Archaeology of North America

The Great Basin andWestern Interior

The Great BasinIntroduction It is about 1 036 000 square km Located between the Rockies and the Sierra

Nevada mountains It includes almost all of Nevada, parts of

California, Oregon, Utah and Idaho Large environmental diversity

High mountains, valleys and rivers in the south and west

Mesas, buttes and vast area of sparse vegetation to the east

The Great BasinConceptual Framework In the past the Great Basin was considered

an extension of the southwest and California

It is now clear that it stands on its own and may have even contributed to the cultures living in these adjacent regions

It was also an area studied on a site by site basis, which is now known to be limited

Instead we must look at large areas with several sites to understand a single group

The Great BasinConceptual Framework Large sites like Danger Cave and Lovelock

Cave have several components but have now been proven to have been only single stops on a seasonal round

Sites also must be connected with the environment to investigate how climatic changes have affected the populations

The Great BasinThe Environment Most of the Great Basin receives little

precipitation and this varies from year to year The southwest is very arid and supports sparse

vegetation The mountain regions are wetter and support

more species Due to the unpredictable rainfall and its

effects on the plant and animals, people had to subsist on a wide range of resources – specialization was disastrous

The Great BasinThe Environment None of the rivers in the Great Basin drain

to the sea Instead they drain into around 150 closed

basins that have developed for millions of years

When the glaciers were melting these basins filled with meltwater Sparking tree growth around the lakes Between 10 500 and 8600 BC many of these

lakes shrank, the rivers dried up and vegetation moved northward

The Great BasinThe Environment At the onset of the Holocene the ice age

megafauna began to disappear Mammoth, camel and horse once grazed in the

open areas By the Mid Holocene the Great Basin

became increasingly drier Local fluctuations were also seen These climatic changes resulted in a

patchwork of environments that were productive separated by large areas of aridity

The Great BasinThe Environment Landscape and climate variability saw

some groups living near the lakes and marshes, which were rich in resources. These sites were more permanent seasonal

camps Others were small bands constantly on the

move, living off seasonal foods from widely spread locations These were smaller sites with few

archaeological remains In addition the Great basin is subject to

earthquakes and volcanic eruptions Potentially affecting the plants, animals and

humans

The Great BasinThe Vegetal Resources The pinon pine was a very important tree

to these people The nuts were harvested and eaten in a gruel

form after being processed Settlements reflect the location of these

vital trees through time, especially in the central region of the Great Basin

Other important plant resources include: Honey Mesquite Screwbean Acorns

Pinon pine

Honey Mesquite

Screwbean

The Great BasinThe Vegetal Resources Collecting and processing technology

In early fall long poles were used to gather green cones of pinon pine

Baskets were used to transport thousands of the cones to the processing area

The cones were roasted in pits until they partly opened

The cones were hit or tapped to release the seeds

The seeds were parched in an open fire The were then ground into a pulp Finally they were mixed with hot or cold water

and eaten

The Great BasinThe Vegetal Resources Pinon cones could be stored for 4-5 years

They were put in open pits under piles of stones, in grass or bark-lined pits or in skin bags

Mesquite and screwbean are more desert plants Harvested in spring and eaten as fresh snacks Harvested in fall (dried out) and stored for

years Ground into a powder (the bean) and eaten

with water Both were also major dietary staples

The Great BasinThe Vegetal Resources Berries, root crops and tubers, and other

fruits were also harvested

Vital artefacts connected with the plant foods were: Digging stick made out of hardwood Metate Mano

The Great BasinThe Animal Resources Most animals hunted were connected with

the lakes, marshes and rivers Bird hunting was the most common in the

marshy areas Waterfowl, migrating birds They hunted these birds using nets attached to

long sticks or drove them into netting tunnels They also swam up the them and grabbed their

legs In the marshes, muskrats, rabbits and

other rodents were also hunted

The Great BasinThe Animal Resources In the forests, deer, pronghorns and big

horn sheep were hunted Stalking techniques, snares, traps and game

drives were used Fishing was practiced in the lakes and

rivers Platforms were built out from the banks to use

nets or spears Basket traps, rock or bush dams were also

used

The Great BasinThe Plant and Animal Resources With the great diversity of animal

recourses it is difficult to choose a dominant one

It is likely that the plant foods served as the major dietary contributor supplemented with animals

In later years the people burned areas to increase the natural yield and to attract deer and other game with increased fodder. They may have also used fire to drive the animals to them

