Before European contact, Sorrento Valley was home to a Kumeyaay village then known as Ystagua (pronounced "istawa") meaning 'worm's (larvae) house' in the Kumeyaay language. The village had been continuously occupied from as early as 1800 BCE, and had a peak population of 200 residents around the year 1700. The village of Ystagua was a major manufacturing, food processing, and trade center in the region, with ample access to shellfish, fish, game, and wild grasses. The village was arranged with tool manufacturing land use east of what is now Sorrento Valley Road and residential use west of the road around Roselle St.