The Prehistory of Morro Bay: Central California's Overlooked Estuary

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In this monograph, we consider the prehistory of one of California's least-known, most isolated, and last-studied estuaries: Morro Bay on the central coast of California in San Luis Obispo County. Morro Bay is a shallow 2000-acre estuary that was occupied by speakers of Northern Chumash at the time of historic contact in 1769. Here we summarize findings from a 14-year project investigating middens in the communities of Los Osos and Baywood Park. The work was undertaken in anticipation of construction of the Los Osos Wastewater Project, a centralized sewage treatment system, the initial planning for which began in the 1980s. Between 2002 and 2016 Far Western Anthropological Research Group, Inc., with support from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo excavated over 200 cubic meters from six prehistoric archaeological sites for this project. These excavations revealed 10 temporally discrete component areas dating from 8000 to 300 cal BP. The rich collection of artifacts and subsistence remains from the components, when combined with findings from previous studies around the estuary, provided an unprecedented opportunity to develop an integrated prehistory for the Morro Bay area"--Provided by publisher.