First published in 1998. Did prehistoric humans walk to North America from Siberia? Who were the inhabitants of the spectacular Anasazi cliff dwellings in the Southwest and why did they disappear? Native Americans used acorns as a major food source, but how did they get rid of the tannic acid which is toxic to humans? How does radiocarbon dating work and how accurate is it? Written for the informed lay person, college-level student, and professional, Archaeology of Prehistoric Native America: An Encyclopedia is an important resource for the study of the earliest North Americans; including facts, theories, descriptions, and speculations on the ancient nomads and hunter-gathers that populated continental North America.

This volume is the first to bring together a number of studies on the Early Holocene of the California coast (ca. 10,000 to 6600 BP). Erlandson and Colten haveassembled contributions that may be of interest to a broad spectrum of scholars whose research pertains to any of the following: early sites in the Americas, coastal adaptations, hunter-gatherer adaptations, general Pacific coast prehistory, and the specific history of research on pre-6600 BP occupations of coastal California.

San Clemente Island is a microcosm of California coastal archaeology from prehistoric through historic times—not only because of the extensiveness of its archaeological remains but because those remains have been so well preserved. In California Maritime Archaeology, the authors use the island as a platform to explore evidence of early seafaring, colonization, paleoenvironmental change, and cultural interaction along the California coast. They make a strong case that San Clemente island should be seen as a kind of "California archaeological Galapagos," offering an extraordinary variety of ancient life as well as surprising information about prehistoric hunter-gatherers of the northern Pacific. The authors' two decades of research have resulted in this rich cultural history that defies widespread assumptions about California's ancient maritime history.