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The Terminal Pleistocene/Early Holocene Record in the Northwestern Great Basin: What We Know, What We Don't Know, and How We M

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The Terminal Pleistocene/Early Holocene Record in the Northwestern Great Basin: What We Know, What We Don't Know, and How We M PALEOAMERICA, 2017 Center for the Study of the First Americans http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/20555563.2016.1272395 Texas A&M University REVIEW ARTICLE The Terminal Pleistocene/Early Holocene Record in the Northwestern Great Basin: What We Know, What We Don’t Know, and How We May Be Wrong Geoffrey M. Smitha and Pat Barkerb aGreat Basin Paleoindian Research Unit, Department of Anthropology, University of Nevada, Reno, NV, USA; bNevada State Museum, Carson City, NV, USA ABSTRACT KEYWORDS The Great Basin has traditionally not featured prominently in discussions of how and when the New Great Basin; Paleoindian World was colonized; however, in recent years work at Oregon’s Paisley Five Mile Point Caves and archaeology; peopling of the other sites has highlighted the region’s importance to ongoing debates about the peopling of the Americas Americas. In this paper, we outline our current understanding of Paleoindian lifeways in the northwestern Great Basin, focusing primarily on developments in the past 20 years. We highlight several potential biases that have shaped traditional interpretations of Paleoindian lifeways and suggest that the foundations of ethnographically-documented behavior were present in the earliest period of human history in the region. 1. Introduction comprehensive review of Paleoindian archaeology was published two decades ago. We also highlight several The Great Basin has traditionally not been a focus of biases that have shaped traditional interpretations of Paleoindian research due to its paucity of stratified and early lifeways in the region. well-dated open-air sites, proboscidean kill sites, and demonstrable Clovis-aged occupations. Until recently, the region’s terminal Pleistocene/early Holocene (TP/ 2. Current issues EH) (∼16,000–8300 cal yr BP1) record was mentioned only in passing within broader treatments of North Beck and Jones (1997) highlighted six questions that American prehistory (e.g., Fagan 1995). However, over shaped Paleoindian research at the end of the last millen- the past decade the Great Basin – in particular, the nium: (1) when did humans colonize the region?; (2) northwestern region – has captured the attention of how old are fluted points in the Great Basin?; (3) what researchers interested in the peopling of the Americas. was the relationship between humans and Pleistocene Work at Oregon’s Paisley Five Mile Point Caves has fauna?; (4) what was the relationship between fluted demonstrated that groups using Western Stemmed Tra- and WST points?; (5) how did environmental change dition (WST) technology occupied the northwestern affect prehistoric adaptation?; and (6) what types of settle- Great Basin when Clovis technology appeared elsewhere ment-subsistence strategies did Paleoindians employ? in North America, and perhaps a millennium or so ear- In some cases (e.g., the age of fluted points), we know lier (Jenkins et al. 2012, 2013). Furthermore, differences little more than we did 20 years ago but at least we are between Clovis and WST lithic technology and toolstone more aware of what we don’t know. In other cases, we economies suggest that two ethnolinguistic populations know more today than we did then; for example, when with different adaptive strategies were present in the and potentially how the Great Basin was colonized. Far West during the terminal Pleistocene (Beck and We also know that the relationship between fluted and Jones 2010, 2013; Davis, Willis, and MacFarlan 2012; WST points may not be as straightforward as once Smith et al. 2015a). Although controversial (see Fiedel thought. New settlement-subsistence models have been and Morrow 2012; Goebel and Keene 2014), these dis- developed and tested, which has improved our under- coveries have reframed the Great Basin’s role in Paleoin- standing of how early groups used the landscape. dian research. In this paper, we summarize the TP/EH Finally, our ability to characterize TP/EH environmental record of the northwestern Great Basin, focusing on change in the northwestern Great Basin has increased major developments since Beck and Jones’ (1997) dramatically. CONTACT Geoffrey M. Smith [email protected] © 2017 Center for the Study of the First Americans 2 G. M. SMITH AND P. BARKER 3. The northwestern Great Basin today 4.1. Pluvial lakes and wetlands The northwestern Great Basin combines the internally- The northwestern Great Basin landscape was dominated draining portion of southern Oregon, northwestern by pluvial lakes and wetlands during the TP/EH. The lar- Nevada, and northeastern California with, for purpose gest system, Lake Lahontan, consisted of seven sub- of this paper, western Nevada’s Lahontan Basin basins across western Nevada that connected during (Figure 1). The area is primarily characterized by periods of high water. It reached its terminal Pleistocene basin-and-range