FORAGING IN THE DESERT:
THE GREAT BASIN
‚ Environment
- very similar to Plateau, except
for interior drainage -- combined with dry summer heat, results in high
salinity (salt lakes, salt flats, etc)
- Basin and Range province, rugged and generally high in
elevation
- seasonal temperature extremes,
very dry; many rivers intermittent
‚ Historic Period
- Numic-speakers; Ute, Paiute, Shoshone
- Western Shoshone studied ethnographically by Julian
Steward (focus of his Acultural
ecology@)
- considered to be classic example of h-g band lifeway:
small
groups (varying in size seasonally)
flexible
membership
highly
mobile -- seasonal round
diffuse
subsistence (very Archaic)
egalitarian
- this Desert Archaic (J.
Jennings) lifestyle thought to be +9,000 years old, persisted into 20th
C.
- however, some (D.H. Thomas, R. Bettinger)
see a cultural continuum in GB; W.Shoshone (Desert
Archaic) at Alow end@, Owens Valley Paiute
at Ahigh end@
-- more regional variability than either Steward or Jennings imagined
‚ Cultural Variability by Elevation
- two main elevational
zones throughout GB: uplands (>5,000'), valley bottoms (<5,000')
- survey in NE Nevada / NW Utah
(Central GB):
>7,000' (alpine), 7% of sites
5,000-7,000' (pinyon-juniper
zone), 82%
<5,000' (desert, semi-desert), 11%
- key gathering area, pinyon-juniper zone -- pinyon
nuts gathered in fall (dispersed family foraging), stored for winter (macroband camps)
- valley bottoms; rivers and
marshes (esp. in western GB) support fish, waterfowl -- locally important
resources
‚ Cultural Variability by Region
- archaeological evidence from...
Pyramid Lake, NW Nevada (Humboldt
Sink, Lahontan Basin region), and Owens Valley
(east-central Calif.)
Pyramid Lake Owens
Valley
fish 50% 10%
plants 30 50
game 20 40
- this shows regional variability,
but also shows Aflexible
adaptations to local conditions@
(ie., classic model of Archaic)
‚ Early Interpretations of Great Basin
Prehistory
- A.V. Kidder: GB, a Aperipheral
area@, only
recently occupied; peripheral to SW, a Acore
culture area@
(recently occupied by marginal SWer=s
- this view of GB persisted into
1950s
‚ Culture-Historical Period
- discovery of fluted points in GB
and C14 revolution led to re-thinking of Kidder model
- three important cave/shelter
excavations in Eastern GB (Utah) revealed long sequences:
Danger Cave (Jennings 1950s), L. Bonneville
Hogup Cave (Aikens 1960s), Great Salt Lake
Sudden Shelter (Jennings 1970s), central Utah
- dry caves, excellent stratigraphy; sequences of repeated seasonal occupations to
10,000 BP
- excellent preservation;
perishables, fauna, botanicals, human coprolites allowed detailed subsistence
reconstructions
‚ Eastern Great Basin (Utah)
- four period sequence:
Bonneville period (11,000-9,500 BP)
Windover period
(9,500-6,000 BP)
Black Rock period (6,000-1,500 BP)
Fremont period (1,500 BP - contact)
Bonneville: associated with late Pleistocene pluvial
conditions (L. Bonneville), Anathermal
- Paleoindian dates, but millingstones (ie., seed-grinding) in lowest levels of Danger Cave
Windover: associated with
onset of Altithermal; Early Archaic;small sites scattered in diverse environmental zones
- Afamily foraging@
with emphasis on plant collecting more than hunting
Black Rock: Middle-Late Archaic; Medithermal
- most sites located at higher
elevation, response to late Altithermal aridity
- population density slowly rose
through this period as climate improved
Fremont: small amounts of pottery, maize appear in
Black Rock sites, 1,500-1,200 BP
- by 1,200 BP, settled
horticulturalists with pottery in Eastern GB (Fremont culture) --
migration or diffusion from SW
Danger Cave
- 50 years of excavation began in 1930s, when it was known
as Hands-and-Knees Cave
- best known for excavations by J.
Jennings, 1950s, who established 10,000 year long sequence
- basis for Jennings= Desert Archaic -- mobile h-g
lifestyle dependent on wide array of desert and mountain resources, especially
seeds, pine nuts, small game (rabbits, etc.)
- cave was seasonally occupied
(winter), used for seed-processing and storage, sleeping(?); activity areas at
mouth of cave
‚ Central Great Basin
- known mainly from work of D.H. Thomas (Reese River,
Monitor Valley, Gatecliff Shelter)
- Clipper Gap phase (6,000-4,500 BP); earliest human
occupation coincides with earliest evidence of pinyon
nuts
- Devil=s
Gate phase (4,500-3,500 BP); Medithermal, greatly
increased number of sites
- Reveille phase (3,500-1,500 BP); continued increase
in number of sites under greater effective moisture and increased availibitly of pinyon
- Underdown, Yankee
Blade phases (1,500 BP - contact); Numic
expansion (Paiute, Shoshone), dated by linguists to
ca. 1,000 BP, from SE California Ahomeland@
‚ Western Great Basin (Nevada)
- initial occupation ca. 7,000 BP
coincides with onset of Altithermal
- population growth after 4,500 BP
(Medithermal); more reliable resource base
- evidence of a Acollector@
adaptation:
1. gear caches; Hidden Cave
contains caches of baskets, nets, but no evidence of human habitation -- no
food waste, no debitage
2. developed exchange network; Hidden Cave contains
marine shell beads and obsidian from 22 sources
3. seasonal marsh/lacustrine adaptation; Lovelock Cave includes duck
decoys, faunal evidence of waterfowl
4. house pits; at several sites,
especially near mouth of Humboldt River; Cocanour
site has two house pits, 2.4 m, 3.4 m dia
5. special activity sites; plant processing at Trego Hot
Springs (manos, metates,
millingstones); mountain sheep remains at nearby Barrell Springs (evidence of seasonality?)
6. quarrying of new types of chert -- Aembedded
procurement strategies@
‚ Summary: Desert Archaic
- long-term adaptation to a
marginal environment, especially following drying-up of pluvial lakes
- characterized by flexibility and
variability -- flexible adaptations to local environmental conditions
- east-to-west gradient from forager (Eastern GB) to collector (Humboldt Sink, Owens Valley)