North America: California and Great Basin (Geographic Keyword)
226-250 (374 Records)
Coprolites recovered from archaeological context provide direct access to understanding past human interactions with their environments. The Paisley Caves of south-central Oregon are notable for the presence of hundreds of preserved coprolites, the oldest confirmed as being human in origin and approximately 14,350 cal. BP years old. Our project focused on analyzing a series of coprolites and their corresponding sediments to look for variabilities in the paleoenvironment in the area immediate to...
Paleoethnobotany of the Connley Caves, Oregon: Investigating Pleistocene Plant Food Economies (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Far West Paleoindian Archaeology: Papers from the Next Generation" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Questions concerning human paleoecology and subsistence strategies continue to shape Paleoindian research in the Great Basin. Despite significant advances in our understanding of human lifeways during the terminal Pleistocene, the relationship between human populations and plant food communities is still unclear....
The Paleoindian Archaeology of Guano Valley, Oregon (2018)
During the 2016 field season, the Great Basin Paleoindian Research Unit (GBPRU [University of Nevada, Reno]) began investigating Guano Valley, Oregon for evidence of Paleoindian occupations. Our initial work revealed a rich record of Terminal Pleistocene/Early Holocene (TP/EH) archaeology that appeared strongly associated with an extensive delta system that brought fresh water into Guano Lake from the south. This past field season, the GBPRU returned to Guano Valley and recorded numerous...
Paleoindian Cave and Rockshelter Use in the Fort Rock Basin, Oregon (2018)
The Fort Rock Basin’s (FRB) caves and rock shelters hold an important place in the history of Great Basin archaeology. Excavations at Fort Rock Cave by Luther Cressman in the late 1930’s led him to argue for a long-standing presence of humans in the region. The subsequent development of radiocarbon dating confirmed his ideas, providing firm evidence for a considerable human population in the FRB during the Terminal Pleistocene/Early Holocene (TP/EH). Although most caves and rock shelters...
Paleoindian Osseous Barbed Weaponry in the Intermountain West: Distribution, Chronology, and Function (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Some have suggested that osseous projectile weaponry preceded that of stone-that bone, antler and even ivory barbed points and sagaie (osseous rods) might have been the hunting and fishing weapons of choice for the earliest peoples. Early technology using meticulously fashioned barbed osseous materials for weaponry takes us back to Katanda, Zaire 95 kya, is...
Paleoindian Projectile Points in the Far West (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Current Perspectives on the Western Stemmed Tradition-Clovis Debate in the Far West" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. A review of selected fluted point and Western Stemmed Tradition (WST) studies are highlighted to present a series of intriguing results, implications, and interpretations. This wide ranging overview of themes and unanswered research questions offers a look at the past and present links between fluted...
Paleoindian Settlement of the Central Great Basin: Testing Environmental, Radiocarbon, and Lithic Proxies with Data from Grass Valley, Nevada (2021)
This is an abstract from the "People, Climate, and Proxies in Holocene Western North America" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Explaining Paleoindian settlement decisions in the Central Great Basin remains an important though controversial topic. Unfortunately, the limited archaeological and paleoenvironmental records from the region make progress on this issue challenging. To help address some of the problems of limited data in order to better...
Paleopathology and Dental Disease from Point San Jose (2018)
Traditional studies of health and stress in archaeological samples use several categories of skeletal alterations: linear enamel hypoplasias (LEH), adult stature, scars of anemia, dental disease, osteoarthritis, trauma, and infection. Skeletal remains from a late 19th century military hospital at Point San Jose (PSJ), San Francisco, represent a commingled assemblage, complicating paleopathological observations on the bones. Unlike bony changes, dental pathologies are often studied by individual...
Paleopathology and Non-Specific Indicators of Stress from Point San Jose (2018)
Paleopathology encompasses the understanding of disease processes that affect skeletal remains as well as the timeframe and context in which they occur. Although most such studies focus on changes observed at an individual level, the Point San Jose assemblage provides a challenging perspective on paleopathology because it consists of separate skeletal elements lacking association with whole individuals. Consequently, our focus is on the types of bony changes seen rather than specific diagnoses...
PastPerfect Design Software: Engineering the Virgin Branch Ceramic Typology in a Digital Age (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Currently, there is no single, easily accessible source for researchers studying the Virgin Branch ceramic typology. The absence of such a source makes it difficult for researchers to consistently type ceramic artifacts. One solution to this problem is making access to these typological collections more accessible by utilizing the internet. This research...
Patterns of Faunal Procurement and Consumption at the Mission Santa Clara de Asís Ranchería (CA-SCL-30H) (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Recent Archaeological Research by PaleoWest" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Excavations at the ranchería at Mission Santa Clara de Asís (CA-SCL-30H) yielded a large and well-preserved faunal assemblage. Using data from the analysis of these remains, this poster explores the domestic subsistence behaviors of the Native Americans who occupied the adobe structures at the mission. Although the predominance of cattle...
Peopling the Post-contact Landscape in Central California: A Pragmatic Approach (2018)
A cornerstone of recent pragmatic approaches to archaeology is the notion that our efforts can be judged by their practical outcomes. This may take the form of illuminating historical silences, and for those archaeologists working in post-contact or colonial contexts this often means working with indigenous groups seeking governmental or popular recognition. In this paper, we explore our collaborative efforts to discover and characterize archaeological sites dating to the early historic era in...
