A Burial Cave in Baja California Part 1

A Burial Cave in Baja California.

by William C. Ma.s.sey and Carolyn M. Osborne.

PREFACE

In 1888 an archaeological collection of material from Bahia de Los Angeles in Baja California was deposited in the United States National Museum by Dr. Edward Palmer. Although the material was duly catalogued, together with Dr. Palmer's notes, it has gone undescribed until the present.

Dr. Robert F. Heizer called this collection to the attention of the senior author in 1948. At that time the archaeology of Baja California was receiving emphasis at the University of California because of the interest of the a.s.sociates in Tropical Biogeography, under the chairmanship of Dr. C. O. Sauer. The late Professor E. W. Gifford, then Curator of the Museum of Anthropology at the University of California, arranged with Dr. T. Dale Stewart of the United States National Museum for a temporary study loan of the collection.

From the beginning, the division of labor between the authors has been primarily in terms of "hard" and "soft" artifacts. Ma.s.sey has handled the a.n.a.lyses of the imperishable artifacts, their ethnographic and archaeological distributions, and the distributions of all artifacts for Baja California. Mrs. Osborne has dealt with the netting, textiles, and cordage, and the distribution of their techniques outside Baja California. Dr. Lila M. O'Neale began the a.n.a.lysis of the textiles and netting and directed it until her untimely death. Professor E. W.

Gifford advised on the initial description of the imperishable artifacts.

This presentation has been delayed for many reasons, but the intervening years have added much detailed information to the original data, both in the literature of anthropology and in subsequent field work.

We are very grateful to friends, past and present, for their help and encouragement. We wish to acknowledge the support of the Department of Anthropology, University of California, for the photographs of the imperishable materials. Thanks are due Bob Ormsby, a University of Washington student, for the drawings of netting. All other drawings and the maps were done by June M. Ma.s.sey. We acknowledge with thanks the a.s.sistance of Mrs. Gene Marquez, whose services as a typist were provided by the Department of Biological Sciences of the University of Florida.

Above all we wish to dedicate this small work to the memories of two tireless teachers and workers in anthropology--and in humanity: Dr. Lila M. O'Neale and Professor E. W. Gifford.

W.C.M.

C.M.O.

INTRODUCTION

In December of 1887 Dr. Edward Palmer, the naturalist, set sail from the port of Guaymas in Sonora, crossed the Gulf of California, and landed at Bahia de Los Angeles on the peninsula of Baja California. Then, as now, there was a modest gold-mining operation at the bay. During his brief stay at the mining station, Dr. Palmer excavated a small natural cave which had been used by the Indians who were then extinct in that part of the peninsula.

Seven partially disturbed skeletons and a variety of a.s.sociated artifacts were collected and deposited at the United States National Museum. The collection also included some potsherds and sh.e.l.ls from a midden on the sh.o.r.es of the bay. All of these items were listed and briefly described in the Annual Report of the United States National Museum for the year 1888 (pp. 127-129).

Aside from the intrinsic value of presenting archaeological material from the little-known area of Baja California, the Palmer Collection has particular importance because of its immediate geographic source. Bahia de Los Angeles lies in that part of Baja California most accessible to the Mexican mainland (map 1). Not only is there a relative physical closeness, but the Gulf islands form here a series of "stepping stones"

from Bahia de Los Angeles across to Tiburon Island, home of the Seri, and thence to the adjacent mainland coast of Sonora.

The bay lies in the north-central desert region of the peninsula, where the environment is especially difficult because of extreme aridity, scarcity of surface water, and the consequent dearth of plant and animal life.

In view of these conditions, it has been suggested that the Seri may be descendants of people who, hard-pressed by the environmental poverty of this section of Baja California, may have moved across the Gulf to Tiburon Island and Sonora (Kroeber, 1931, pp. 5, 49-50). This hypothesis has appealed to one California archaeologist, although at present there is insufficient evidence from archaeology or ethnography either to support or to deny it (Rogers, 1945, p. 194). However, the archaeological collection from Bahia de Los Angeles does indicate trade and some contact across the Gulf.

In this paper emphasis is placed on the evaluation of the Palmer Collection with respect to the known archaeology and ethnography of Baja California.

ETHNOGRAPHIC BACKGROUND

The Indians who inhabited the area surrounding Bahia de Los Angeles spoke the Borjeno language of the Peninsular Yuman group, of the Yuman Family of languages (map 2). They were linguistically and historically related to other Yuman-speaking groups of the peninsula and areas to the north (Ma.s.sey, 1949, p. 292). At the time of European contact these people--like all other aboriginal groups on the peninsula--were hunters, fishers, and gatherers. The nearest agricultural tribes were on the lower Colorado River.

