The Western Stemmed Tradition During the Younger Dryas: The Newest Evidence from Connley Caves, Oregon

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Current Perspectives on the Western Stemmed Tradition-Clovis Debate in the Far West" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Recent excavations at the Paisley and Connley Caves have uncovered coeval Younger Dryas occupations with different but complementary Western Stemmed Tradition artifact assemblages. Whereas the perishable artifact assemblage at Paisley Caves provides important health and subsistence data, the large lithic assemblage at Connley Caves has the potential to provide substantial insights into Western Stemmed lithic technology. This paper discusses the newest evidence from Connley Caves 4 and 5, where various styles of Western Stemmed projectile points and a diversity of other tools have been found in association with directly dated cultural features. In addition, spatial distributions of lithic and osseous tools hint at possible activity areas, and hearth features inform about subsistence. Data from the Paisley and Connley Caves sharpen our understanding of a previously uncertain record of human occupation in the Northern Great Basin during the Younger Dryas, suggesting that human populations were probably larger and more widespread than traditionally recognized.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Current Perspectives on the Western Stemmed Tradition-Clovis Debate in the Far West   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 23421