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.)
In the spring of 1947 R. L. Beals, of the University of California, Los
Angeles, and R. F. Heizer, of the University of California, Berkeley,
agreed to sent a joint party into the field the following summer. This
coöperation between the two institutions marked a new step in furthering
the progress of archaeological research in California, and gave students
an opportunity to participate in active field research. In June, 1947, the
senior author, assisted by Miss Consuelo Malamud, a graduate student at
UCLA, initiated excavation at the Tank Site. Undergraduate and graduate
students from both campuses of the university as well as from San
Francisco State College acted as volunteer workers. The results of this
investigation have appeared under the title, "The Topanga Culture: First
Season's Excavation of the Tank Site, 1947" (Treganza and Malamud, 1950).
The activities of the first season should have brought to light a fairly
representative sample from the site, but time imposed certain limitations,
and much of what was uncovered only added to the list of problems.
Further, the Tank Site as a unit was, presumably, known with some
certainty, but there was little comparative material in which to frame the
results. Therefore, three major lines of evidence remained to be
investigated: (1) Additional excavation was necessary to verify the
possible stratigraphy noted and to fill out the burial data and certify
the typology established on the basis of the finds to date. Moreover, the
Tank Site had demonstrated itself to be a deposit of unusual interest and
importance; whatever added knowledge could be gained from it would be
valuable. (2) LAn-2, just west of the Tank Site, required more intensive
examination. From surface collections and test pits it was apparent that
this site afforded clues to the interpretation and extension of the
stratigraphy noted at the Tank Site, and it might represent a cultural
development heretofore undescribed for the area. (3) A survey of the
canyon should be undertaken so that the Topanga Culture could be viewed
beyond its narrowly known confines. The problem was to gain an estimate of
the number of lithic sites within the canyon drainage, and the points of
similarity and difference between these and the Tank Site.
With the above three problems in mind, archaeological investigations were
renewed in Topanga Canyon on the same coöperative basis as the previous
year. We are indebted to the following students, drawn from the three
state institutions mentioned above, for volunteering their time and
energies in behalf of the project: Richard Bachenheimer, Alan Beals, Hal
Eberhart, Robert Farrell, David Frederickson, William King, Harland
Kinsey, Joseph Kreisler, Donald Lathrap, Albert Mohr, Arnold Pilling, and
Barbara Wyman. The authors acted, respectively, as field director and
assistant field director. Agnes Bierman and Albert Mohr are responsible
for most of the field photography, mapping, and surveying.
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