Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology

Over the years, the authors have been doing background research, survey, data recovery, and collections analysis related to the prehistory of Santa Barbara Island. In this paper, we present radiocarbon dates for six of the prehistoric sites on Santa Barbara Island and discuss the potential antiquity of its initial settlement. First, however, we provide a context for our discussion by summarizing the environmental setting and history of archaeological research on the island. In the following sections, all site designations follow Greenwood's (1978:7-42) trinomial system.