212 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 193 



the rolling hills leaving little room for a broad alluvial plain such as 

 that of the Santa Maria River to the east. Sites, therefore, tend to 

 be on the hills rather than on the riverbanks. 



Four trenches and one test pit were excavated at the site in 1948 

 by Drs. Stirling and Willey. Due, however, to the shallowness of 

 the cultural deposit, except for the occurrence of occasional grave pits, 

 the stratigraphic results are meager to nonexistent. Thus, descrip- 

 tions of the excavations can be brief and profiles will be dispensed with. 



Trench 1, a north-south cut of 15X2 meters, extended diagonally 

 across the top of the spur mentioned above and, as digging proceeded, 

 divided into two sections ; a southern section running from the meter 

 or southernmost point to the 11 meters point, and a northern section 

 extending from the 11 to the 15 meters point. The soil profiles of 

 the southern section were fau'ly uniform, beginning with a gray 

 organic layer with cultural remains running from 0-50 cms. Beneath 

 this was an irregular stratum of clean tan sand of from 25-50 

 cms. in thickness which, in tiu-n, was underlain by the basal gray- 

 white clay rock. The southern part of the trench was carried down 

 into this clay rock for total depths of 1.3-1.8 meters and thus well 

 down into sterile soil. In the northern section, where the greatest 

 nmnber of sherds were recovered, the gray humus layer was separated 

 from the basal gray-white clay rock by a stratum of red-brown clay 

 with streaks of dark brown to black mineral deposit in its lower 

 portions. This red-brown clay stratum was thickest at the north 

 end of the trench but continued throughout the 11-15 meters section. 

 This section of the trench was excavated in some areas to a depth of 

 2.1 meters. A grave, a few pottery caches, and 320 sherds were exca- 

 vated in Trench 1. 



Trench 2, a 2X5 meters cut at right angles to Trench 1 and 

 joining it at the 13-15 meters point section, was an extension to the 

 east begun prunarily to follow out the Find 4-6 Unit. The main 

 part of this trench was carried to a depth of 1.4 meters; that is, into 

 the gray-white rock. Test holes were carried dowm to 1.9 meters 

 in the northwest corner of the trench with negative results. A 

 number of complete vessels were recovered from this trench. 



Trench 3, a 2X10 meters cut, in effect extended Trench 1 to 

 the north over the brow of the hill and down the slope. All pottery 

 came from the upper 50 cms. of the cut, but was not saved, presumably 

 because of its amorphous character. No whole vessels or cultm-al 

 remains of a nonceramic nature were found. Except for a section 

 from 1.7-5.0 meters, which was almost pure rock, the soil profile 

 was sunilar to that of Trench 1 with gray-white clay rock beginning at 

 a depth of 70-90 cms. 



Trench 4, a 2X4 meters cut, was excavated near the foot of the 



