Fishing Features in the Mojave Desert and Beyond: Implications at Ivanpah Dry Lake, NV

Summary

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

The Mojave Desert is a host of many now desiccated Holocene lakes. Fishing features are rare along these lakeshores, but they do occur. Recent investigations at Ivanpah Dry Lake in the Mojave Desert along the California/Nevada border have revealed a complex of fishing features including fishing platforms and fishing circles, connecting this area to the fishing traditions seen throughout the region. This discovery increases the likelihood of similar finds in other understudied Holocene lakes in the area, specifically those known to host brine and fairy shrimp populations. In this paper, I discuss these features and place them in a regional context. The study area encompasses the Basin and Range province, covering areas from the Snake River Plain of southern Idaho to the Salton Sink in southern California and Northern Baja California. Four main lakes have been included: Silver Lake/Soda Lake, Cronese Lakes (East and West), Lake Cahuilla (now the Salton Sea), and our recent work at Lake Ivanpah (now known as Ivanpah Dry Lake).

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

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

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36821.0