topography although volcanic table- highstand ∼15,500 cal yr BP (Adams and Wesnousky lands occur in places. Major rivers include the Hum- 1998), at which time the interconnected sub-basins boldt, Carson, Truckee, and Walker rivers in western formed a deep lake covering ∼21,500 km2 (Reheis Nevada and the Donner und Blitzen River in south- 1999). During the Bølling Allerød, Lake Lahontan eastern Oregon. Today, these rivers feed extensive wet- dropped at least 100 m and separated into several smaller lands near Fallon, Nevada (Stillwater Marsh) and lakes. Lake levels rose during the Younger Dryas and Burns, Oregon (Malheur Wetlands) or empty into formed two large lakes, one that filled the Black Rock terminal lakes. Roughly 25 lakes have held water Desert/Smoke Creek Desert/Honey Lake/Pyramid during historic times; the largest include Pyramid, Lake/Winnemucca Lake sub-basins and one that filled Goose, Walker, and Abert lakes (Grayson 2011). the Carson Desert/Humboldt Sink sub-basin (Adams Many lakes are remnants of larger TP/EH pluvial sys- et al. 2008). Near the end of the Younger Dryas, lake tems. Most valley bottoms contain playas or shadscale levels again dropped below Emerson Pass, which separ- (Atriplex sp.), greasewood (Sarcobatus sp.), and sage- ates the Black Rock Desert/Smoke Creek Desert/Honey brush (Artemesia sp.) communities. Mid-elevation Lake sub-basins from the Pyramid Lake/Winnemucca zones are dominated by sagebrush with lesser amounts Lake sub-basins (Adams et al. 2008). Lakes remained of rabbitbrush (Chrysothamus sp.). Juniper (Juniperus low during the following millennium, but by ∼10,000 cal sp.), white fir (Abies concolor), ponderosa pine (Pinus yr BP water in the Pyramid Lake/Winnemucca Lake sub- ponderosa), whitebark pine (P. albicaulis), lodgepole basins rose again and spilled into the Smoke Creek pine (P. contorta) and western white pine Desert (Adams et al. 2008). This early Holocene trans- (P. monticola) also occur in places. Single-leaf pinyon gression peaked ∼8100 cal yr BP (Adams et al. 2008). (P. monophylla), an economically important species To the south, the lake in the Carson Sink was probably to native groups, is generally absent north of the Hum- higher near the end of the Younger Dryas but dropped boldt River (Grayson 2011). Higher-elevation zones in the 500 years that followed (Adams et al. 2008). feature fewer trees and more subalpine grasslands Other major lake systems include the Fort Rock and (Grayson 2011). Chewaucan basins in south-central Oregon. The Fort Rock system included three sub-basins (Silver Lake, Fort Rock Valley, and Christmas Valley) that formed a single lake during wet periods. Fort Rock Lake was 4. The TP/EH environment ∼40 m deep ∼16,000 cal yr BP but dropped ∼20 m by Our understanding of TP/EH conditions stems from cli- ∼15,600 cal yr BP. During the Bølling Allerød, a shallow matic modeling and proxy records including geo- lake persisted in the eastern Fort Rock Basin but disap- morphic features, macrobotanical remains, pollen peared by ∼10,350 cal yr BP (Friedel 1994). To the cores, and small- and large-mammal remains. Minckley, south, the Chewaucan system consists of two sub-basins Bartlein, and Shinker’s(2004) simulations suggest that separated by a threshold near the town of Paisley. Today, summer and winter conditions differed more ∼16,000– the northern sub-basin holds Summer Lake and the 14,000 cal yr BP than previous periods, and although southern sub-basin holds the Chewaucan Marshes and they may have been colder, winters were also drier. Lake Abert. During the terminal Pleistocene, both sub- During the Bølling Allerød (∼14,700–12,900 cal yr BP), basins held larger lakes – Winter Lake to the north and conditions were perhaps drier but still wetter than ZX Lake to the south (Allison 1982). When lake levels today. Minckley, Bartlein, and Shinker (2004) do not rose above the Paisley threshold, Winter and ZX lakes describe conditions during the Younger Dryas joined to form Lake Chewaucan, which covered 2 (∼12,900–11,600 cal yr BP) but suggest that winters ∼1250 km during its terminal Pleistocene highstand. were colder and summers were warmer than present Around 13,850 cal yr BP, Winter Lake rose rapidly and after ∼11,000 cal yr BP. Their simulation is supported may have overflowed the threshold to form Lake Che- by a variety of northwestern Great Basin records, waucan (Friedel 2001; Licciardi 2001). Shortly thereafter, which we summarize below. Lake Chewaucan quickly dropped, again forming two PALEOAMERICA 3 Figure 1 Map of the northwestern Great Basin with select locations discussed in the text. lakes. ZX Lake likely persisted into the early Holocene More than 20 other basins in the northwestern Great (Negrini 2002). Lake Chewaucan’s rise and fall during Basin held TP/EH lakes (Grayson 2011). In Oregon’s the Bølling Allerød was not synchronous with that of Warner Valley, Lake Warner paused in its terminal Lake Lahontan to the south, which reached its last Pleistocene recession sometime between ∼14,500 and major highstand a millennium earlier and rose again 12,400 cal yr BP but had fully retreated from the north- during the Younger Dryas a millennium later.
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