Paleoindian and Paleoamerican (Other Keyword)
301-325 (497 Records)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Archaeological investigations in the 1990s defined the Clearwater River region of the southern Columbia Plateau as a unique cultural and archaeological entity, though it remains poorly understood. The Nez Perce have occupied this portion of north central Idaho since time immemorial. Excavations throughout ancestral Nez Perce country have revealed...
Page-Ladson and Submerged Late Pleistocene Sites along the Aucilla River, Florida, and their Importance to First Americans Archaeology (2018)
Late Pleistocene terrestrial archaeological sites now lie submerged in the karstic river systems of Florida. Nowhere is this more apparent than along the Aucilla River where dozens of inundated prehistoric sites are known. One of the most important sites is Page-Ladson, which has yielded some of the earliest unequivocal evidence for pre-Clovis occupation in North America, dating back to 14,550 cal yr B.P. At that time, sea levels had fallen approximately 100 m and people utilized a pond in...
Pahranagat Patterned Bodies and Big Horn Sheep (2019)
This is an abstract from the "The Art of Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Lincoln County Rock Art Areas of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC) Inventory Project in Nevada focused on the rock art from the Mount Irish, Shooting Gallery and Pahroc ACECs. All three of these areas form part of a distinctive style region within the Great Basin. This is defined by the presence of the Patterned Bodied and Solid Bodied Figures which were...
Paleo-Indian Evidence from Rock Shelters of the Pains Region, Southeastern Brazil: Typology, Technology and Chronology of the Lithic Material and Its Classification in Three Horizons (2018)
This presentation describes the archaeological context and the lithic variability for the paleo-indian period of the Pains region, an extensive karst situated in the upper São Francisco river valley, state of Minas Gerais, Southeastern Brazil. It gives an overview of what is known for the region using evidence from four limestone rock shelter sites, with a total area of 28m² excavated, the most important site being the Gruta do Marinheiro cave (20m²), and propose the separation of the lithic...
Paleo-lake Otero, Playas, and Paleoindian Land-Use in the Tularosa Basin, New Mexico (2019)
This is an abstract from the "The Paleoindian Southwest" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Perennial lakes and wetlands occupied many intermontane basins of the western United States during the last glacial period. Spatio-temporal trends in Paleoindian land-use and subsistence inferred from the distribution of sites relative to paleo-lakes remain speculative for many basins in the Southwest in the absence of well-constrained paleo-lake-level...
Paleoamerican Archaeology in Virginia (2018)
This illustrated paper presents over ten years of early American research in Virginia and Maryland. It covers 12 pre-Clovis sites, a summary of hundreds of Pleistocene/Early Holocene artifacts, and relies on various professional papers on this topic. It discusses the change over from blade/core technology to biface/core technology around the Younger-Dryas geological event. The paper shows artifacts that have not been seen in the archaeological literature. Several ongoing site investigations are...
Paleoarchaic Cultural Affiliations on the Columbia Plateau (2018)
Two decades of mortuary and bioarchaeology studies have built evidence for determinations of cultural affiliation for human remains and artifacts associated with the Paleoarchaic and Early Middle Archaic periods. Background studies (under NAGPRA: Kennewick by 2000 and Marmes in 2004, 2010, and 2012) outline major lines of evidence for determining probable affiliation. Sufficient and necessary evidence are subjects of healthy debate. Diversity in burial practices and artifacts unites more than...
Paleoarchaic Occupations in the Eastern Great Basin: The Beast and Paleolandscapes in West Central Utah (2018)
Within west central Utah, site locations dating to the Pleistocene-Holocene Transition (PHT) are generally associated with specific geographical features; such as, the Old River Bed (ORB), inverted stream beds/channels, and the barren playas of the Great Salt Lake Desert (Dugway). Over decades of cultural resource management inventories, numerous PHT-aged archaeological sites have been identified along the maximum extent, and subsequent shorelines and resulting feeder streams, of receding Lake...
Paleoecological Analysis Using Select Coprolites & Sediments Recovered from Paisley Caves, Oregon (2018)
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...
Paleoecology of the Late Pleistocene Fauna from the Lamb Spring Site, Colorado (2018)
The Lamb Spring site located in central Colorado is a late Quaternary locality with stratified Pleistocene and Holocene faunal remains. The late Pleistocene component is dominated by mammoth (Mammuthus columbi) but contains other grazing taxa like horse, bison, American camel, Harlan’s ground sloth, etc. The general lack of microfauna from this horizon makes detailed paleoecological interpretations difficult. However, the megafauna point to a dominance of grassland with the possibility of...
