Paleoethnobotany of the Connley Caves, Oregon: Investigating Pleistocene Plant Food Economies

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Far West Paleoindian Archaeology: Papers from the Next Generation" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Questions concerning human paleoecology and subsistence strategies continue to shape Paleoindian research in the Great Basin. Despite significant advances in our understanding of human lifeways during the terminal Pleistocene, the relationship between human populations and plant food communities is still unclear. Specifically, what was the role of plants in the food economy of early Great Basin foragers? How did changing climatic conditions affect plant communities and how did humans respond? Archaeobotanical data is required to address such questions, but preservation of perishable materials is rare. The Connley Caves in central Oregon provide a unique opportunity to address these long-standing issues. Recent excavations at this site uncovered multiple Younger Dryas age (ca. 12,900–11,600 cal BP) cultural components containing extensive Western Stemmed Tradition tool assemblages, multiple hearth features, and preserved organics. This paper presents results of the paleoethnobotanical analysis examining seasonality of site occupation and patterns of plant exploitation throughout the Younger Dryas.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• Far West Paleoindian Archaeology: Papers from the Next Generation

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 32021