Nevada Archaeologist Volume I 3 1995

o 10 , ' Ceatlmeten (Approu..ate)

NEVADA ARCHAEOLOGIST

VOLUME I 3 1995

NEVADA ARCHAEOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION

NEVADA ARCHAEOLOGICAL MEMBERSHIP ASSOCIATION The Nevada Archaeological Association is an incorporated, non-profit organization registered in the THE DESIGN OF THE NAA LOGO WAS State of Nevada, and has no paid employees. ADAPTED BY ROBERT ELSTON FROM A Membership is open to any person signing the NAA GARFIELD FLAT PETROGLYPH Code of Ethics who is interested in archaeology and its allied sciences, and in the conservation of NEVADA ARCHAEOLOGICAL AsSOCIATION OFFICERS archaeological resources. Requests for membership and dues should be sent to the treasurer whose President Colleen M. Beck ...... 895-0418 address is shown below. Make all checks and money las Vegas, Nevada orders payable to the Nevada Archaeological Association. Membership cards will be issued on the Secretary Pat Hicks ...... 482-3691 payment of dues and the receipt of a signed Code of Tonopah, Nevada Ethics. Active members receive a subscription to the Nevada Archaeologist and the NAA Newsletter. Treasurer Robin McMullen ...... 796-7800 Subscription is by membership only; however, las Vegas, Nevada individual or back issues may be purchased separately. Editor, Volume 13 Colleen M. Beck ...... 895-0418 las Vegas, Nevada DUES Jim Wilde, Brooks AFB, TX .. 210-536-6546 STIJDENT ...... " $ 5.00 BOARD of DIRECTORS ACTIVE ...... 12.00 ACTIVE FAMILY ...... 15.00 SUPPORTING ...... 25.00 The Board of Directors of the Nevada Archaeological SPONSOR ...... 50.00 Association is elected annually by the membership. PATRON ...... 100.00 Board members serve one year terms. The Board of Directors elects the Association's officers from those FlITURE ISSUES members elected to the Board. The Board of Directors also appoints the Editor of the Nevada Archaeologist Manuscripts submitted for publication in the Nevada for a term not to exceed three years. The Board of Archaeologist should follow the style guide of the Directors meets five times a year, once in November, January, 1979 issue of American Antiquity. Manu once in March, and twice in May immediately prior to, scripts should be typed and double spaced and immediately following, the Annual Meeting. throughout, including notes and bibliography and illustrations should be camera-ready with a caption Member Colleen M. Beck ... Las Vegas,Nevada typed on a separate sheet of paper, also double spaced. Submissions from avocational as well as Member Oyvind Frock ...... Reno, Nevada professionals, are encouraged.

Member Mark Henderson ...... Ely, Nevada Manuscripts should be submitted to Nevada Archaeologist, c/o Susan Murphy, 9785 Tropical Member Patricia Hicks...... Tonopah, Nevada Parkway, Las Vegas, Nevada 89129.

Member William G. Johnson Henderson, Nevada GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE Inquires and general correspondence with the Member Robin McMullen ... Las Vegas, Nevada Nevada Archaeological Association should be directed as follows: Member Susan Murphy .... Las Vegas, Nevada c/o Susan Murphy Member Tina Reuwsaat ...... Ely, Nevada Nevada Archaeological Association 9785 Tropical Parkway Member Skip Scroggins ...... Eureka, Nevada Las Vegas, NV 89129

EDITOR'S CORNER

This thirteenth volume of the Nevada Archaeologist contains three papers, each exploring very different and important research areas in Nevada archaeology. Bryan Hockett's preliminary report on the Spring Creek Mastondont is an excellent example of how observant individuals can further scientific research. Several people realized the significance of bones encountered inadvertently during construction of a waterline near Elko and brought these finds to the attention of paleontological specialists. Their efforts led to the scientific excavation of the site, discussed in Hockett's article.

The variability in artifacts and features found at Fremont sites has led to the postulation of several strategies by which the Fremont adapted to their environment. Marc Kodak develops hypotheses for two of these strategies. His hypotheses focus on toolstone and lithic technology and their representation in the archaeological record. He then applies these models to extant archaeological data sets by elevational and biotic zones. Marc Kodak gives us much to think about and, as often is the case, his article makes us want to find more Fremont archaeological sites on which to continue testing his ideas.

