Some forty scholars examine California's prehistory and archaeology, looking at marine and terrestrial palaeoenvironments, initial human colonization, linguistic prehistory, early forms of exchange, mitochondrial DNA studies, and rock art. This work is the most extensive study of California's prehistory undertaken in the past 20 years. An essential resource for any scholar of California prehistory and archaeology!

Olivella shell beads are ubiquitous at Central California Indian sites and were traded far inland by the local inhabitants. Their distinctive patterns of manufacture provide archaeologists with important chronological, morphological, and distributional information. This guide—authored by a professional artifact replicator and an archaeological expert on shell bead typology-- offers a well developed 16-category typology, including the descriptive, temporal, and metric characteristics of eac...