SPECIAL ARTICLE
About the author
Enah Montserrat Fonseca Ibarra is an archeologist
who studied at the National School of Anthropology
and History in Mexico (INAH). Since 2010, she has
worked at the National Institute of Anthropology and
History Center in Baja California where she develops
the project “Study of camps in the coast line and
intermontainous valleys in Baja California”, aimed
at research and protection of archeological sites
located in Ensenada. Since then, she has focused in
the study of hunting, collecting and fishing camps, the
implementation of Geographical Information Systems
in archeology and the promotion of the archeological
heritage of Baja California.
References
Barron, J., L. Heusser, T. Herbert y M. Lyle. 2003. High-resolution clima-
tic evolution of coastal northern California during the past 16,000 years.
Paleoceanography 18: 1020-1035.
Cancino, F. 1985. Experimentos sobre el cultivo del mejillón Mytilus
californianus en la Bahía Todos Santos B.C., México. Tesis de
licenciatura, Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, Ensenada.
Celis, A. 2011. Explotación de recursos costeros y condiciones ambienta-
les en el Delta del Río Colorado durante la prehistoria. Tesis de maestría,
Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, Ensenada.
Celis, A. 2015. Shellfish meet otoliths in shell midden archaeology of the
Gulf of California, Mexico. Pacific Coast Archaeology Society Quaterly
51(1): 59-70.
Fig. 5 Ancient residents of Baja California
harvested mollusks. Author: Luis Gabriel Razo.
Chi, G. y F. García. 1983. Estudios preliminares sobre la biología,
ecología y explotación comercial de Mytilus californianus en Baja
California. Tesis de licenciatura, Universidad Autónoma de Baja
California, Ensenada.
Davis, L. 2010. Baja California´s paleonvironmental context. En: D.
Laylander, J. Moore y J. Bendímez Patterson (eds.), La Prehistoria de
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19-30. INAH, Mexicali.
out throughout the year. Especially the harvesting
observed during the months of fall and winter, and
then summer and spring, but in small numbers du-
ring the transition from summer to fall (Fig. 3).
What are the implications of these results in order
to understand the ancient societies that occupied the
northwestern coast of Baja California? About 3,000
years ago, major environmental and cultural changes
were registered. With events like El Niño on the late
Holocene (Barron et al., 2003), human groups had
to learn to take advantage of the increasing land re-
sources when marine productivity decreased (Davis,
2010) (Fig. 4).
In addition to climate change, the archeological evi-
dence indicates a period of social transformations.
The coast was occupied by young joyanos who wit-
nessed the arrival