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.)
Four-tenths of a mile to the south, .2 of a mile southwest of the home of
M. Biencourt, an isolated chopper was picked from the surface of a spur
ridge leading to Garrapata Creek. It is a large bifacial tool, battered on
the slightly fashioned working edge, of basalt and patinated. No further
indication of aboriginal habitation could be discovered in the near
vicinity. Lithic tools and rejects, however, were found on the slope just
southeast of the Biencourt residence, apparently weathering from a higher
source. Investigation at the time was not feasible, however, and further
investigation has not as yet been possible.
_LAn-16._--Now almost completely destroyed or disturbed by bulldozing and
animals, this site is centered in the chicken run of the W. R. Hamilton
Ranch, some 3 miles up the Fernwood-Pacific Road, 1.7 air miles southwest
of Topanga Post Office. It sits on a somewhat more level shelf of an
otherwise steep slope, the east bank of a ravine from which a permanent
spring emanates 12 miles from the site. Over an area 60 feet in diameter,
dark friable mound soil is still in evidence, though artifacts are now
scarce. Three deep bedrock mortars, and some seven smaller, have been
worn into a sandstone outcrop toward the upper end of the site, and a
single pestle, and scraper plane of quartzite, came from the surface.
_LAn-17._--LAn-17 surrounds the spring on the Barton School property to an
indeterminable extent. Recent building and cultivation have obliterated or
disturbed considerable portions of the old habitation site; however, from
what remains, it appears very similar to LAn-8, .3 of a mile southeast.
Artifacts lie on the surface of the dark, friable midden deposit, which
contrasts with the surrounding light clayey soil, though the discoloration
may have been intensified to some extent by seepage and decay of organic
matter derived from the heavy oak grove. The artifacts noted consist of a
shallow basin metate, manos, only a few general core tools, and a bedrock
mortar in a boulder, some 300 feet from the spring.
_LA-21 and LAn-21._--Located on a level shelf adjacent to the west bank of
Garapata Creek, the site is .72 of a mile east-northeast of Mineral
Springs. The upper half is separated from the lower by a 4-foot sandstone
face that divides the site midway between the bank and its upper
extremity. In all, an area of 50 feet by 75 feet is covered with dark,
friable, sandy midden deposit to an undetermined depth, which contrasts
with the surrounding light, brown-colored sand. Surface finds included
only some scrapers, and a quartz core hammerstone, along with a few cores
and more concentrated chert flakes; by far in the majority were
head-fractured, carbonized rock fragments. A shallow 10-foot test trench
again yielded only fired, fractured rock.
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