DESCRIPTION OF ARTIFACTS
To avoid repetition of description, only those types or groups of specimens not covered in the earlier report will be fully discussed here. Such categories as have already been isolated and defined will be treated in summary fashion. For complete descriptive data, the 1947 account of the Topanga Culture should be consulted. The total tabulations of the major groups of artifacts derived from both season’s excavations will be presented in this paper.
The artifacts from LAn-2 constitute a problem of their own and will be described in a later section of this paper covering the excavation of that site.
FLAKED TOOLS
With few exceptions, the additional flaked tools represent roughly the same sample as already revealed. Concave scrapers, thumbnail scrapers, a crescentic stone, and new projectile point types make up the adjunct to the typology. The frequencies for most of the groups of flaked tools are reasonably higher than was heretofore indicated. This is probably the result of the more extensive excavations carried out in the areas of greatest artifact concentration.
Figure 1. Location of Features and Burials
Scraper Planes
Numerically, scraper planes as an entire class constitute the largest single stylized group of artifacts from the Tank Site. Some forms display a marked perfection in flaking technique, and are comparable to illustrated specimens from the San Dieguito industry (M. J. Rogers, 1929; 1939, pl. 8, i-j) on the southern California coast and in the Lake Mohave Culture (Campbell et al., pls. XXVI, XXVII) in the eastern desert. The majority, however, exhibit only generalized characteristics with considerable latitude in external form suggesting that their manufacture required little precision on the part of the maker, and probably, also, they served essentially as an all-purpose tool. The nature of the wear on much-used specimens indicated hard usage, such as would result from repeated contact on an unyielding surface.