Note: This is a hybrid event! We invite you to join us in-person at the Santa Cruz Elks Lodge, 150 Jewell Street Santa Cruz, 95060, or via Zoom (see below for Zoom registration form)!

Join SCAS for a presentation by Dr. Robert Cartier on: “The Scotts Valley Site: Ancient Enigmas.”

DATE: Thursday, September 3, 2026

TIME: 7:30 – 8:30 PM (Pacific)

ZOOM REGISTRATION FORM: Meeting Registration – Zoom RSVP for Zoom by 6:30 PM on Thursday, September 3, 2026

Situated on the edge of a lake more than 12,000 years ago, people populated Scotts Valley, leaving an ancient site with artifacts different than those recovered from other sites in the region.  These differences created a challenge in interpreting this unique prehistoric deposit. Large scale excavations carried out by over a dozen universities and colleges in a collective effort produced over 10,000 stone tools used to interpret the enigmas of the site. Now the Scotts Valley site is recognized as a benchmark in the literature referencing early California prehistoric sites, pluvial adaptations, and ancient stone tools.

Robert Cartier was born in San Francisco in 1947.  After high school, he spent the next two years in the Marines before completing a four- year degree at San Jose State University.  After his acceptance into a Ph.D. program at Rice University, he moved to Houston, Texas. As part of his degree, Cartier undertook two years of research fieldwork in the Himalayan Mountains, living with Tibetan-speaking peoples.  Back in the U.S., he was awarded his PhD, and in 1975, he started teaching cultural anthropology and archaeology classes at San Jose State University and at Cabrillo College, where he met Professor Rob Edwards, who introduced him to the archaeology of Santa Cruz County. Dr. Cartier became the Principal Investigator of Archaeological Resource Management, a San Jose CRM firm, and he was one of the leads of the “Big Dig” in Scotts Valley, undertaken to salvage as much information as possible after the site was bulldozed.