Dissertation Research: Steatite Production on Santa Catalina Island: Issues of Specialization

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Under the direction of Dr. Jeanne Arnold, MS Virginia Howard will collect data for her doctoral dissertation. She will conduct archaeological excavations on Santa Catalina Island, located off the California coast to gain insight into how production of steatite vessels developed and changed over time. Steatite is a soft rock which is relatively easy to shape by simple technological means. It was a valued object which served a number of purposes in prehistory and was fashioned into beads and containers. Because prehistoric inhabitants of the island and adjacent coastal regions lacked pottery, steatite vessels served a particularly important function. Production of such objects was limited primarily to Santa Catalina Island because of the high quality raw material sources located there. Archaeological evidence indicates that production and trade with the adjacent mainland began as early as 1,100 AD and that the character of the items produced changed over time. By the late prehistoric period it appears that production focused on large ceremonial vessels which indicate the presence of a internally differentiated stratified society. This is a condition extremely uncommon among hunter and gatherer groups. MS Howard wishes to understand how production of steatite vessels changed over time and whether it developed in a way which characterizes early food producing societies where such activities shifted from individual households into the hands of part or full time specialists. In past work she has located a number of quarries on Santa Catalina, developed a tentative chronology of them. On the basis of preliminary data she has also tried to understand how production changed over time. However her sample is small and is based almost solely on surface materials. With National Science Foundation support she will conduct excavations at a number of quarry sites. This should yield information on chronology and also provide a sample of associated tools used in manufacture as well as production debris. With this information MS Howard will reconstruct changing production technology over time and gain some insight into the social context in which this occurred. This research is important for several reasons. It will provide insight into the degree of social complexity obtained by prehistoric hunters and gatherers. It will provide data of interest to many archaeologists, increase our understanding of United States prehistory and assist in training a promising young scientist.