Culturally, the Borjeno were like other Peninsular Yumans of relatively late prehistoric and historic periods in central Baja California.

However, they lived in more widely scattered groups because of the greater scarcity of water in this part of the peninsula. Immediately to the north of them at Bahia de San Luis Gonzaga--at approximately the 30th parallel--a decided break with the Peninsular Yuman tradition occurred.

In 1746, during a voyage up the gulf coast from Loreto to the mouth of the Colorado River, Father Fernando Consag noted that (1) the Spanish and their "Cochimi" interpreters could not converse with the natives; (2) the natives had dogs; and (3) the Indians had pottery vessels (Venegas, 1944, III:107-109).

The Hungarian Jesuit was the first to note the southeastern linguistic boundary of the California Yuman groups, a boundary which lay immediately north of Bahia de Los Angeles. At the same time he placed the southernmost extent of dogs and the making or use of pottery on the peninsula in the 18th century.

In describing the collection from Bahia de Los Angeles, we have the benefit of ethnographic descriptions from three periods of the Spanish occupation of Baja California prior to 1769 and the expulsion of the Jesuit missionaries. Some historical data derive from the initial voyages of the Spanish along the gulf coast in the 16th century. Later there were occasional contacts with these natives by Jesuit explorers during the first half of the 18th century. Finally, there was the period of active missionization, beginning with the foundation of Santa Gertrudis (1751) and continuing with San Borja (1762) and Santa Maria (1766).

[Ill.u.s.tration: Map 2. Linguistic Groups of Baja California.]

Toward the end of the 18th century there are applicable descriptions of Indians immediately to the north by the Dominican priest, Father Luis Sales (1794).

The ethnographic information contained in the doc.u.ments bears out the fact that the cave artifacts belong in the cultural tradition of the Borjeno who inhabited the region at the time of European contact and conquest.

THE SITE

Bahia de Los Angeles is a semicircular bay, about four miles in diameter, on the gulf coast of Baja California at 28 55' N. and 113 30' W. (map 1). On the northwest it is open to the waters of the Gulf of California and to the Ca.n.a.l de las Ballenas, which runs between the peninsula and Isla angel de la Guarda, some twelve miles distant. (This island and the smaller Isla Smith obstruct a view of the outer gulf, and from the sh.o.r.e Bahia de Los Angeles appears to be completely landlocked.) Within a few hundred feet of the sh.o.r.e, sandy beaches give way to the talus slopes of the mesas and peaks which edge the bay. An arroyo enters the bay from the west.

The cave excavated by Dr. Palmer is situated on a granitic hill to the west of the bay, at an elevation of 30 ft. above sea level. Just below the mouth of the narrow fissure is a spring which supplies water to the little mining community. The cave itself measures 9 ft. in depth; it is 6 ft. wide and 5 ft. high at the mouth. Before Dr. Palmer's excavations, miners of the Gulf Gold Mining Company had removed some stones--referred to in the Report as a "wall"--from the front of the fissure, thus exposing a few bones, which lay sun-bleached on the talus slope (Annual Report, 1888, p. 127).

THE BURIALS

The small cave at Bahia de Los Angeles contained at least seven burials: six adults and "fragments of one or more infants" (Annual Report, 1888, p. 128). These burials were extended with an east-west orientation corresponding to the axis of the fissure; the foot bones were to the west, at the mouth of the cave, and the crania were in the tapered interior. The published report does not indicate whether placement was p.r.o.ne or supine.

According to the Report the burials had been placed on a layer of sewn rush matting (139533[1]; see "Matting"), of which three bundles were collected.

[1] Numbers throughout this paper refer to catalogue numbers of the United States National Museum unless otherwise specified.

The artifacts described here were found in direct a.s.sociation with the skeletons. There are few details as to actual a.s.sociations. However, three hairnets (139534) were found on three of the crania.

To date, the use of small caves for the specific purpose of burial appears to be characteristic only of the extreme south of Baja California, in the Cape Region. Interments there were customarily secondary, although primary burials, usually flexed, do occur (Ma.s.sey, MS 1). In the extensive area that lies between Bahia de Los Angeles and the Cape Region, excavations have failed to produce cave cemeteries. To judge from published reports, such a custom was rare elsewhere in western North America.

A variety of artifacts accompanied the burials, but while the range of types is large, the number of any one type is small. Preservation of all specimens is generally good. We are fortunate in having perishable pieces--netting, matting, cloth, and wood. Certain general categories of items, such as household utensils and remains of foodstuffs, are absent and unreported.

ARTIFACTS