The Topanga Culture: Final Report on Excavations, 1948

THE TOPANGA CULTURE FINAL REPORT ON EXCAVATIONS, 1948
BY A. E. TREGANZA AND A. BIERMAN
ANTHROPOLOGICAL RECORDS Vol. 20, No. 2
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA ANTHROPOLOGICAL RECORDS Editors (Los Angeles): C. W. Meighan, Harry Hoijer, Eshref Shevky Volume 20, No. 2, pp. 45-86, plates 17-24, 6 figs., 3 maps Submitted by editors July 15, 1957 Issued March 27, 1958 Price, $1.00
University of California Press Berkeley and Los Angeles California Cambridge University Press London, England
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THE TOPANGA CULTURE FINAL REPORT ON EXCAVATIONS, 1948
BY A. E. TREGANZA AND A. BIERMAN
The year 1946 marked the discovery of the Tank Site by Robert F. Heizer and Edwin M. Lemert. Their work was synthesized in a paper entitled “Observations on Archaeological Sites in Topanga Canyon, California” (Heizer and Lemert, 1947). Here, so far as the small sample from test pits and surface collections permitted, they briefly defined the Topanga Culture, described the artifacts related to it, and indicated its possible cultural associations. Heizer and the senior author of the present paper were convinced that the Tank Site could fruitfully be further examined in the light of large-scale excavation. This was considered necessary to determine more closely the context of the Topanga artifacts, and the nature of the occupation here expressed. The answers to these two problems should contribute importantly to our understanding of the archaeology of southern California.
In the spring of 1947 R. L. Beals, of the University of California, Los Angeles, and R. F. Heizer, of the University of California, Berkeley, agreed to sent a joint party into the field the following summer. This coöperation between the two institutions marked a new step in furthering the progress of archaeological research in California, and gave students an opportunity to participate in active field research. In June, 1947, the senior author, assisted by Miss Consuelo Malamud, a graduate student at UCLA, initiated excavation at the Tank Site. Undergraduate and graduate students from both campuses of the university as well as from San Francisco State College acted as volunteer workers. The results of this investigation have appeared under the title, “The Topanga Culture: First Season’s Excavation of the Tank Site, 1947” (Treganza and Malamud, 1950).