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| San Dieguito complex | |
|---|---|
| Name | San Dieguito complex |
| Region | Southern California, Baja California |
| Period | Early Holocene |
| Dates | ca. 10,200–7,500 BP |
| Major sites | C. W. Harris Site, Borrego Valley sites, San Dieguito Lake |
| Preceded by | Paleoindian period |
| Followed by | La Jolla complex |
San Dieguito complex The San Dieguito complex is an Early Holocene archaeological manifestation first identified in Southern California and northern Baja California, notable for its distinctive lithic assemblages and presumed adaptation to postglacial environments. Excavations at key sites produced stratigraphic sequences that influenced interpretations of coastal and inland occupation dynamics during the terminal Pleistocene and Early Holocene, prompting debate among archaeologists, paleoecologists, and cultural resource managers. Scholars working with radiocarbon dates, geological surveys, and comparative typologies have situated the complex within broader frameworks of North American Paleoindian research and Californian prehistory.
Researchers initially defined the complex through lithic typology, stratigraphy, and radiocarbon chronology during fieldwork led by institutions such as the San Diego Natural History Museum, University of California, Berkeley, University of California, Los Angeles, and the Smithsonian Institution. Key figures in its definition include investigators affiliated with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, American Museum of Natural History, and regional cultural resource management firms working under mandates from agencies like the National Park Service and California State Parks. Interpretations draw on comparative studies with assemblages from the Clovis culture, Folsom tradition, Western Stemmed Tradition, and coastal complexes such as La Jolla complex and Chumash culture sequences.
Chronological frameworks rely on calibrated radiocarbon determinations from charcoal, shell, and bone recovered in contexts documented by teams from University of California, Davis and the Institute of Archaeology at UCLA. Published syntheses reference work by scholars associated with the Society for American Archaeology, the American Antiquity editorial community, and regional syntheses presented at meetings of the American Anthropological Association. Debates have juxtaposed San Dieguito phase dates with contemporaneous signatures in the Great Basin, Sierra Nevada, and Mojave Desert, and with sea-level histories developed by researchers at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
Sites attributed to the complex occur across coastal plains, alluvial fans, and interior valleys in territories overlapping present-day San Diego County, Imperial County, Riverside County, and northern Baja California. Paleoenvironmental reconstructions incorporate palynology, geomorphology, and isotopic work from laboratories at California Institute of Technology, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and the US Geological Survey. Research situates occupations within changing postglacial ecotones influenced by shifts recorded in analyses tied to the Pacific Decadal Oscillation and to paleoclimate models from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The complex is characterized by a high frequency of bifacially worked scrapers, percussion-flaked points, cobble tools, and large flake debitage, identified through typological comparisons with collections curated at the San Diego Museum of Man, Lowie Museum of Anthropology, and the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. Technological studies employ use-wear analysis, experimental replication conducted in laboratories at University of Arizona and Arizona State University, and sourcing studies using techniques developed at Geological Survey of Canada-collaborating facilities. Assemblages show affinities and contrasts with toolkits attributed to the Mojave Desert archaeological tradition and the Fremont culture in broader western North America discourse.
Zooarchaeological analyses of faunal remains, shell middens, and botanical macrofossils conducted by teams from the Smithsonian Institution and the Natural History Museum, London indicate hunting of medium-sized ungulates, procurement of small mammals, and exploitation of riparian and littoral resources. Paleoethnobotanical work at the University of California, Santa Barbara and phytolith analyses at the University of Washington constrain seasonality and resource scheduling. Settlement models engage comparisons with hunter-gatherer systems documented by ethnographers associated with the Bureau of American Ethnology and with regional patterns discussed in volumes produced by the Museum of Northern Arizona.
Inferences about social networks, exchange, and ritual derive from spatial distributions of lithic workshops, exotic raw material flows documented via obsidian sourcing tied to the Obsidian Hydration Laboratory studies, and mortuary variability reported in site reports archived at the California Historical Resources Information System. Interpretations invoke comparative frameworks involving the Chumash, Diegueño (Kumeyaay), and other Indigenous groups of southern California as discussed in publications from the American Indian Studies Center and the Bancroft Library.
Notable excavations include stratified sequences at sites investigated by teams from the San Diego Natural History Museum, the University of California, and private cultural consultants operating under contracts with the California Department of Transportation. Type assemblages and diagnostic loci are curated in collections at the San Diego Museum of Man, the University of California Archaeological Research Facility, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History. Ongoing research published in outlets associated with the Society for California Archaeology and presented at annual meetings of the Society for American Archaeology continues to refine definitions, chronologies, and regional relationships.