Antecedents to the Specialized Microdrill Industry on Santa Cruz Island, California

This report examines the development of lithic technology among the Chumash of California?s northern Channel Islands. By the middle of the first millennium A.D., the Island Chumash began to pursue specialized bead and drill making activities, leading to large-scale production of standardized artifact forms over much of the second millennium A.D. The region?s best provenanced collection of early ad hoc drills used for perforating Olivella shell beads is analyzed. These are flake drills, found in small numbers at late Middle Period (A.D. 650?1150) sites. Two sub-types (A and B) are identified that suggest technological development leading to formalized microdrills. It is suggested that bead makers at CA-SCRI-474 on the southern coast of Santa Cruz Island experimented with variations in drill forms throughout the early part of the late Middle Period. During the Transitional Period (A.D. 1150?1300), their techniques for Type B drills spread to CA-SCRI-191, a major bead-making center.