity 1 1 5 4 2 19 2 16.7 33.3 50.0 33.3 66.7 50.0 66.7 33.3 16.7 33.3 16.7 50.0 33.3 16.7 16.7 16.7 33.3 50.0 16.7 33.3 2.1 1.7 0.9 % 5 2 1 1 3 4 7 1 18.9 2.3 0.8 33.3 14.4 1.5 0.8 2.3 21.2 4.5 2 4 1 3 1 1 3 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 6 1 2 1 1 1 1 Wood Charcoal: 0.8 Willow Sycamore Baynut Pine Cypress Redwood Manzanita Buckthorn Family Sunflower Family California Sage 11 1 3 5 1 1 1 4 0.3 7 0.3 3 15 5 1 13 10 1 1 1 9 1 3 Indeterminate Charcoal 3 1 2 1 2 2 1 4 2 2 1 3 5 8 3 Key: M - Macrobotanical Specimen Table @.3. Comparative Data from the South-Central Coast Region (Ubiquity). Site MNT 229 SCR 123 MNT SCL 1486/H 690 Gilroy Gilroy SCL MNT Area Area 732/H 540 MNT 567 MNT 515 Period Number of Samples Volume (Liters) Charred Taxa/Liter Charred Seeds/Liter M 11 2 3.21 15.58 EM 8 1-14 0.74 1.33 L 4 2-5 10.93 42.03 E-M 14 8-19 1.21 23.34 L 9 5-17 1.47 34.11 L 14 4 3.00 6.22 L 8 1-4 3.46 7.70 Sedge/Tule Grass Family Elderberry Bedstraw Tarweed Borage Clover Ryegrass Wild Buckwheat Gray Pine Farewell-to-Spring Goosefoot Miner's Lettuce Fescue Grass Chia Roots/Tubers Spanish Clover Bentgrass-Type Monocot Fibers Reedgrass-Type Bluegrass Coralline Algae Lupine Coffee Berry Coyote Tobacco Hairgrass Maygrass Hazelnut Deer Vetch Manzanita Native Barley Nightshade Acorns Large Goosefoot Needlegrass Madrone Bromegrass Pigweed Baynut Peppergrass Panic Grass Filaree Bulbs Red Maids Allscale Wild Cucumber Buckeye cf. Eelgrass 9 82 45 18 54 9 18 73 9 18? 57 93 21 57 7 57 36 78 100 22 78 33 67 44 21 14 62 38 25 38 12 25 38 12 50 50 12 100 75 75 12 62 12 12 M-L 26 1-6 6.89 14.74 4 62 25 38 50 12 38 38 25 25 25 75 12 25 25 12 12 12 25 12 12 12 12 12 50 25 12 25 50 75 75 25 50 75 8 23 15 8 31 15 75 75 25 100 8 42 46 35 100 50 75 100 4 31 62 19 23 8 50 25 75 75 100 50 75 50 25 25 100 50 50 25 75 25 100 50 25 19 4 8 31 19 5 4 15 50 31 7 57 86 14 50 21 78 100 11 78 11 M-L 9 8 0.96 1.74 M-L? 8 4 0.59 2.47 11 22 22 22 11 11 44 11 11 11 22 78 11 44 36 12 100 12 25 38 11 48 50 50 44 43 22 44 100 100 14 14 14 33 11 22 44 67 25 7 19 36 33 23 8 4 4 64 78 86 28 14 62 25 25 38 28 28 21 17 21 43 14 50 14 50 43 57 7 50 21 93 86 50 14 50 22 44 28 14 57 21 33 11 7 Key: E - Early, M - Middle, L - Late, ? - Identified to genus only. 12 12 References Hickman, James C. (general editor) 1993 The Jepson Manual: Higher Plants of California. University of California Press, Berkeley. 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