Interest in prehistoric rock art increases every year and with more research, more ideas on its meaning to its makers come to the forefront. Bob Krautz, Don Tuohy and James Hutchins' article discusses a most unusual cupule (pit-and-groove) petroglyph which is in the shape of an effigy head. (Cover illustration by Jerry W. Oothoudt). This petroglyph is discussed within its archaeological context, an often overlooked component in discussions of rock art sites. The effigy head originally was located outside of Reno. Through the authors' efforts and the Washoe Indian tribe, it now resides at the Nevada State Museum in Carson City.

We thank the authors for their contributions to Nevada prehistory and for their patience, understanding and cooperation during the preparation of this volume. All errors and omissions are ours alone. Thanks are due to Evelyn Faulkner for preparing this volume for publication and to Diane Winslow for her review comments.

Thanks also to the members of the Nevada Archaeological Association. This volume exists because of your participation in the organization.

Colleen M. Beck James D. Wilde Nevada Archaeologist Volume 13 1995

CONTENTS

The Spring Creek Mastodont: A Preliminary Report 1 Bryan Scott Hockett

The Elusive Fremont of Eastern Nevada 13 Marc Kodack

A Saurian Effigy from Washoe County, Nevada 42 Robert R. Kautz, Donald Tuohy, and James Hutchins

Nevada Archaeologist Volume 13 1995

THE SPRING CREEK MASTODONT: A PRELIMINARY REPORT by Bryan Scott Hockett

Bureau of Land Management, Elko, Nevada

In April, 1995, bones of the American people that live near the construction site Mastodont (Mammut americanum) reported hearing loud snapping noises (spelling of 'mastodont' after Kurten and during the excavation of the trench. Upon Anderson 1980; Haynes 1991 :4) were closer inspection they noticed large bones inadvertently uncovered in the Spring in the backdirt pile and protruding from Creek area of northeastern Nevada, the sidewalls of the trench. At least three approximately 6 miles southeast of Elko individuals collected bones and bone (Figure 1). These bones, as well as those fragments from the site. recovered during later excavations, are currently being cleaned and pieced One of those individuals was Beverly together. They will be placed on Brothers, who subsequently took the permanent display in the Northeastern bones that she had collected to a Nevada Museum in Elko sometime in museum in Montana. Museum personnel 1996. This paper discusses the discovery tentatively identified the bones as either of the bones, the subsequent mammoth (Mammuthus sp.) or giant paleontological excavations conducted at ground sloth (Megolonyx sp., the site, and some of the preliminary Nothrotheriops sp., or Glossotherium sp.). conclusions that have been reached Based on Olsen (1979), I identified a about the site. The interpretations in this single carpal and several phalanges as report are tentative because identification elephantid and assumed them to be and analysis of the bones is continuing. mammoth. During a subsequent visit to A more complete report on the bones and Mrs. Brothers' residence, I examined their geological setting is also in progress. several complete and nearly complete carpals that she had collected from the backdirt pile of the discovery trench. Background Closer comparisons of these bones to the mammoth and mastodont bones Bones of a large animal were illustrated in Olsen (1979) revealed that discovered in April, 1995, during the the Spring Creek bones most closely backhoe excavation of a small trench for resembled those of the mastodont. the installation of a waterline. Several

1 Nevada Archaeologist Volume 13 1995

t ... !::j'" ~ ..,'" ... "'~ ~ £j

Soil/Sediment Trench

Figure 1. General location of the Spring Creek Mastodont Site.

