The Pauma Complex is a prehistoric archaeological pattern among
indigenous peoples of California
The indigenous peoples of California (known as Native Californians) are the indigenous inhabitants who have lived or currently live in the geographic area within the current boundaries of California before and after the arrival of Europeans. ...
, initially defined by
Delbert L. True in northern
San Diego County
San Diego County (), officially the County of San Diego, is a county in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,298,634, making it California's second-most populous county and the f ...
,
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
.
The complex is dated generally to the middle
Holocene
The Holocene ( ) is the current geological epoch. It began approximately 11,650 cal years Before Present (), after the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene togeth ...
period. This makes it locally the successor to the
San Dieguito complex
The San Dieguito complex is an archaeological pattern left by early Holocene inhabitants of Southern California and surrounding portions of the Southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico. Radiocarbon dating places a 10,200 BP (Before Prese ...
, predecessor to the late prehistoric
San Luis Rey Complex, and contemporary with the
La Jolla complex on the San Diego County coast.
Pauma Complex sites have been identified primarily in the
San Luis Rey River
The San Luis Rey River is a river in northern San Diego County, California.
The river's headwaters are in the Palomar Mountain Range and Cleveland National Forest, near Palomar Mountain and the Santa Rosa Mountains. The river mouth, on the Pacif ...
valley and on the
Valley Center plateau to the south of it.
Archaeological traits distinguishing the Pauma Complex include:
* a high frequency of shaped
manos
* the presence of finely worked small domed scrapers
* the presence of knives and points
* the presence of discoidals and cogged stones
* a predominance of grinding tools over flaked tools
* a predominance of deep basin metates over slab metates
* a predominance of cobble hammers over core hammers
* a low frequency of cobble tools
* a scarcity of cobble choppers and cobble scrapers
* a predominance of volcanic rock over quartzite as a source material for flaked lithics
* an extreme scarcity of obsidian
References
* True, D. L. 1958. "An Early Complex in San Diego County, California". ''American Antiquity'' 23:255-263.
* True, D. L. 1980. "The Pauma Complex in Northern San Diego County: 1978". ''Journal of New World Archaeology'' 3(4):1-39.
* True, D. L., and R. Pankey. 1985. "Radiocarbon Dates for the Pauma Complex Component at the Pankey Site, Northern San Diego County, California". ''Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology'' 7:240-244.
* Warren, Claude N., D. L. True, and Ardith A. Eudey. 1961. "Early Gathering Complexes of Western San Diego County: Results and Interpretations of an Archaeological Survey". ''University of California, Los Angeles, Archaeological Survey Annual Report'' 1960-1961:1-106.
{{Pre-Columbian North America
Archaeology of the United States
Pre-Columbian cultures
Archaeological sites in California
Native American history of California
Indigenous peoples of California