Paleoarchaic Occupations in the Eastern Great Basin: The Beast and Paleolandscapes in West Central Utah

Summary

Within west central Utah, site locations dating to the Pleistocene-Holocene Transition (PHT) are generally associated with specific geographical features; such as, the Old River Bed (ORB), inverted stream beds/channels, and the barren playas of the Great Salt Lake Desert (Dugway). Over decades of cultural resource management inventories, numerous PHT-aged archaeological sites have been identified along the maximum extent, and subsequent shorelines and resulting feeder streams, of receding Lake Bonneville across the west desert of Utah. Sites include; The Beast—a massive PHT-age site identified at Dugway with an artifact assemblage consisting of over 800 formalized, a possible thermal feature, and 160 Great Basin Stemmed projectile points; as well as numerous PHT-age sites identified along Cove Creek. Here we explore the interconnectivity of these two areas separated by over 100 miles focused on the ORB. XRF studies conducted on obsidian artifacts provide more fine-grained information regarding PHT mobility and transfer networks. Additionally, site formation processes at The Beast, suggest that intact buried cultural materials from the PHT may be present.

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): 21590