2 Nevada Archaeologist Volume 13 1995

Over the next several weeks, Mrs. The site was excavated between June Brothers assembled all of the bones 5 and June 11, 1995. An arbitrary datum collected from the discovery trench. In was established to the southwest of the early May, 1995, I showed six carpals, discovery trench (see Figure 2). North several metacarpals, numerous south and east-west lines were phalanges, right and left distal radii and established, the immediate region was ulnae, and a partial right humerus to Dave gridded into 2 m x 2 m units using the Gillette, Utah State Paleontologist. We letter-number system. The vast majority took the bones to the College of Eastern of in situ bones were found in units 126, Utah Prehistoric Museum in Price, Utah, J26, and J27 (Figure 2). and compared them to those of the Huntington Mammoth, one of the most The excavation procedure is briefly complete Columbian Mammoths discussed here. The soil and sediment (Mammuthus columbia) found to date that was backfilled into the discovery (Gillette and Madsen 1993). The Spring trench was removed by shovel and Creek bones did not closely resemble screened. Numerous bones, including those of the Huntington Mammoth. In complete carpals, phalanges, sesamoids, late May, 1995, I took the bones to the and the right proximal radius were Denver Museum of Natural History, and recovered from the trench. A backhoe compared them to the Dent Site was then used to strip away the mammoth bones (Figgins 1933), and to Holocene-aged topsoil above the bone casts of bones of a mastodont that was bearing stratum. Fred Nials of the Desert unearthed in Indiana. The Spring Creek Research Institute was the project bones most closely resembled those of geomorphologist. By comparing the the mastodont. sandy sediment encrusting the discovery trench bones to soil and sediment Excavation Strategy samples collected earlier by a hand auger, Nials was able to accurately A scientific excavation of the site was predict the general depth of the bones proposed in order to recover any below present ground surface. He remaining in situ mastodont bones and to directed the backhoe operator to determine the age and mode of burial of excavate until the sandy sediment that the bones. A general excavation strategy held the bones was encountered. After was designed and members of the Elko removal of the majority of the Holocene County Chapter of the Nevada soil by backhoe, the remaining soil was Archaeological Association completed removed by shovel. The edges of the many logistical tasks, such as securing discovery trench were delineated with the permit to excavate, insurance, and trowel, and in the process several in situ coordinating volunteers to assist in the bones were uncovered along the edges excavation. of the trench within the sandy sediment.

3 Nevada Archaeologist Volume 13 1995

Ell«>

S · $ / pnng Creek Mastodont Site

N I

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Figure 2. Location of the excavation units and the soil/sediment trench in relation to datum, Spring Creek Mastodont Site.

4 Nevada Archaeologist Volume 13 1995

Several 2 m x 2 m units were gridded, lying approximately 30 cm below the and excavation proceeded with small mastodont bones consisted of greenish picks and shovels until bone was clayey sand that probably formed under encountered, after which the bones were relatively flat, calm waters such as those uncovered with trowel and brush. All found in swamps or bogs. Nials indicated bone that measured greater than that this stratum may preserve diatoms approximately 3 cm in length was piece which could help date the site as well as plotted (including orientation), mapped, aid in the paleoenvironmental recon and photographed. All sediment was struction of the region. screened through 1/4 inch mesh screen, and random sediment samples were wet The Bonebed screened through 1/16 inch mesh screen. Figure 3 illustrates the bones that Age of the Bone Deposit were uncovered and mapped in place during the excavation. All of the bones Based on his initial stratigraphic recovered from the discovery trench and analysis, Nials estimated in the field that from the excavations appear to be from a the bones probably are Late Tertiary single individual. The Spring Creek (Late Pliocene) or Early Quaternary (Early Mastodont specimen consists of at least Pleistocene) in age. Thus, the bones one femur, one tibia, one fibula, one may be between 1.5 and 2 million years patella, eight metatarsals, five tarsals, in age. Further analysis by Nials will be one astragalus, one calcaneus, one necessary to determine if a precise age scapula, two humeri, two ulnae, two radii, can be determined for the site. 16 carpals, seven metacarpals, 25 phalanges, four sesamoids, 16 rib The Spring Creek Mastodont bones fragments, two thoracic vertebral spines, were located in a sandy matrix that has and several hundred unidentifiable bone been extensively eroded. This erosion fragments. In more general terms, the has created a series of terraces within the majority of both front limbs, one complete original Tertiary-aged terrace sands. hind limb, one partial hind foot, and These later terraces were cut by east fragments of ribs and vertebrae were west trending drainages, and by north recovered. Conspicuously absent was south drainages coming off of the Elko the skull, mandible, tusks, one hind limb, Hills to the north (see Figure 1). The one scapula, the pelvic girdle mastodont bones were not found within (innominates and sacrum), and the vast one of these later drainage systems. majority of the vertebrae and ribs. They were found within the stream deposits that helped form the original The pattern of disarticulation of the terrace itself. Spring Creek Mastodont is interesting. Nearly all of the axial skeleton was It may also be noted that the stratum missing, yet the majority of limb elements