The Pequop Projectile Point Type Site in Goshute Valley, Northeastern Nevada and Implications for the Long and Short Chronology Debate in the Great Basin (2018)
In a 1995 study of the chronological patterning of Elko Series and Split-stemmed projectile points, Bryan Hockett concluded that neither type entirely matches the patterns of the Bonneville or Lahontan Basins; and the neither area represents good chronological analogues for northeastern Nevada. Dart points recently found in the well dated context of a stratified open site in the northern Goshute Valley exhibit characteristics of both early side-notched and corner-notched types. Comparison of...
Perishable Tools from Fort Rock Cave, Oregon (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The dry caves of central Oregon provide exceptional preservation of Paleoindian-aged perishable artifacts. Excavations at Fort Rock Cave, Oregon by Luther Cressman, Stephen Bedwell, and, most recently, Thomas Connolly and colleagues have produced a sizeable number of perishable and rare artifacts, as well as large faunal and lithic assemblages. Notably, this...
The Phantom Lake: Spectral Archaeology in the Tulare Basin (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Since the 1990s, spectral thematics have grown increasingly present in the humanities, stressing the persistence of memory, traces, and absences in the cultural sphere. Anthropologists likewise have contributed to this moment, as with Justin Armstrong’s spectral ethnography and Theo Kindynis’s' graffiti archaeology. This emerging methodology is promising...
Plant Fiber and Foraging Tools in the Eastern Great Basin (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Cordage, Yarn, and Associated Paraphernalia" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Analysis of the plant fiber from eastern Great Basin sites show a pattern of continuity in their selection and use over time, suggesting they were regularly preferred for specific tools. Archaeologists currently have no quantitative explanation of what may have influenced forager fiber choices. Explaining why a forager has chosen a particular...
Plant Use at Bonneville Estates Rockshelter, Nevada (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Bonneville Estates Rockshelter is a stratified multicomponent site located on the former highstand of Pleistocene Lake Bonneville in the eastern Great Basin. It contains well-dated and well-preserved record of human occupation through the last 13,000 years. Here I report on dietary plant remains retrieved from nearly 140 dated archaeological features...
Pleistocene Horses in the Archaeological Record: A Focus on the Great Basin (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. There is a long history of horse exploitation throughout Eurasia; for instance, the Boxgrove site, England (500 kya), the Schöningen site, Germany (350 kya), and numerous Late Pleistocene sites spread across Eurasia (from the Aurignacian thru the Magdalenian 45 kya–15 kya). The evidence suggests that horses were only second in line of importance to...
Pollen, Contamination, and Interpretation at Paisley Caves Archaeological Site (2018)
In studying the early inhabitants of North America, some of the frequently revisited questions involve how they lived, what they ate, and what their world was like. Archaeological Palynology is a well understood method for addressing these questions. Because of the constant pollen rain and the purposeful and incidental ingestion of pollen and spores, well-preserved pollen is repeatedly found in association with human habitation sites and human artifacts. Paisley Caves, Oregon, established itself...
Portable XRF Analysis of Rock Art Pigments Used in Pictographs across the Great Basin (2018)
Although portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) has routinely been used successfully to identify the geochemical source of lithic materials across North America, comparatively few studies apply pXRF to compositional and geochemical sourcing studies of rock art pigments. Logan Simpson conducted exploratory in situ analyses using non-invasive pXRF to analyze the elemental composition of manufactured rock art pigments used to produce prehistoric pictographs at several rock art sites across the Great...
Pottery at Skull Creek Dunes, OR and Its Implications for Pottery Tradition in Southeastern Oregon (2018)
Prehistoric pottery is rare in Oregon, and the presence of pottery at the Skull Creek Dunes site in Catlow Valley of Southern Oregon is potentially important. This paper builds on the previous excavation and research by Scott Thomas of the Burns BLM and describes the pottery and work done on it since. These sherds represent one of the oldest pottery traditions in Oregon, and were likely made on site. Initial dating places the site around 1250 CE. In addition to the sherds, small possible gaming...
Practical Approaches to Indigenous Archaeology in Cultural Resource Management (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Practical approaches to Indigenous Archaeology in Cultural Resource Management (CRM) can have real impacts on United States archaeology. This paper discusses the broader theoretical approaches and “high-level” changes that are being made (or could/should) be made in CRM. What types of changes can field techs/archaeologists make that work towards a more...
Pre-Clovis Evidence at Guano Mountain, Nevada (2018)
The Winnemucca Lake basin, one of many branches of Pleistocene Lake Lahontan in northwest Nevada, is again in the headline news for early human occupation of the Great Basin. Possible horse butchering at the end of the Pleistocene, fuel storage, grasshopper caching (14,195 cal. BP) and ancient rock art add to the intrigue of an ever developing mystery behind North Americas earliest ancestry. Most familiar are Fishbone and Crypt caves, a part of the Guano Mountain cave complex, where a...
Prearchaic Land Use in Grass Valley, NV: A Novel Statistical Implementation of Optimal Distribution Models (2018)
Despite decades of work, debate persists regarding the nature and extent of Prearchaic land use patterns in the North American Great Basin. While some archaeologists argue that Prearchaic hunter-gatherers favored a broad diet and, therefore, relied on a generalist land use strategy, others insist that they favored a narrow diet, thus relying instead on a specialist land use strategy. To help resolve these debates, here we ask the simple question: what environmental parameters drive variation in...
Prearchaic Settlement Decisions in the Great Basin (2018)
Researchers propose that the first people to occupy the Great Basin preferentially settled near pluvial lakes to exploit highly profitable wetland habitats. However, a systematic evaluation of this hypothesis has yet to be undertaken. Here we test predictions from an ideal free distribution model to determine if the settlement decisions of Prearchaic foragers were indeed biased toward pluvial ecosystems. The results not only elucidate Prearchaic settlement patterns, but also establish...