ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the history of prehistoric Polynesian landfalls in California. The earliest speculation about the possible prehistoric diffusion between Polynesia and California was based on stylistic similarities in fishhooks, both single-piece curved shell hooks and the two-piece, compound bone hooks. In his seminal description of the archaeology of the Santa Barbara Channel, David Banks Rogers left open the question of Oceanic origin of the sewn-plank canoe, mentioning the Solomon Islands as one possible point of contact. In 1966, Landberg, who had just completed a major monograph on the Chumash, published a paper in American Antiquity in which he attempted to nullify the case for Polynesian contact made by Heyerdahl and suggested earlier by Alfred Kroeber. Prevailing models emphasize the richness, diversity, and variability of the Santa Barbara marine resource base and its potential to fuel significant population increases, technological innovation, and increased socio-political complexity.