5 Nevada Archaeologist Volume 13 1995

r- - --, 1 1

3 J-26 :I:o z UI ....a: >a: ~ '"is 28 GJ

1 ~3o

1 -4 5 ~C'J':J 36

~ 10 1-27 1 7 9 ~

I,+ ~_. ~_.~. _~_lCJ_ll _r----'-.....L.-~!Jlo\oI::-__"--r- ___--I 3 4m Figu'e 3 The Spring Creek Mastodont bonebed. Bones recovered from the Discovery Trench include six right carpals, three metacarpals, five phalanges, one seasmoid, right distal humerous, right ulna, right radius, and several rib fragments. The numbers above correpsond to the following bones:

1-17 rib and long bone fragments 33 left proximal radius and ulna (Note: the bore hole 18 metacarpal Destroyed the diaphyses of these two bones, and 19 thoracic vertebral spine the distal ends were recovered as part of the 20 right trapezoid "Discovery Trench" sample) 21 right trapexium 34 left femur 22-27 rib fragments 35 left tibia 28 right navicular 36 left tibia (Note the fibula was broken at midshaft, 29 rib And the proximal end was lying perpendicular to 30 left front foot (eight carparls, four the distal end) Metacarpals, five phalanges, one 37 left hind foot (calcaneus, astragalus, four tarsals, sesamoid Five metatarsals, nine phalanges, two sesamoids) 31 left scapula 38 right hind foot (four metatarsals, eight phalanges, 32 left humerus One sesamoid)

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were recovered. Several explanations ments, and portions of the carcass may account for this patterning. Lyman probably were subsequently affected by (1984), Lyman et al. (1992) and Kreutzer fluvial transport, and by later erosion of (1992), for example, have extensively the Tertiary sands that originally researched the diagenetic effects of preserved the bones. differential bone density on bone preservation and recovery. In short, The preservation of intact leg jOints bones which exhibit low density values and vertically articulated elements of the and tend to be flat or thin in cross section feet (see especially Figure 3-30) may be are more susceptible to natural destruc interpreted as resulting from an animal tive forces than are bones which exhibit that became mired in sediments and higher density values and tend to be subsequently starved to death (Haynes more robust in cross section. Skeletal 1995:17). As Haynes (1995:18) elements missing at the Spring Creek succinctly noted: site, such as the mandible, innominate, sacrum, and vertebrae, generally exhibit In these cases, animal's body, neck, low density values (Kreutzer 1992:284- and head need not fossilize in 285). Other low density bones such as anatomical position like the legs, since the proximal humerus, however, were not the unmired trunk bones and body only recovered during the excavations but parts may be disturbed by scavenging they were exquisitely preserved. This birds and mammals, as well as by suggests that differential bone density trampling animals and gravity after may not have adversely effected bone soft tissue begins to disappear. On preservation and recovery at the Spring the other hand, the legs would be fully Creek locality. Additionally, carnivore protected ... ravaging (Binford 1981; Haynes 1980, 1983a, 1983b) may affect the number In fact, "if soft tissue decays while the and type of bones likely to remain on the carcass is still exposed on the ground landscape for possible long-term surface, the lower leg bones such as preservation. No mastodont bones from carpals, tarsals, and phalanges are the the Spring Creek site show clear signs of first elements to be scattered" (Haynes carnivore damage such as punctures, 1995:19). As noted above, the lower leg pitting, furrowing, and channel flaking, bones were the most common elements althought animal gnaw markings tend to recovered at the Spring Creek locality. be relatively rare in modern elephant die Thus, the most tenable interpretation that off localities (Haynes 1991: 142). accounts for the differential preservation of the legs is that the Spring Creek The pattern of disarticulation of the Mastodont became mired in loose Spring Creek site is reflective of an sediments, and the animal probably animal that became mired in soft sedi- starved to death.

