San Nicolás is one of several Channel Islands offshore from southern California and is the farthest removed from the mainland. Despite its isolation and seeming barrenness it is well-known for the number of archaeological sites present there. Bruce Bryan and two companions undertook an archaeological reconnaissance of the island for two months in 1926. He returned for short visits in 1958 and 1960. Archaeological Explorations on San Nicolas Island is a report of these experiments.
The book is not, as the title might suggest, a systematic unfolding of the archaeological results replete with descriptive sections, tables of correlations, and interpretations. These are conspicuous by their absence. What is offered is instead a highly personal document much of it in diary form in which day to day activities and reactions are chronicled. Archaeological conditions, sites, and discoveries are given primary emphasis, to be sure, but this is done in the form of a daily log. The landscape and changing weather, particularly as they influence human life, are frequently commented upon. The relative ease with which sea food was obtained for the author’s table suggests a reason for the intensive habitation of the island. He also observes that natural seepage of petroleum, now abetted by modem technology, provided prehistoric inhabitants with an important raw material in the form of asphaltum which accumulated on the coastal rocks. There are discussions of the recent history of the island and insightful comments on the changes observed between the earlier and later visits.
The text has the quality of a travel journal. To the extent that the archaeological data are not dealt with in somewhat greater detail, this reviewer was somewhat disappointed. However, Bruce Bryan was one of the first to systematically investigate the prehistory of the island and it was relatively unmodified in 1926, except by wind and water. Therefore, his descriptions and comments constitute important and useful documents for gaining an understanding of the natural and cultural features in the area.
