Fiber Plants of the Northern Great Basin: New Radiocarbon Dates and Plant Identifications for Textiles from Paisley Caves, Oregon

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Cordage, Yarn, and Associated Paraphernalia" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Early foraging communities in the Northern Great Basin engaged with a diverse and changing landscape over millennia. Archaeologists have developed settlement-subsistence models in relation to climatic shifts based on tool assemblages, dietary studies, and other datasets. In the current study, textiles from Paisley Caves are examined within the context of these models. New radiocarbon dates and fiber identifications using polarized light and scanning electron microscopy illustrate the cultural significance of specific textile plants since the late Pleistocene, and further refine our understanding of foraging practices and seasonal collecting in this area. The Paisley Caves textile assemblage includes basketry, fine cordage, rope, sandals, and netting for hunting and fishing. Textile manufacture and repair would have required collection and processing of several different fiber plants. Herbaceous dicots, or bast fibers, such as *Urtica dioica* (stinging nettle), *Apocynum* sp. (dogbane), and *Linium lewisii* (blue flax) were used to create fine string or cord, while *Artemisia* sp. (sagebrush), *Purshia* spp. (cliffrose or bitterbrush), *Juniperus* sp. (juniper) bark, and monocot stems such as *Schoenoplectus* sp. (tule) were used in basketry construction and other coarse-woven textiles. In particular, stinging nettle and dogbane were used interchangeably for netting and other fine cordage throughout the Holocene.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Cordage, Yarn, and Associated Paraphernalia   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 35605.0