The Topanga Culture: Final Report on Excavations, 1948 — John Shaqi
The Topanga Culture: Final Report on Excavations, 1948Treganza, Adan E. (Adan Eduardo)
History
The Topanga Culture: Final Report on Excavations, 1948
Treganza, Adan E. (Adan Eduardo)
California -- Antiquities; Topanga Canyon (Calif.)
Tools from the surface included general core tools, manos, and metates. A
basin metate had been reported; and a fragment of one, of sandstone and
shaped on its outer surface, was found. Of 9 manos and mano fragments, 5
are bifacial and relatively thin and 4, monofacial. All but 2 of the
monofacial artifacts are sandstone, these being of a granitic rock. In
cross section the majority of grinding surfaces are unusually convex,
especially as they reach the edge and roll partly up the side. A single
basalt pestle fragment was obtained. Scraper planes are well represented
by 10 with a U-shaped edge development, some well-battered along the
worked margin; and 25 single-edged planes, some of which are very large
and most displaying flaking back on their edges, generally on the upper
surface of the used edge. Four of quartzite and 1 of felsite porphyry are
single-edged, the remainder are basalt. The 4 side scrapers are thin
flakes, 2 of basalt, 2 of chert. The 3 choppers are of basalt, 1 having
served additional use as a hammerstone, and the 4 hammerstones are basalt
cores. Patination is noticeable on all, and smoothed flake scars are not
uncommon.
_LAn-13._--Six bedrock mortars were found here in a sandstone outcrop of
the south bank of the creek, 200 feet upstream from the Kiewit Ranch. As
the area is covered by a relatively dense oak grove, the fact that no
artifacts were found on the surface in the vicinity may be due in part to
the thick fall of dead leaves. However, the soil here beneath the leaf
mold is no different from that of the region as a whole, being of a
light-colored clayey consistency.
_LAn-14._--Three-tenths of a mile northeast of Mineral Springs is a basalt
quarry and possible habitation site. The spring water is potable and
affords the nearest available water source. Over an area of 100 by 75
feet, surrounding the basalt outcrop, the sandy soil is somewhat darker.
Whether this is owing to the decomposition of organic refuse strewn about
a habitation site or merely to rock weathering, or in part to both, was
indeterminable. The only evidence of former activity are several
percussion bulbs and a number of specimens displaying a small amount of
regular chipping, which suggest crude scrapers. All of these pieces,
moreover, have undergone considerable patination so that they are now
quite yellowed even on their flaked surfaces. In general appearance and
degree of patination the artifacts from this site show marked resemblance
to those from San Fernando, LAn-6, just over the divide.
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