bajacalifology.org - Prehistoric Ceramics

Geographical Limits

Historical and Ethnographic Testimony -- Archaeological Observations -- References Cited

The manufacture and use of ceramics in Kumeyaay, Cocopa, and Quechan territories prior to the mission period is well established by historical, ethnographic, and archaeological evidence, which does not need to be presented here. Listed below is evidence that may shed light on the extent of prehistoric pottery use farther south in Baja California.

Historical and Ethnographic Testimony

San Felipe, ca. 1746 -- William Stratford, an English sea captain working for the Jesuit missions, reported that the unconverted Indians of the port of San Felipe "se sirven de ollas, cazuelas, que no tienen los demás de la costa referidos, sino que se mantienen con asar sus viandas, con lo que se conoce que estos indios las cuecen, tienen pipas de barro en que chupan su tabaco" ("use ollas, pots, which the others of this coast do not have but rather sustain themselves by roasting their food; by which it is known that these Indians cook their food and have clay pipes for smoking their tobacco") (Ramos 1958:60).

Bahía San Luis Gonzaga, 1746 -- Fernando Consag, a Jesuit missionary/explorer, sailing north toward the Colorado River, encountered "an old man carrying a small clay jug, which they know well how to put to use. This is an asset that neither the gentiles to the south nor the Christians who succeeded them in the same area knew, until people from the mainland, instinctively and on orders of the missionary fathers, taught them" (Venegas 1757(3):170).

San Vicente, 1769 -- José de Cañizares, a soldier with the Rivera party spearheading the Portolá-Serra expedition to Alta California, near the later mission site of San Vicente, wrote, "It is wonderful to see...how these Indians manage to manufacture their well-finished earthen pots" (Thickens and Mollins 1952:344).

Kiliwa Territory, 1920s-1930s -- Malcolm J. Rogers (1936) and Peveril Meigs (1939) reported on ethnographic evidence for pottery making by the Kiliwa.

Archaeological Observations

Ensenada -- Malcolm J. Rogers (1945:173) reported that "middens with a Western Yuman material pattern gradually diminish in number in a southerly direction until they disappear completely from the archaeologic picture in the latitude of Ensenada, even though in the Peninsular Range and particularly on the Gulf of California side, Yuman sites with pottery extend at least 120 miles farther south."

Ethnographic Paipai Territory -- Based on an archaeological survey of the Jamau-Jaquijel region on the eastern slope, Frederic N. Hicks (1959:65) reported that "pottery was present at all sites except some of the smaller campsites." M. B. McKusick and A. T. Gilman (1959:51) and Paul G. Chace (1967) also reported pottery at sites in the mountains around and to the south of Santa Catarina.

San Felipe -- Gena R. Van Camp (1979:69) reported that "sherds and whole vessels from northeastern Baja California mentioned by Rogers (1936) and found by myself in Museum and private collections and in our own excavations reveal a distribution of buff ware that extends as far south as San Felipe on the Gulf Coast."

San Quintín -- Ronald V. May (1973:59-60) noted the distribution of Santo Tomás Brown pottery, with fiber temper and probable historic-period associations, from San Quintín north to Santa Catarina and San Miguel.

Arroyo Matomí -- Ronald D. Douglas (1981) reported the presence of undecorated Lower Colorado Buffware at sites in Arroyo Matomí, south of San Felipe.

San Quintín-El Rosario -- Jerry D. Moore (1999:28) conducted extensive surface surveys in the coastal zone between San Quintín and El Rosario. He reported finding pottery only at two mission-period sites. The character of the material suggested that "the pottery seems to be a postcontact ware, although drawn from indigenous rather than Spanish ceramic traditions."

El Rosario -- Meigs (1939:37) reported that pottery occurred "in the long-abandoned shell heaps along the Pacific Coast at least as far south as Rosario."

William C. Massey (1947:355) reported that "site BC 63, at La Turquesa [east of El Rosario], is the farthest south on which native pottery--a performated potsherd disc--has been found. Elsewhere along the coast sites bearing potsherds are frequent; however there are marked concentrations of sherds on sites adjacent to the Dominican missions. There seems to be a long gap in pottery-bearing sites between Santo Domingo Mission and the old Rosario Mission; potsherds occur on sites near these missions but, so far as I have been able to determine, not in the area between. This naturally raises the question of mission influence and the age of ceramic sites near these missions. The solitary pottery disc from near La Turquesa was most likely a trade item."

San Fernando Velicatá -- Donald R. Tuohy and Mary B. Strawn (1989) examined plainware ceramics from Mission San Fernando Velicatá. Eric W. Ritter (1995, 1997) and Stephen L. Williams (1995, 1997) also reported on sherds from the mission site.

Bahía de los Angeles Area -- Edward Palmer recovered sherds from at least two pottery vessels in a burial cave by Bahía de los Angeles; Massey and Carolyn M. Osborne (1961:343), analyzing Palmer's collection, observed that "this pottery could have been native-made pottery from the Mission period, or it could have been derived from pottery-making Indians to the north."

