Evaluating a Stratified, Prearchaic, Open-Air Site in Grass Valley, Nevada

Summary

Current views of the Prearchaic draw heavily from investigations of sites near pluvial lakes in the eastern and western Great Basin. The record from the Central Great Basin remains impoverished, largely due to the limited number of stratified archaeological sites containing well preserved material suitable for faunal analysis and radiocarbon dating. Recent investigations of an open-air site (26La4434) along the northern shore of Pleistocene Lake Gilbert in Grass Valley, revealed a buried deposit with preserved organic material, obsidian artifacts and Prearchaic time-markers. Here we report on ongoing investigations examining the stratigraphy, chronology, assemblage, and faunal remains recovered from the site. While faunal remains reflect procurement of a broad array of prey including waterfowl, large mammal hunting was clearly an important activity. The site appears to represent at least two spatially discrete, single component campsites positioned to facilitate an intercept hunting strategy, as well as access to wetland habitats.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 21883