The Role of Pinnacle Point Cave in California Prehistory Dr. Jerry Johnson / CSU Sacramento / MLG
Since the excavation of Pinnacle Point Cave in 1963-1964, the recovered collection
has resided in various university repositories with research done in bits and pieces.
In 1964, Tom Rohrer mapped the portion of the cave containing the cultural deposit and
has recently made available his original notes to the current investigators of the site.
Right after excavation, Louis A. Payen published an article describing the "Pipe
Artifacts" from the cave. The archaeology of the cave was described in a
preliminary report to the U.S. Forest Service in 1965 and an article was published
discussing the excavations and artifacts in the same year. Payen also did a study of
the snail shell fauna from the cave in 1965. Michael J. McEachern also discussed the
site briefly in his 1968 thesis on the Mortuary Caves in the Mother Lode. In the 1960's,
William E. Pritchard did a preliminary analysis of the shell beads. In 1970 John Beck
described a group of Turtle Bone artifacts from Pinnacle Point. A series of Carbon-14
dates were obtained on shell beads by Louis A. Payen at U. C. Riverside in the early
1980's, while the human skeletal material was studied as part of a masters program
at California State University, Fullerton by Kenneth Wendell in the late 1980's and
completed in 1990. Since 1995, a complete electronic catalog has been completed,
virtually all of the artifacts have been measured and scanned, 21 X-ray fluorescence
source determinations have been made on obsidian artifacts, samples of teeth have
been sent for DNA analysis, additional Carbon-14 dates have been requested, the
cave has been photographed in 2003 and 2005 by Dave Bunnell and others and Matt
Leisering is leading the effort to produce a complete map of the cave. As can be
seen, some work has been done on the collections and on the cave in each of the
four decades since the original excavations. It is the purpose of this presentation
to discuss how the collection from this site has changed many of the ideas and
interpretations that were (and are often still) believed by archaeologists and
cavers in regard to human use of caves in the Mother Lode.
Professor Jerald Jay Johnson, Ph.D., recently retired from California State University,
Sacramento after teaching anthropology and archaeology for 43 years. From 1996 until
2002 he was chair of the Department of Anthropology and was one of the original
excavators at Pinnacle Point Cave. He has served as President of the Central
California Archaeological Foundation, was the first president of the Sacramento
Anthropological Society, President of the Foundation for Archaeological Research,
Northern Vice-President for the Society for California Archaeology and currently
sits on the Board of Directors for the Western Cave Conservancy. Professor Johnson
has been involved with caves since 1955 and has given papers on cave archaeology
at international and NSS conventions since 1965. His research focus has been on
Northern and Central California and Great Basin Archaeology and he has been an
active NSS and Mother Lode Caver since the early 1980's. He also has directed
surveys and excavations on the Island of Cyprus in the Eastern Mediterranean.
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Since the excavation of Pinnacle Point Cave in 1963-1964, the recovered collection
has resided in various university repositories with research done in bits and pieces.
In 1964, Tom Rohrer mapped the portion of the cave containing the cultural deposit and
has recently made available his original notes to the current investigators of the site.
Right after excavation, Louis A. Payen published an article describing the "Pipe
Artifacts" from the cave. The archaeology of the cave was described in a
preliminary report to the U.S. Forest Service in 1965 and an article was published
discussing the excavations and artifacts in the same year. Payen also did a study of
the snail shell fauna from the cave in 1965. Michael J. McEachern also discussed the
site briefly in his 1968 thesis on the Mortuary Caves in the Mother Lode. In the 1960's,
William E. Pritchard did a preliminary analysis of the shell beads. In 1970 John Beck
described a group of Turtle Bone artifacts from Pinnacle Point. A series of Carbon-14
dates were obtained on shell beads by Louis A. Payen at U. C. Riverside in the early
1980's, while the human skeletal material was studied as part of a masters program
at California State University, Fullerton by Kenneth Wendell in the late 1980's and
completed in 1990. Since 1995, a complete electronic catalog has been completed,
virtually all of the artifacts have been measured and scanned, 21 X-ray fluorescence
source determinations have been made on obsidian artifacts, samples of teeth have
been sent for DNA analysis, additional Carbon-14 dates have been requested, the
cave has been photographed in 2003 and 2005 by Dave Bunnell and others and Matt
Leisering is leading the effort to produce a complete map of the cave. As can be
seen, some work has been done on the collections and on the cave in each of the
four decades since the original excavations. It is the purpose of this presentation
to discuss how the collection from this site has changed many of the ideas and
interpretations that were (and are often still) believed by archaeologists and
cavers in regard to human use of caves in the Mother Lode.
Professor Jerald Jay Johnson, Ph.D., recently retired from California State University,
Sacramento after teaching anthropology and archaeology for 43 years. From 1996 until
2002 he was chair of the Department of Anthropology and was one of the original
excavators at Pinnacle Point Cave. He has served as President of the Central
California Archaeological Foundation, was the first president of the Sacramento
Anthropological Society, President of the Foundation for Archaeological Research,
Northern Vice-President for the Society for California Archaeology and currently
sits on the Board of Directors for the Western Cave Conservancy. Professor Johnson
has been involved with caves since 1955 and has given papers on cave archaeology
at international and NSS conventions since 1965. His research focus has been on
Northern and Central California and Great Basin Archaeology and he has been an
active NSS and Mother Lode Caver since the early 1980's. He also has directed
surveys and excavations on the Island of Cyprus in the Eastern Mediterranean.