The Paleoecology of the Mockingbird Gap Clovis site, New Mexico and Surrounding Region (2019)
This is an abstract from the "The Paleoindian Southwest" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In this paper I discuss recent work at the Mockingbird Gap Clovis site, New Mexico, and the surrounding region. Our goal was to understand how Clovis hunter-gatherers utilized and adapted to the regional landscape and its available resources. Focusing on lithic raw material use, I show that the Clovis occupants of Mockingbird Gap had access to a wide diversity...
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....
Paleoindian Activity in the Washakie Wilderness, Absaroka Range, Wyoming (2019)
This is an abstract from the "New and Ongoing Research on the North American Plains and Rocky Mountains" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. More than 15 years of systematic surveys in the Washakie Wilderness area by the GRSLE archaeology project in the Shoshone National Forest, northwest Wyoming, has yielded a sample of over 30 Paleoindian projectile points at a mean elevation of 2885m. These specimens provide clues about early prehistoric activity at...
Paleoindian and Early Archaic Southeast: Twenty Years of Georgia Archaeology (2018)
In the twenty years since the O’Steen and Ledbetter et. al chapters in The Paleoindian and Early Archaic Southeast, a great deal of work on the earliest occupations of Georgia has occurred. In this paper, we review recent fieldwork and collections research that have contributed to our understanding of Georgia’s early record, update distributional data of Paleoindian and Early Archaic diagnostics across the state, and compare this diagnostic distributional data with raw material distributions...
Paleoindian Archaeology in the Munsungun Lake Region: Beyond Norway Bluff (2018)
In the late seventies and early eighties Robson Bonnichsen identified and tested several fluted point occupation loci adjacent to chert deposits on Norway Bluff, Piscataquis County, Maine. Since that time various research projects have demonstrated the importance of chert from this region to the lithic economy of fluted point groups in northeastern North America. Despite these new insights little archaeological research has taken place in the Munsungun Lake region since Bonnichsen’s original...
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 Intercept Hunting in the Bethel Locality, Western Oklahoma (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The narrow divide between the Canadian and Washita rivers in west central Oklahoma is the location of multiple historic transportation routes. The Rock Island Railroad, U.S. Highway 66 and Interstate Highway 40 all parallel the route of the early historic California Road. These routes followed a game trail which was a focus for prehistoric hunting. Prominent...
Paleoindian Lifeways Set in Stone: Studying Variation in Fluted-Point Assemblages (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Variability: A Reassessment of Its Meaning, Afforded Range, and the Relation to Process" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Several studies have found variation in fluted-point technological attributes and morphology to be patterned in the Americas. Many of these patterns can be organized by geographical, ecological, and behavioral variables, and have helped formulate our current understanding of some of the earliest...
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 Research in the Middle Atlantic Region (2018)
Paleoindian studies in the Middle Atlantic region have been at the forefront of Paleoindian research in the Eastern Woodlands. William Gardner’s research in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia in the 1980s emphasized a focus on micro-cryptocrystalline lithic sources in the settlement system; smaller territories on the order of 40 to 150 km in diameter and a flexible social organization during the seasonal round involving a pattern of changing micro- and macro-bands. These issues continue to be...
Paleoindian Settlement and Mobility in the Northern Jornada del Muerto (2019)
This is an abstract from the "The Paleoindian Southwest" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Northern Jornada del Muerto in Socorro County, New Mexico has long been known for its extensive Clovis and Folsom occupations. In addition to early Paleoindian techno-complexes, the Plainview/Goshen/Belen and Cody complexes are also well represented. This is mostly due to the work of Robert H. Weber, Ph.D. geologist and avocational archaeologist. For fifty...
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...
Paleoindian Shellfishing and Feminist Agency at Quebrada Jaguay-280 (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Occupants of the southern Peruvian site of Quebrada Jaguay 280 (QJ-280) maintained consistent preferential resource procurement practices for 4,000 history, from ~12,000-8,000 cal yr BP. Site deposits demonstrated that hunter-gatherers focused on capturing two fish species and one mollusk, Mesodesma donacium. Such intense specificity conflicts with...