Holocene Precipitation Variability in Northern Baja California: Correlating Lithic Abundance and Climatic Change from Scorpion Shelter

Summary

In order to understand human adaptation to climatic regimes, I compare lithic assemblages and oxygen isotope values from kangaroo rat remains found at the hunter-gatherer shellfish-collecting site of Scorpion Shelter in coastal northwestern Baja California. Scorpion Shelter is important because it contains a continuous faunal record for a coastal community that spans from the terminal Pleistocene through the Holocene (~11,600 BP – present). Using Human Behavioral Ecology, we would expect to see a reduction in human activity at the site as a result of the rapid increases in precipitation brought on by an El Niño event. Precipitation variability is important because it can be a strong indicator of local ecology. Specific events, such as El Niño, can decimate or change access and abundance of wildlife and vegetation for human subsistence. Patterns that emerged in the abundance of lithic tools and the amount of precipitation in different occupation levels suggest that during times of precipitation increase at the site, tool use declined. This supports the assumption that climatic conditions at this site strongly influenced human behavior and diet.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage