The Absence (or Presence) of Footwear during the Eastern Great Basin Archaic

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Approaches to Archaeological Footwear" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Excluding much younger examples of distinctive Fremont-era and Promontory Phase moccasins, footwear of any sort seems to be largely, if not entirely, absent from the archaeological record of the Eastern Great Basin during the preceding millennia. This apparent pattern stands in sharp contrast to the well attested and venerable woven sandal traditions evidenced by the archaeological records from points west in the Great Basin, and south on the Colorado Plateau, that go back over 10,000 years. This paper considers the evidence for footwear (or the lack thereof) from the eastern Great Basin by reexamining published accounts of sewn hide artifacts and Archaic sewn hide from the well-dated Bonneville Estates Rockshelter artifact assemblage. Is this absence of footwear in the literature more apparent than real? If absent, does this speak to long-term cultural preference or environmental conditions that made footwear unnecessary? If present but misclassified, are there cultural contexts influencing a preference for hide footwear over sandals in the eastern Great Basin?

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Approaches to Archaeological Footwear   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 35884.0