Fiber Identifications of Paisley Caves Textiles: Exploring Plant Selection for Technology in the Northern Great Basin

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.

Plant fiber identifications were made for a subset of Oregon’s Paisley Caves cordage and netting in order to explore plant selection for fiber technologies. Fiber artifacts from this assemblage include basketry, matting, netting, cordage, and rope, with the oldest braided rope dating to ca. 12,000 years ago. Ethnographically, Northern Great Basin peoples relied on steppe shrub and lakeshore marsh ecosystems for basketry materials. Bulrush (*Schoenoplectus and *Scirpus), cattail (Typha), Juncus rush (*Juncus sp.), sagebrush (*Artemisia), willow (*Salix), cliffrose (*Purshia), and juniper (*Juniperus occidentalis) were used for coarser rope, basketry, and clothing, while fine cords for sewing, fish lines, and nets were made from the inner bast fibers of stinging nettle (*Urtica dioica), milkweed (*Asclepias), dogbane (*Apocynum) and blue flax (*Linum lewisii). However, this diversity of plants has not been well documented in the archaeological record. This pilot study establishes a baseline of known taxa for a subset of fiber artifacts from Paisley Caves using polarized light microscopy methods. Additionally, this project examines changes and continuity in bast fiber use over time, augmenting our knowledge of Northern Great Basin paleoethnobotany.

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): 32012