With National Science Foundation support the UCLA Zooarchaeology Laboratory will acquire a comparative fish collection. The laboratory currently identifies faunal remains recovered during the excavation of archaeological sites, many of which are located in California. To conduct this work effectively it is necessary to have skeletons from known species for comparative purposes and the present laboratory collection is minimally adequate. While more than 700 species of fish are known present in California waters only 150-200 appear in archaeological sites and Dr. Arnold and her collaborators will focus on these species. They plan to add roughly 300 specimens to their current holdings. Because some species exhibit sexual dimorphism in many cases more than one specimen is necessary. Materials will be collected from a number of sources including commercial fisherman, fish markets and power and pumping facilities (which recover large numbers of fish when they flush out their cooling delivery systems). The specimens will be macerated, and the clean de-greased skeletal elements will be numbered and incorporated into the collection. In some areas of coastal California such as the Channel Islands and adjacent mainland prehistoric Native American cultures reached a level of sedentization and cultural complexity highly unusual for hunting and gathering societies. They produced wealth items which were widely traded and which probably were made by craft specialists. Reliance on fish which offered a rich a relatively stable diet played an important role in this process. Extensive marine research has allowed reconstruction of changes in post Pleistocene water temperature and related productivity and archaeologists wish to examine cultural response to these changing conditions. Faunal materials recovered through archaeological excavation provide an important data base for addressing such issues and the comparative collection to be amassed will significantly assist in this work. - À- v- +- ±@ + _ Ûª? ÑOh ª' +'ª?0 à + Õ $ H l + ¢ ? S u m m a r y I n f o r m a t i o n ( ++++++++++++ . Û ++++++++++++ ++++++++++++ ++++++++++++ D h + R:WWUSERTEMPLATENORMAL.DOT
