REVIEW OF EARLIER WORK AT THE TANK SITE
Concerted excavation at the Tank Site was first carried on from June 19 to August 5, 1947. The immediate aim was to explore as fully as time permitted the nature and extent of the deposit. In the main, interest revolved on cutting long trenches, test pitting, and expanding in favorable areas. The compact nature of the soil and the heavy artifact yield retarded clearing. Nevertheless, some 5,000 cubic feet of mound earth was removed which bore an artifact content of one finished implement to every 1.5 cubic feet.
Within the limitations imposed by archaeological conditions, the excavation made possible certain inferences regarding the over-all pattern and associated complexes derived from an open site typified by crude percussion-flaked core tools and basic milling implements. The chipped stone has been compared to that described for the San Dieguito and Lake Mohave cultures. It includes a somewhat ill-defined variety of scraper planes, scrapers, choppers, projectile points, and large blades. Our Topanga series of scrapers and planes was numerically large enough and exemplified a sufficient degree of internal variation to warrant a breakdown into descriptive categories or types. Ground- and pecked-stone pieces consisted mainly of manos and metates. Here too, quantity and diversity allowed a reduction to types. The cultural validity and developmental implications of the typology presented are limited although some such considerations were discussed. Specimens represented only sparingly, as was true with a number of forms of flaked tools, and especially mortars, pestles, cogged stones, disks, and ornaments, have been described individually. For additional details and for information not included here the reader is referred to the earlier published report (Treganza and Malamud, 1950).
On the basis of eight burials, all in poor condition, two modes of interment were recognized: primary inhumation and reburial. Difficult to characterize concisely are the various manifestations defined as features. They include unusual aggregates of stone and/or implements, hearths, or any circumstance that appeared atypical of the relatively homogeneous midden deposit as it was understood in 1947.
A physical analysis of the mound mass and its contents indicates a considerable degree of antiquity for the occupation represented. The midden material is extremely compact, and there is a suggested development of a soil profile. With the exception of fragmentary, occasional bits of shell, charcoal, bone, and a trace of ashaltum, all organic substances have long since disappeared from the site. What little mammal bone remained was almost inevitably in a poor state of preservation, generally fragmentary, and considerably decomposed. Marine shell, crushed and friable, was encountered in occasional pockets in the lower limits of the deposit and under inverted metates. This shell probably represents evidence of the occasional use of shellfish as a dietary item. No shell artifacts were found below 6 inches and all shell refuse was found below 48 inches. The few artifacts as were found in the upper levels were only in a fair state of preservation and can probably be assigned to Phase II occupation.
As our primary interest was in the Tank Site, and our time limited, archaeological reconnaissance in the vicinity was necessarily curtailed. Four lesser sites yielding core tools, and manos were noted along the small tributary system on which the Tank Site is located. One of these, LAn-2, was test-pitted. An additional site, LAn-6, typified by “Topanga-like” artifacts, was recorded on the western periphery of the San Fernando Valley just over the divide from Topanga Canyon.