Spatial and Small-scale Geoarchaeological Analysis of a Middle Archaic Antelope Trap in Northeastern Nevada, U.S.A.

Author(s): Beth P. Smith; Cliff Creger

Year: 2015

Summary

Great Basin Antelope Traps are ideal laboratories due to their feature system level focus on one set of subsistence behaviors (antelope hunting). By combining data collected using LiDAR, GPS and GIS, our analysis in the Liza Jane Trap focused on the spatial patterning of lithic artifacts and the location of small-scale landforms.

The geoarchaeological analysis indicates relatively stable landforms modified by cultural-transforms. Analysis to locate small-scale landforms was performed to locate remnant landforms that might bely the location of the trap wall.

The spatial analysis of the site lithics indicates that the breakage pattern and distribution of the projectile points is concentrated along specific trajectories. Both dart and arrow points are present at the site. The spatial analysis of the projectile point accumulations show trajectories that stem from one location and repetitively use the same trajectories based on the range of points, although distances covered by each technical projectile system are different.

The results of the geoarchaeology and the lithic spatial analysis indicate that the harvest zone is spatially patterned and stable even though the technology shifted from dart points to arrow points over time.

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Cite this Record

Spatial and Small-scale Geoarchaeological Analysis of a Middle Archaic Antelope Trap in Northeastern Nevada, U.S.A.. Cliff Creger, Beth P. Smith. Presented at The 80th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, San Francisco, California. 2015 ( tDAR id: 397821)

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Keywords

Spatial Coverage

min long: -122.761; min lat: 29.917 ; max long: -109.27; max lat: 42.553 ;