The Great BasinThe Plant and Animal Resources In general the people living in the Great

Basin maintained a hunting and gathering way of life right into European times

Mobility, flexibility and detailed ecological knowledge of the great Basin were always the secret to survival here

The Great BasinThe Cultural Stages To best understand change over time in

the Great Basin the area is loosely divided into 4 cultural stages (however the great diversity of the region does not allow a perfect package to emerge) Paleo-Indian Desert Archaic in the East and North Desert Archaic in the South and West Fremont

The Great BasinPaleo-Indian +11 500 – 7000 BC Population was very sparse Most Paleo-Indian sites are found near

lakes and river banks were game was more abundant

Based on faunal remains in caves, horse, camels, bison and mammoth along with other species were the main animals living here at this time

The Great BasinDesert Archaic in the East and North c. 7500 – 2000 BC The early Archaic is marked by an adaptive

shift in the Great Basin Climate is becoming more arid Megafauna is extinct Localization of resources become the norm Large lakes begin to dry up

In response the people developed more complex settlement patterns, making use of winter base camps with storage facilities

The Great BasinDesert Archaic in the East and North In the northern

and eastern areas people are concentrated around the Great Salt Lake in Utah

Caves were also commonly occupied

The Great BasinDesert Archaic in the East and North The excellent preservation in the caves tell

us a great deal about the Early Desert Archaic people Remains include: stone and bone artefacts,

food remains, hides, furs, feathers, sinew, grasses, wood and bark

Coprolites attest to the meals eaten The multi-component cave sites allow the

Desert Archaic to be divided into 3 chronological periods:

The Great BasinDesert Archaic in the East and North Bonneville Period (9000 – 7000 BC)

May be contemporary or later than the Paleo-Indian period

The period connects to the transition from big game hunting to the Desert Archaic period

Projectile points are fluted and stemmed Metates are found in cave sites

The Great BasinDesert Archaic in the East and North Windover Period (4000 BC – AD 500)

Sites are found in a number of different environments and at different altitudes

Highly mobile groups, living at different sites a number of times throughout the year

Plants seem to be very important by this time Coiled and twined baskets were common as were

metates and manos A variety of animals were hunted using spears,

atlatls, nets and snares (deer, rabbits, rodents and waterfowl)

Other artefact include: knives and scrapers, awls, needles, leather containers, blankets and clothing and woven fiber sandals

The Great BasinDesert Archaic in the East and North Black Rock Period (4000 BC – AD 500)

Increased aridity, shrinking the lakes and decreasing the availability of the resources.

However, after 4000 BC population increased and more settlements are seen

Likely the groups had to go further for their resources

This period is marked with the appearance of the new and highly characteristic Elko and Gypsum projectile points.

Elko Points

The Great BasinDesert Archaic in the East and North

Precipitation increases c. 2000 BC, rising lake levels and sometimes flooding prized marshes

This forced people to adjust

Late in the period the bow and arrow appear Projectile points became much smaller

Pinon pine became the most important staple now

The Great BasinDesert Archaic in the East and North

Around 500 AD small amounts of pottery can be found, along with domesticate maize cobs, from the sedentary cultures in the southwest

This did not spark agriculture, instead hunting and gathering continues

By AD 800 the Fremont horticultural people settle in northern Colorado and the eastern part of the Great Basin resulting in a new economy in the region

The Great BasinDesert Archaic in the West and South 5000 BC – European Contact This area was as diverse as the east At the end of the Pleistocene the lakes began

to shrink and temperatures reached their maximum between 3100 and 2200 BC

Most of the population lives in the northern part of the west

In the extreme southwest, in the Mojave Desert, occupation expands 10 000 years, but only around 2000 BP did seed processing become important

The Great BasinDesert Archaic in the West and South Early Archaic (c. 5000 – 2000 BC)

There is little evidence for the beginning of this period, however by 3300 BC Gatecliff points make their appearance

The best evidence comes from Carson and Humboldt Sinks of the Lahontan Basin. Here human occupation intensified after 3000 BC

Locklock Cave and other large caves were occupied mostly as storage places or for burials by people living at camps nearby

Most of the sites are marked with lithic scatters of temporary sites

The Great BasinDesert Archaic in the West and South

At the Cocanour locality two shallow circular house depressions measuring 2.4 – 3.4 meters across have been found.

