Included with the manuscript were Frank’s field notes, a photograph, sketches of the artifacts, and a letter dated Janufrom Robert Merriam, Curator of the Kern Valley Museum in Kernville. It pertained to a Native California rain-making bundle from Kern County. Artifacts collected from early shorelines suggest the lake supported Paleoindian people for a considerable amount of time before the earliest Yokuts occupation.Īfter Frank Fenenga’s death (April 7, 1994), his son Gerrit discovered an unfinished manuscript co-authored by his father and Francis (Fritz) Riddell. Tulare Lake, located in California’s southern San Joaquin Valley midway between the San Francisco Bay and the Los Angeles Basin, was formed sometime during the later part of the Pleistocene epoch and, over millennia, expanded to cover about 760 square miles before it was drained and reclaimed for agricultural crops. Chapter 3 critically reevaluates the number of reported Clovis-like projectile point discoveries from Tulare Lake and finally, Chapter 4 describes a unique ground stone “butterfly” crescent from the study area and discusses its possible meaning, function, and significance. Chapter 2 presents the initial attempts at obsidian tracing and hydration dating of Tulare Lake’s ancient artifacts as well as providing a small sample from China Lake in eastern California. This is the first published attempt to categorize and describe Tulare Lake’s Paleoindian tool kit. Briefly, Chapter 1 surveys and identifies a flaked stone assemblage of time-diagnostic artifacts from Tulare Lake. Hopefully, they will be included in a subsequent TULARG publication. Initially, six chapters were planned but two authors could not meet the time constraints. ![]() The present publication consists of four manuscripts (included as chapters one through four). ![]() However, they were also sometimes procured as “heirloom” objects scavenged from earlier archaeological sites and later reintroduced into the archaeological record. In addition, new evidence now suggests that the use of charmstones extends for at least 9,000 years into the past. Some charmstones were associated with California Indian weather shamanism. We agree with the researchers who first defined this new type of charmstone that they comprised part of a shaman’s ritual bundle at times and were used in various ceremonies. In this paper, we expand the known geographic distribution of these artifacts and review the nine known examples from California, supplying new information on their age, function, and cultural context. Sometimes fashioned from opaque white quartz, these rare artifacts have been found across a broad swath of California. This paper provides an interpretive overview and synthesis of data on a rare and recently defined type of charmstone―a biconical object, shaped somewhat like an American football. These early accounts adopted the term based on information provided by Native California consultants, who reported that these were “charms” rather than mundane, utilitarian objects. They were described as early as 1885 by Henshaw, while the term ‘charmstone’ first appeared in an article by Yates (1889). ![]() Charmstones are some of the more mysterious objects in California’s archaeological record.
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