The Tunna’ Nosi’ Kaiva’ Gwaa Archaeological District: Prehistoric Communal Hunting and Pine Nut Harvesting

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Set in a mid-elevation pinyon-juniper woodland, Tunna’ Nosi’ Kaiva’ Gwaa (TNKG) archaeological district is located in the north Bodie Hills, Mineral County, Nevada, USA. The prehistoric component includes seven game corrals, 12 drivelines, over 170 rock rings, nine rock art sites, individual and grouped hunting blinds, and concentrations of shattered projectile points and other lithic scatters. Communal hunting is evident at the end of the Early Archaic and is widespread throughout the 2,100-acre district during the Middle Archaic period. Communal hunting plateaued or declined in the Late Archaic before a substantial rebound in the Late Prehistoric and ethnohistoric periods. Intensive pine nut collecting and caching appears to have co-occurred with Late Prehistoric communal hunting. Layout of the corrals and nearby alignments establishes that there was interactive use of corral features along with evident use during different seasons. TNKG is a keystone site to Numu (Northern Paiute) history, expressing how antelope hunting, pine nut harvesting, and obsidian trading were central activities to the Numu along the western edge of the Great Basin.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 35595.0