Lithic Technological Organization at Last Supper Cave: Reconstructing Paleoindian Mobility and Landscape Use at an Upland Site in Northwestern Nevada

Summary

Excavations at Last Supper Cave (LSC), Nevada by Tom Layton and Jonathan Davis in the early 1970s revealed an extensive record of occupation including a Paleoindian component recently re-dated to ~10,300 14C B.P. Despite the potential for the site to reveal information about Paleoindian lifeways in the Great Basin during the Terminal Pleistocene/Early Holocene (TP/EH), analysis of these early artifacts, including numerous Great Basin stemmed projectile points, tools, and debitage, was never completed. LSC overlooks Hell Creek in the High Rock Country of northwestern Nevada and is located ~20 km away and 350 m higher than the nearest pluvial basin that would have sustained a wetland during the Terminal Pleistocene. As a result, LSC represents a rare type of Paleoindian site in the Great Basin. Further research on the collection has the potential to reveal how groups operated away from wetland environments. Here, I present the final results of my analysis of lithic debitage and tools from LSC to reconstruct the lithic technological organization and settlement strategies of Paleoindians in the northern Great Basin.

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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