In 1888 an archaeological collection of material from BahÍa de Los Angeles in Baja California was deposited in the United States National Museum by Dr. Edward Palmer. Although the material was duly catalogued, together with Dr. Palmer’s notes, it has gone undescribed until the present.

Dr. Robert F. Heizer called this collection to the attention of the senior author in 1948. At that time the archaeology of Baja California was receiving emphasis at the University of California because of the interest of the Associates in Tropical Biogeography, under the chairmanship of Dr. C. O. Sauer. The late Professor E. W. Gifford, then Curator of the Museum of Anthropology at the University of California, arranged with Dr. T. Dale Stewart of the United States National Museum for a temporary study loan of the collection.

From the beginning, the division of labor between the authors has been primarily in terms of “hard” and “soft” artifacts. Massey has handled the analyses of the imperishable artifacts, their ethnographic and archaeological distributions, and the distributions of all artifacts for Baja California. Mrs. Osborne has dealt with the netting, textiles, and cordage, and the distribution of their techniques outside Baja California. Dr. Lila M. O’Neale began the analysis of the textiles and netting and directed it until her untimely death. Professor E. W. Gifford advised on the initial description of the imperishable artifacts.

This presentation has been delayed for many reasons, but the intervening years have added much detailed information to the original data, both in the literature of anthropology and in subsequent field work.

We are very grateful to friends, past and present, for their help and encouragement. We wish to acknowledge the support of the Department of Anthropology, University of California, for the photographs of the imperishable materials. Thanks are due Bob Ormsby, a University of Washington student, for the drawings of netting. All other drawings and the maps were done by June M. Massey. We acknowledge with thanks the assistance of Mrs. Gene Marquez, whose services as a typist were provided by the Department of Biological Sciences of the University of Florida.

Above all we wish to dedicate this small work to the memories of two tireless teachers and workers in anthropology—and in humanity: Dr. Lila M. O’Neale and Professor E. W. Gifford.

W.C.M.
C.M.O.