FOREWORD

AND

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Some of the first archaeology in California took place in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta area, beginning in the 1920s and 1930s. Many of the large villages and burial mounds of the Delta - the Brazil Mound, the Windmiller Mound, the Augustine Mound, and others - have become famous among California archaeologists, because the materials excavated from these sites showed us for the first time how prehistoric societies in Central California changed over time. While our understanding of these changes continues to develop as new information comes to light, we still recognize the important contribution made by these early studies.
The Brazil Site Project was envisioned as an opportunity to take an existing archaeological collection from one of these important sites and study it using modern scientific methods and ideas. This project represents the first full-scale study of a Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta site in nearly two decades.

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