Rockshelters in the Bighorn Basin, Wyoming; Environment, Ecology, and Landuse Patterns

Summary

Archaeologists have investigated many aspects of rockshelters in the Bighorn Basin, Wyoming, but questions remain about the role of these sites within regional settlement patterns. It is clear that the Bighorn Basin is a moisture-controlled ecosystem and that variability in environmental moisture levels produces dramatic changes in both animal and plant populations. Changes in environmental moisture also appear to affect human population levels, and past settlement and subsistence patterns. This research combines geoarchaeology and zooarchaeology to interpret environmental conditions and cultural responses to changes in environmental conditions preserved in four Bighorn Basin rockshelters. This study incorporates faunal material from BA Cave (46BH1065), Eagle Shelter (48BH657), Alm Shelter and Paintrock V (48BH349). Results of this research suggest that well-established geographic features contribute to predictable patterns of resource distribution through the preservation and maintenance of productive microclimates at high elevations and in deeply cut riverine canyon systems. This suggests that settlement and subsistence patterns observed ethnographically reflect a long-term adaptation to these recurrent patterns. By combining environmental data derived from rockshelter sediments and cultural information based on faunal remains, this research clarifies our understanding of the role these sites played during different environmental conditions in the Bighorn Basin.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• The Frison Institute/Geoarchaeology Interest Group Symposium: Archaeology and Geoarchaeology of Rockshelters and Caves

Keywords

Spatial Coverage