The Cuyamaca complex is a precolumbian complex, dating from the late Holocene

Holocene

The Holocene is a geological epoch which began at the end of the Pleistocene and continues to the present. The Holocene is part of the Quaternary period. Its name comes from the Greek words and , meaning "entirely recent"...

, with archaeological sites in San Diego County, California

San Diego County, California

San Diego County is a large county located in the southwestern corner of the US state of California. Hence, San Diego County is also located in the southwestern corner of the 48 contiguous United States. Its county seat and largest city is San Diego. Its population was about 2,813,835 in the 2000...

. This complex is related to the Kumeyaay peoples.

This archaeological pattern was defined by Delbert L. True

Delbert Leroy True

D. L. True was an archaeologist who worked in California, particularly San Diego County, and in northern Chile....

 in the 1960s, on the basis of late prehistoric evidence from the territory of the Kumeyaay

Kumeyaay

The Kumeyaay, also known as Tipai-Ipai, Kamia, or formerly Diegueño, are Native American people of the extreme southwestern United States and northwest Mexico. They live in the states of California in the US and Baja California in Mexico. In Spanish, the name is commonly spelled...

 people, primarily in Cuyamaca Rancho State Park

Cuyamaca Rancho State Park

Cuyamaca Rancho State Park is a state park located forty miles east of San Diego, California in the Laguna Mountains of the Peninsular Ranges. The park's 26,000 acres feature pine, fir, and oak forests, with meadows and streams that exist due to the relatively high elevation of the area compared...

. Hual-Cu-Cuish (SDI-860) is another Cuyamaca complex site.

This complex is in part synonymous with the Yuman III pattern proposed by Malcolm J. Rogers

Malcolm Jennings Rogers

This article refers to the archaeologist. For others with the name Malcolm Rogers, please see Malcolm Rogers .Malcolm Jennings Rogers was a pioneering archaeologist in southern California, Baja California, and Arizona....

 and the Patayan

Patayan

Patayan is a term used by archaeologists to describe prehistoric and historic Native American cultures who inhabited parts of modern day Arizona, west to Lake Cahuilla in California, and in Baja California, between 700–1550 CE...

 Complex that is primarily associated with the Colorado Desert

Colorado Desert

California's Colorado Desert is a part of the larger Sonoran Desert, which extends across southwest North America. The Colorado Desert region encompasses approximately , reaching from the Mexican border in the south to the higher-elevation Mojave Desert in the north and from the Colorado River in...

 to the east.

The interpretation of the Cuyamaca Complex was elaborated primarily in contrast with the San Luis Rey Complex

San Luis Rey Complex

The San Luis Rey Complex is an archaeological pattern representing the latest phase of prehistory in the region occupied at the time of European contact by the Luiseño Indians. Studies by Clement W. Meighan and Delbert L...

, which existed contemporaneously in the Palomar Mountain

Palomar Mountain

Palomar Mountain is a mountain in the Peninsular Ranges in northern San Diego County. It is famous as the location of the Palomar Observatory and Hale Telescope, and known for the Palomar Mountain State Park.-History:...

 area of northern San Diego County, within Luiseño territory. Elements that set the Cuyamaca Complex apart from the San Luis Rey Complex, according to True, include:

• defined cemetery areas apart from living areas
• use of grave markers
• cremated human remains placed in urns
• use of specially made mortuary offerings such as miniature vessels, miniature arrow-shaft straighteners, and elaborate projectile points
• preference for side-notched Desert and Cottonwood projectile points
• substantial numbers of scraping tools
• emphasis on use of Tizon and Lower Colorado ceramics
• steatite industry
• substantially higher frequency of milling stone tools
• clay-lined hearths

Further reading

• Gamble, Lynn. 2004. "New Perspectives on the Cuyamaca Complex: Archaeological Investigations at Camp Hual-Cu-Cuish, CA-SDI-945". Proceedings of the Society for California Archaeology 14:93–106.
• Gross, G. Timothy, and Michael Sampson. 1990. "Archaeological Studies of Late Prehistoric Sites in the Cuyamaca Mountains, San Diego County, California". Proceedings of the Society for California Archaeology 3:135–148.
• Guerrero, Monica. 2004. "A Possible Cuyamaca Complex Site at CA-SDI-945, Camp Hual-Cu-Cuish, Cuyamaca Rancho State Park, California". Proceedings of the Society for California Archaeology 14:107–113.
• True, D. L. 1966. Archaeological Differentiation of Shoshonean and yuman Speaking Groups in Southern California. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles.