Paleoindian Cave and Rockshelter Use in the Fort Rock Basin, Oregon

Summary

The Fort Rock Basin’s (FRB) caves and rock shelters hold an important place in the history of Great Basin archaeology. Excavations at Fort Rock Cave by Luther Cressman in the late 1930’s led him to argue for a long-standing presence of humans in the region. The subsequent development of radiocarbon dating confirmed his ideas, providing firm evidence for a considerable human population in the FRB during the Terminal Pleistocene/Early Holocene (TP/EH). Although most caves and rock shelters probably served as logistical and/or cache locations throughout prehistory, the substantial TP/EH archaeological deposits recovered from Fort Rock Cave, Cougar Mountain Cave, and the Connley Caves suggest residential occupations. Using a central place foraging model, I test the hypothesis that those caves served as longer-term residential camps from which peoples came and went (i.e., central places). I present an analysis of source provenance data generated on extant collections of obsidian projectile points, evaluating patterns of Paleoindian toolstone use as a baseline for interpreting the occupation spans at the FRB caves and settlement-subsistence strategies of early groups in the region.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

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

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 20469