A data-rich reassessment of prehistory on the California coast

Patterns in Purisimeño Prehistory on the California Coast draws on the author's 24 years of archaeological research at what is now Vandenberg Space Force Base. During this time, Clayton G. Lebow directed excavations at more than 250 sites using consistent field, laboratory, and analytic methods to generate comparable datasets. From this body of work, Lebow selected 102 robust, tightly radiocarbon-dated assemblages to examine long-term patterns in human behavior extending back to the terminal Pleistocene. To contextualize these patterns, Lebow analyzes 1,029 radiocarbon age determinations from 151 sites to construct a new cultural chronology, replacing an outdated framework.

The data reveal relative behavioral stability during the early and middle Holocene, followed by rising population densities and increased variability beginning around 2,800 years ago. Marked shifts toward sedentism and increasingly complex settlement systems intensified after the fifth century A.D., before European diseases devastated native populations after the 1540s. This study demonstrates that understanding human adaptation requires large, rigorously comparable datasets capable of capturing behavioral variability over time.