Rogers' (1945:184) map showed the maximum area of Yuman III (with a question mark) extending south of Isla Angel de la Guarda and Bahía de la Animas and west to Punta Santa Rosalita on the Pacific coast.

In an archaeological reconnaissance around Bahía de los Angeles, Emma Lou Davis (1968:184, 190) found "abundant" pottery at late-period coastal sites.

John W. Foster (1984) reported that a site at Bahía de los Angeles, designated BC-215, contained what he concluded were historic-period Seri ceramics from across the Gulf of California. However, Thomas Bowen (2005:410) subsequently noted that the BC-215 ceramics contained anomalous characteristics similar to other finds in the Bahía de los Angeles area and that "it may be that the engimatic sherds at BC-215 are related to this apprently local non-Seri plainware."

Tuohy and Strawn (1989) examined plainware ceramics from Mission San Borja.

Ritter (1994, 1995, 1997, 1998, 2006a; Ritter et al. 1994) and Williams (1995, 1997) reported on pottery from several sites in the vicinity of Bahía de los Angeles and Bahía de las Animas. It was suggested that the use of organic material (grass or dung) as temper in pottery within the wider region of southwestern North America seemed to coincide with the arrival of Europeans (Ritter et al. 1994:17). Ritter (1995) noted the similarity of the remains from mission and non-mission sites, but concluded that "the possibility of late prehistoric pottery diffusion from the north into these bays cannot as yet be discounted." He also suggested that "ceramics, while present at a few sites, are probably derived from mission influence....These vessels were probably both locally made and imported from northerly reaches" (Ritter 1998:17).

Guerrero Negro -- Ritter (1999, 2006b; Ritter and Payen 1992) reported the presence of plainware ceramics at sites beside the Three Sisters Lagoons near Guerrero Negro. The materials were interpreted as belonging to the mission period.

Sierra de San Francisco -- Clement W. Meighan (1969) reported the presence of brownware potsherds from a single vessel at the Great Mural rock art site of Cueva Pintada (Gardner Cave) in the Sierra de San Francisco. "Since this is on the southern limits of pottery distribution in Baja California, it was thought at first that the sherds might be derived from Spanish-period manufacture rather than aboriginal pottery. However, analysis of the pottery showed it to be tempered with grass; and it is therefore more likely of aboriginal origin, possibly an example of stimulus diffusion resulting from familiarity with pottery made farther north" (Meighan 1969:40-42).

Justin R. Hyland and María de la Luz Gutiérrez (Hyland 1997:317-319; Gutiérrez and Hyland 2002:285-287) reported plain brownware pottery from six sites in the Sierra de San Francisco, in some cases in association with historic-period materials. "These associations provide further support that pottery manufacture in the southern peninsula was associated with the arrival of the jesuits in 1697" (Hyland 1997:319).

Bahía de la Concepción -- Ritter (1979) found plainware pottery at three sites near Bahía de la Concepción. He suggested that "the concept of pottery manufacture was introduced very late, probably coinciding with the coming of the Jesuits..., and played little or no part in the aboriginal lifeway" (Ritter 1979:331).

Comondú -- Donald R. Tuohy (1970) reported the presence of small amounts of pottery at aboriginal sites in the Sierra de la Giganta. However, he concluded that "stratigraphic excavations...have clearly demonstrated the association between plain brown ware ceramics and Jesuit Period (1697-1767), or historic period, artifacts" (Tuohy 1970:42). His map showed the distribution of pottery extending as far south as Bahía de los Angeles on the Gulf coast but stopping at El Rosario on the Pacific coast (Tuohy 1970:50).

Isla Espíritu Santo -- Harumi Fujita (personal communication, 2006) reports the presence of plainware pottery at some sites on Isla Espíritu Santo, in the Cape Region.

References Cited

Bowen, Thomas. 2005. A Historic Seri Site on Isla San Lorenzo. Kiva 70:399-412.

Chace, Paul G. 1967. A Note on Decorated Pottery in Baja California. Pacific Coast Archaeological Survey Quarterly 3(1):50-52.

Davis, Emma Lou. 1968. An Archaeological Reconnaissance in the Central Desert of Baja California. University of California, Los Angeles, Archaeological Survey Annual Report 10:176-208.

Douglas, Ronald D. 1981. An Archaeological Reconnaissance in Arriba de Arroyo Matomi, Baja California Norte, Mexico. Pacific Coast Archaeological Society Quarterly 17(1):63-69.

Foster, John W. 1984. A Late Period Seri Site from Bahía de los Angeles, Baja California. Pacific Coast Archaeological Society Quarterly 20(1):61-68.

Gutiérrez, María de la Luz, and Justin R. Hyland. 2002. Arqueología de la sierra de San Francisco: Dos décadas de investigación del fenómeno Gran Mural. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico City.

Hicks, Frederic N. 1959. Archaeological Sites in the Jamau Jaquijel Region, Baja California: A Preliminary Report. University of California, Los Angeles, Archaeological Survey Annual Report 1958-59:59-66.

