POLLEN AND PROTEIN RESIDUE ANALYSIS OF A LARGE BASIN METATE FROM SITE CA-SDI-295, WOODS VALLEY RANCH PROJECT, CALIFORNIA

A large basin metate was discovered during mass grading at site CA-SDI-295 for the Woods Valley Ranch project in northern San Diego County, California. Woods Valley Ranch is a proposed residential and golf course community with surrounding natural open space easements. Large scrapers were used to transport soils from the northwest portion of the site to another portion of the project area, and the metate was found in the resulting spoils pile. Site CA-SDI-295 is a prehistoric residential camp site containing bedrock milling features, petroglyphs, lithic scatters, and ceramic scatters. A large portion of the site (Locus 1) is preserved within archaeological open space easement. Human cranial fragments were located along the northern edge of the site preserve during monitoring activities. The metate was washed for pollen and protein residues to provide information concerning plant and animal resources that were processed using this tool. A soil control sample recovered from sediment packed within the basin of the metate also was examined for pollen and protein residues.