The houses are surrounded by lithic debris, manos and metates

A diet of fish, birds, cattails and pinon pine seems to be the norm in this region

Gatecliff Points

The Great BasinDesert Archaic in the West and South Middle Archaic (c. 2000 BC – AD 500)

The climate during this period was colder and milder so the dried lakes and marshes became filled again

Subsistence remained the same, but became even more diverse as population increased

Local recourses were relied on Storage become very important The winter base camps seem to be more relied

on as permanent seasonal settlements Trade in marine shells, obsidian and other

exotics increase, becoming important

The Great BasinDesert Archaic in the West and South There are two views of subsistence for this area

and period: The limnosedentary view explains that there was

enough variety and predictability in the local resources that the inhabitants enjoyed a virtually sedentary settlement pattern

The limnomobile view is that they were mobile, using more permanent sites only during certain times of the year

The former view is based only on a few sites, and does not look at the region as a whole

The latter is more likely, as many resources do not store well and those that do are not found at these more permanent sites

The Great BasinDesert Archaic in the West and South Late Archaic (AD 500 – European

Contact) Around 1 AD the climate became warmer and

drier again. By 900 AD there were intensive drought cycles throughout the region

The bow and arrow appear, along with the Rose Spring and Eastgate projectile points

Rosegate Series points

Rose Spring and Eastgate grade into one another

The Great BasinDesert Archaic in the West and South

Pottery appeared around 1000 AD Plant processing becomes more sophisticated

seen with the artifacts This may go with a diversification of the plant

resources, connected with increasing aridity Rabbits and plant foods were very important,

likely connected with the drought Storage is a fundamental aspect to their lives,

found at many sites

The Great BasinDesert Archaic in the West and South

At the site of Alta Toquima, a base camp is marked with substantial circular rock-walled houses and storage areas

Prior to this period the site was a hunting camp, but they converted it into a more permanent camp, where hunting and plant processing took place

This period may have seen the expansion of the Numic-speakers from southern California into the Great Basin but this remains debated

The Great BasinOverview Overall the people of the Great Basin

survived here by being adaptive and living off a diverse food supply

They overcame shortages by creating and storing surpluses at a number of sites in their seasonal round

They overcame great climatic changes by maintaining a highly mobile lifestyle

The Great BasinFremont Culture and Horticulture Around 400 AD more or less sedentary

horticultural communities appeared in eastern Nevada, western Colorado, southern Idaho and much of Utah

These Fremont people lived in scattered villages and farmsteads

The name comes from a river in Utah were many farming sites are found.

Around 1300 AD they disappear; at the same time the Archaic cultures are flourishing

The Great BasinFremont Culture and Horticulture The origin of the Fremont Culture is

subject to debate They have some southwestern Pueblo

traits: pithouses, stone architecture, pottery, and

maize cultivation

But are they local Great Basin people influenced by ideas from the southwest?

Or people from the southwest moving in? Or did they come from the east, from the

Great Plains?

The Great BasinFremont Culture and Horticulture Fremont Culture appear across the area at

different times Moreover at some sites it seems to be a local

adoption of Fremont artifacts while at others it is more disassociated

It may be that a number of groups or influences from the southwest and Great Plains are seen The northern sites seem to have a plains connection

while the southern sites a southwestern connection This may account for the range of appearance

dates and the variation in Fremont culture Or it could be that the diversity of the plant

resources to farm created the great variation

The Great BasinFremont Culture and Horticulture Many scholars do not use Fremont

because there is too much variation to create a common thread ( except horticulture)

Common Fremont artifacts include: Anthropomorphic clay figurines, rock art,

ceramic vessels, particular designs on the ceramics (Ivie Creek Black on White), pipes and moccasins

Anthropomorphic clay figures

Fremont ceramic forms

Ivie Creek Black on White

Fremont pipes

Fremont moccasins

The Great BasinFremont Culture and Horticulture By c. AD 1250 – 1350 most Fremont sites

were abandoned, except perhaps those in the north

During this time great droughts were sweeping across North America, limiting the possibility to practice horticulture

Also at this time the Numic-speaking groups begin to arrive (like the Shoshone). Perhaps they replaced the Fremont people.

The Great BasinEuropean Arrival By the time of European contact most people

living in the Great Basin were still hunting and gathering

A few were part-time cultivators and only in the western interior did village farmers flourish

Some groups did not survive the European contact, while other adapted to their presence

The harsh landscape and climate limited European settling In fact the Shoshone living in the area between

Death Valley and northwestern Utah were living in one of the last areas to be settles by the Europeans