Hyland, Justin Robert. 1997. Image, Land, and Lineage: Hunter-Gatherer Archaeology in Central Baja California, Mexico. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley.

Massey, William C. 1947. Brief report on Archaeological Investigations in Baja California. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 3:344-359.

------, and Carolyn M. Osborne. 1961. A Burial Cave in Baja California: The Palmer Collection, 1887. Anthropological Records 16:339-364. University of California, Berkeley.

May, Ronald V. 1973. An Archaeological Survey of Mission Santo Tomás, Baja California. Pacific Coast Archaeological Society Quarterly 9(1):48-64.

McKusick, M. B., and A. T. Gilman. 1959. An Acorn Grinding Site in Baja California. University of California, Los Angeles, Archaeological Survey Annual Report 1958-59:47-56.

Meighan, Clement W. 1969. Indian Art and History: The Testimony of Prehispanic Rock Paintings in Baja California. Dawson's Book Shop, Los Angeles.

Meigs, Peveril, III. 1939. The Kiliwa Indians of Lower California. Iberoamericana No. 15. Berkeley.

Moore, Jerry D. 1999. Archaeology in the Forgotten Peninsula: Prehistoric Settlement and Subsistence Strategies in Northern Baja California. Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology 21:17-44.

Ramos, Roberto. 1958. Tres documentos sobre el descubrimiento y exploración de Baja California por Francisco María Píccolo, Juan de Ugarte, y Guillermo Stratford. Editorial Jus, Mexico City.

Ritter, Eric W. 1979. An Archaeological Study of South-Central Baja California, Mexico. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Davis.

------. 1994. Investigaciones de ecología social y cambios entre culturas prehistóricas en la región de Bahía de los Angeles, California (1993). Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico City.

------. 1995. Investigaciones de ecología social y cambios entre culturas prehistóricas en la región de Bahía de los Angeles, California (1994). Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico City.

------. 1997. Investigaciones de ecología social y cambios entre culturas prehistóricas en la región de Bahía de los Angeles, California (1995). Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico City.

------. 1998. Investigations of Prehistoric Behavioral Ecology and Culture Change within the Bahía de los Angeles Region, Baja California. Pacific Coast Archaeological Society Quarterly 34(3):9-43.

------. 1999. Investigaciones arqueológicas en Laguna Guerrero Negro, Baja California (Fase I). Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico City.

------. 2006a. Bahía de los Angeles. In: The Prehistory of Baja California: Advances in the Archaeology of the Forgotten Peninsula, edited by Don Laylander and Jerry D. Moore, pp. 167-178. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.

------. 2006b. The Vizcaíno Desert. In: The Prehistory of Baja California: Advances in the Archaeology of the Forgotten Peninsula, edited by Don Laylander and Jerry D. Moore, pp. 135-152. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.

------, John W. Foster, Robert I. Orlins, Louis A. Payen, and Paul D. Bouey. 1994. Archaeological Insights within a Marine Cornucopia: Baja California's Bahía de las Animas. Pacific Coast Archaeological Society Quarterly 30(1):1-23.

------, and Louis A. Payen. 1992. Archaeological Discoveries along Laguna Ojo de Liebre, Baja California, Mexico. In: Essays on the Prehistory of Maritime California, edited by Terry L. Jones, pp. 251-266. Center for Archaeological Research at Davis Publication No. 10. Davis, California.

Rogers, Malcolm J. 1936. Yuman Pottery Making. San Diego Museum Papers No. 2. San Diego.

------. 1945. An Outline of Yuman Prehistory. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 1:167-198.

Thickens, Virginia E., and Margaret Mollins. 1952. Putting a Lid on California: An Unpublished Diary of the Portolá Expedition by José de Cañizares. California Historical Society Quarterly 31:109-124, 261-270, 343-354.

Tuohy, Donald R. 1970. The Aboriginal Containers of Baja California, Mexico: A Search for Origins. Tebiwa 13(2):41-51.

------, and Mary B. Strawn. 1989. Thin Section Analysis of Mission Period Pottery from Baja California, Mexico. Nevada Archaeologist 17(2):36-48.

Van Camp, Gena R. 1979. Kumeyaay Pottery: Paddle-and-Anvil Techniques of Southern California. Ballena Press, Socorro, New Mexico.

Venegas, Miguel. 1757. Noticia de la California y de su conquista temporal, y espiritual hasta el tiempo presente. 3 vols. M. Fernández, Madrid.

Williams, Stephen L. 1995. Microanálisis de tepalcates procedentes del área de Bahía de los Angeles y Misión San Fernando Velicatá, Baja California. In: Investigaciones de ecología social y cambios entre culturas prehistóricas en la región de Bahía de los Angeles, Baja California (1994), by Eric W.Ritter, Appendix 5. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico City.

------. 1997. Microanálisis de tepalcates del centro de Baja California, programa Baja California, 1995. In: Investigaciones de ecología social y cambios entre culturas prehistóricas en la región de Bahía de los Angeles, Baja California (1995), by Eric W. Ritter, Appendix 7. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico City.