Although the basketry of many parts of California is known ethnographically and a few archaeological descriptions are appearing, the textiles of the Santa Barbara region remain relatively unknown. The ethnographic information available on the historic occupants, the Chumash, has been limited by the early missionization and subsequent disintegration of native culture, and most archaeological reports of basketry from this area have been sketchy. It is hoped that the following discussion of twined water bottles from archaeological sites in northern Santa Barbara County will supply some needed information and indicate the relation of these water bottles to twined ones of the Great Basin and Southwest.
A few of the specimens described herein have been pictured by Kroeber (1925: 561, PL 53) with a mention of some weaves employed in their manufacture.
With one possible exception, all of the specimens are from the Sierra Madre Mountains of northern Santa Barbara County. This range, stretching in a general northwest-southeast direction, is bounded on the north by the arid Cuyama Valley and on the south by the precipitous Sisquoc Canyon.