A Model and Test of Paleoindian Land Use at Pluvial Lake Mojave in California’s Mojave Desert

Summary

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

Fluctuations in the extent and productivity of wetland habitat influenced Great Basin Paleoindian land use strategies. Paleoindians responded to resource fluctuations using a “wetland transient” strategy represented by frequent moves between pluvial lakes, or a “wetland stable” strategy characterized by comparatively long stays at resource hotspots. To assess the optimal land use strategy for pluvial Lake Mojave, we build an optimal foraging theory inspired model that predicts Paleoindians at Lake Mojave optimally selected a wetland stable strategy when the patch-rank (comparatively extensive wetland habitat) was high and a wetland transient strategy when the patch-rank (comparatively little wetland habitat) was low. We test these expectations using data—presence/absence of midden and residential structures and four lithic ratios—from 13 Paleoindian sites around Silver Lake, one of two playa lakes that formed pluvial Lake Mojave. We conclude that Silver Lake was a low-ranked resource patch during Paleoindian times and thus optimally exploited using a wetland transient strategy, which the archaeological evidence supports. The paper concludes by comparing this result to later period sites around Silver Lake and other Great Basin pluvial lakes to assess whether the Paleoindian land use strategy around Silver Lake is anomalous or part of a broader trend.

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): 37230.0