Just How Depressed were the Fremont?

Summary

Some of David Madsen’s earliest work centered on understanding variation in Fremont lifeway’s, especially subsistence. Current models of Fremont subsistence continue to emphasize geographic and temporal variation in subsistence but also identify resource depression of large game resulting from over-hunting and increases in population. In this paper I present zooarchaeological data from 15 archeological sites on the eastern shore of Great Salt Lake spanning the Fremont interval. These data do not show a reduction or the depression of large artiodactyls. Similarly, additional zooarchaeological data from a large number of Fremont-age sites in the Great Salt Lake desert do not show a change in the availability of large-sized artiodactyls. Changes in the abundances of certain artiodactyls appear to be related to natural changes in vegetation resulting from climate change.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• From Dirt to Behavior: Papers in Honor of David B. Madsen

Keywords

Spatial Coverage