Starch Grain Analysis of Late Pleistocene–Early Holocene Coprolites and Ground Stone from Two Northern Great Basin Rockshelters

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Hearths, Earth Ovens, and the Carbohydrate Revolution: Indigenous Subsistence Strategies and Cooking during the Terminal Pleistocene and Early Holocene in North America" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Recent macrobotanical analyses of late Pleistocene rockshelters in the Great Basin have shown that plants have always made up a portion of Indigenous peoples’ diets. This is despite a relative lack of ground stone technology in these sites’ Pleistocene strata. Ground stone technology increased in frequency by the early Holocene, signifying people’s intensification and investment in seed gathering, processing, and consumption. Researchers have applied starch grain analyses of early Holocene ground stone in the Great Basin to establish the significance of roots, tubers, and other underground storage organs in addition to seeds. Both seeds and underground storage organs can be rich in carbohydrates which provided calories and helped people avoid protein poisoning, commonly known as “rabbit starvation.” We present and interpret the results for starch grain analyses of coprolites from the Paisley Caves and ground stone from the Little Steamboat Point-1 rockshelter. This research provides evidence that Great Basin people pursued carbohydrate-rich plant foods throughout the Pleistocene–Holocene Transition. Archaeologists’ utilization of both macro- and microbotanical analyses provides researchers with more information to identify diets of the past and to help explain changes in foraging behavior and technology.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Hearths, Earth Ovens, and the Carbohydrate Revolution: Indigenous Subsistence Strategies and Cooking during the Terminal Pleistocene and Early Holocene in North America   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36841.0