TOMATO SPRINGS
Beginning in
2002, CCRPA, in collaboration with local Native American representatives,
including both Juaneño (Acjachemen)
and Gabrielino (Tongva) elders,
engaged with Irvine Community Development Company (ICDC) in an extended program
of correspondence, meetings, and field trips regarding their proposed Portola
Springs residential development in Irvine.
Portola Springs,
consisting of hundreds of acres of formerly agricultural land, is the location
of the Tomato Springs site, one of the most significant prehistoric Native
American and historical Spanish sites in Orange County. In addition to this
site, it also includes numerous satellite sites, reflecting long-term and
diverse use of the area through prehistory and history.
Consultations
began early, during the land entitlement and preliminary design stages, and
resulted in a cultural resources treatment plan which included both
preservation and mitigation. Preservation of the majority of the Tomato Springs
site in a 100-acre archaeology park was included as were extensive
archaeological excavations prior to grading in other areas. CCRPA and others
entered into Memoranda of Understanding with ICDC to mutually support and
implement the treatment plan.
Tomato Springs Archaeology and
History Summary
The Portolá
Expedition of 1769, a follow-up expedition the next year, and the Anza
Expedition in 1976, visited Tomato Springs (known at the time as Los Ojitos de San Pantaleón and El Aguage del Padre Gomez). Native
Americans were encountered at Tomato Springs by the 1770 Spanish expedition.
The springs are shown on an 1842 map of José Antonio Sepúlveda’s land grant as Aguaje de los Tomates. According to
anthropologist John Peabody Harrington’s early 20th century field
notes, Native American informants identified the site as “a camping place”
possibly named Usrónvana. Tomato
Springs is located on the border between the traditional tribal territories of
the Juaneño (Acjachemen) and
Gabrielino (Tongva). The Acjachemen became known as Juaneño and
the Tongva became known as Gabrielino
to late 18th century Spanish missionaries at San Juan Capistrano and
San Gabriel. In 1876 the Lomas de Santiago area, including Tomato Springs, was
acquired as part of the Irvine Ranch.
Archaeological excavations at
Tomato Springs were conducted for the Santiago Aqueduct in 1979, Portola
Parkway in 1992 and 1993, and Marshburn Basin in 1997 and 1998. The Santiago
Aqueduct excavations were conducted adjacent to Tomato Spring and yielded four
dates ranging from 480 Before Present (BP) to 1300 BP, a period spanning the
Late Prehistoric 1 period. The Portola Parkway excavations were conducted along
an alignment at the base of the Lomas de Santiago and crossing a series of
alluvial fans, and yielded seven dates from 60 BP to 3630 BP, including dates
within the Late Prehistoric 1, Late Prehistoric 2, and Intermediate periods.
The Marshburn Basin excavations, located 2.5 kilometers east of Tomato Spring,
were conducted at sites deeply buried in alluvial fan deposits on the Tustin
Plain and yielded ten dates from 6715 BP to 9870 BP, including incipient
Milling Stone and pre-Milling Stone, Paleoindian period dates.
Excavations for Phase 1 of the
Portola Springs project were conducted in 2004 and 2005 at isolated hilltop
sites and at sites buried in Bee Canyon and Round Canyon alluvial fans. The
excavations yielded twelve dates from 290 BP to 7490 BP. They include single
dates from the Late Prehistoric 1, Late Prehistoric 2, and incipient Milling
Stone periods, and nine dates spanning a time frame from the early Intermediate
Period to the middle Milling Stone period.
Excavations for Phase 2 of the
Portola Springs project were conducted at near-surface sites on the terminal
ridge fingers above Tomato Springs and on the dissected terraces draining into
Agua Chinon. The excavations yielded 20 dates ranging from modern to 3830 BP. A
single date falls within the early Milling Stone period. The other dates are
from the Late Prehistoric 1 and Late Prehistoric 2 periods.
Combined, the dates from Tomato
Springs reflect occupations spanning a 10,000 year period. Gaps in the sequence
during the late Intermediate, middle Milling Stone, and terminal Paleoindian
periods suggest abandonment phases. The terminal Paleoindian period was a time
of adaptation to late Pleistocene megafauna extinctions and early Holocene
climate, the middle Milling Stone period was a time of heavy subsistence
reliance on the seeds of grasses and weedy annuals, and the late Intermediate
was a time of population pressure and social reorganization, and emerging
territorial tribalism. Each hiatus may indicate periods when alternative
subsistence resources were sought elsewhere in the region, or when competition
for marginal resources lead to factional disputes and inter-group conflicts, and
forced abandonments of the vicinity.
Excavations at Tomato Springs
have revealed a variety of prehistoric features including trash middens,
activity areas, grinding stations, chipping stations, hearths, roasting pits,
possible sweat lodges, and two houses. Artifacts include stone tools, stone
debitage from making tools, animal bone, and marine shell. Milling tools
include metates, manos, mortars, and pestles for grinding wild seeds into
flour, and heavy chopping, pounding, and scraping tools for processing yucca
for food and fiber. Yucca fiber was used to make sandals and fishing line.
Projectile points include spearheads and arrowheads for hunting and possibly
warfare. Animal bone is largely of rabbits, hares, and other small animals,
suggesting that collective drives were more important than taking large game
with spears, darts, and arrows. Bone awls and needles, used for basket weaving
and sewing leather, have been found. Marine shell is present in only small
quantities, reflecting Tomato Springs inland location, and may have been
brought to the site as manufacture material rather than food. A variety of
marine shell beads, scoops, and scrapers have been found.
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