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The spatial relationships between (Todd and Frison 1986:88). the front and hind limb elements may indicate that the mired mastodont sunk Modern elephants are inquisitive deeper into the sediments with its front about the bones of their own kind, and legs, and its back legs were stretched they sometimes will carry off or trample out behind the body. The nearly upon bones of deceased elephants complete front foot (Figure 3-30) was (Haynes 1991: 141, 157). Thus, it is upright and nearly vertical, yet the possible that bones such as the skull and entire hind limb (Figures 3-34 through pelvic girdle were carried away or 3-37) was positioned posterior side up, crushed by other mastodonts as the body as if the hind leg was stretched far elements of the mired animal became behind the animal. Additionally, the exposed. front limb elements were recovered between 40 cm and 50 cm lower in the Additionally, directly above the sandy stratigraphic profile than the hind limb stratum that buried the bones was a elements. stratum consisting of mainly cobbles and sand. This event scoured away some of The recovery of a femur that was not the earlier stream sands and in the attached to an innominate, and the process may have directly destroyed recovery of several rib heads but few some of the bones, or as Nials noted it vertebrae reinforces the interpretation that may have indirectly destroyed bones by total ligament deterioration of certain exposing them to the surface. The distal joints in the body occurred before and left femur recovered from the excavations possibly during burial. The overall was angled upward in the stratigraphic position of the bones in relation to one profile, and its proximal end may have another (the bones were not jumbled and been destroyed by the higher energy entire limb units were found in event that deposited the cobbly stratum. articulation), reinforces the interpretation This event may also account for the that the excavated mastodont bones were missing skull and pelvic girdle, and for the recovered at the place of death. The hundreds of unidentifiable bone similar orientation of the bones, however, fragments recovered in the screens. It indicate that some of the missing bones may never be known, however, whether may have been carried away from the the skull, mandible, pelvic girdle, and main carcass by fluvial transport. It may vertebrae are lying intact in the area but seem logical that bones such as the skull beyond our excavation units. and pelvic girdle were carried further downstream from the main carcass, but research suggests that these elements Osteology are the least likely to be dispersed from an elephant death site, whether by fluvial Two metatarsals of the left hind foot transport or by carnivore scavenging exhibit corrosive damage and new bone

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growth around the corroded areas. Recent data suggest, however, that the These bones were shown to Dr. Patricia distal radius is one of the last ephiphyses Wright, an orthopedic surgeon in Elko. to fuse in elephants (Haynes 1991:350, She tentatively identified the damage as Table A 14). Thus, in both modern stemming from osteomyelitis, bone infec elephants and the Spring Creek tion. Osteomyelitis results from the mastodont specimen, epiphyses of the introduction of bacteria into bone through elbow fused before those of the wrist traumatic wounds or directly from were fully fused. Based on the adjacent infected soft tissue (Ortner and preliminary data presented in (Haynes Putschar 1981: 105). Because one of the 1991), the Spring Creek Mastodont could metatarsals was corroded almost beyond have been 30 or 40 in age, and perhaps identification, these data indicate that the older, when it died. animal probably was limping before it died. Because healthy adult elephants rarely get mired in soft sediments Conclusion (Haynes 1995: 18), these data may also help explain why the Spring Creek Miocene-aged gomphotheres are not Mastodont apparently became mired in uncommon occurrences in Nevada the sandy sediment. All mammalian long (Macdonald 1956; Tuohy 1986; Mawby bones such as the femur and humerus 1986). The American Mastodont, consist of three separate bones. These however, occurs from the Middle Pliocene are the proximal epiphysis, distal through the Late Pleistocene (ca. 3.5 epiphysis, and the diaphysis or shaft. million years to 10,000 years ago) (Kurten Major centers of bone growth are located and Anderson 1980:344; Anderson between the two epiphyses and the 1984:83; Gingerich 1993:98). The Spring diaphysis. The epiphyses, therefore, are Creek Mastodont Site may be the first not fused to the diaphysis in young documented occurrence of this animal in mammals, but in an adult mammal the Nevada. It may also represent the first two epiphyses are fused to the diaphysis documented evidence of this animal in and form a single bone. Because the the Great Basin, although Miller (1987) epiphyses do not all fuse at the same reported a Late Pleistocene mastodont in time, epiphyseal fusion data may indicate Utah that was found along the divide of the age of the animal at the time of death. the Colorado Plateau and the Great Basin drainage systems. Additionally, although All of the epiphyses are fused in the wide-spread throughout North America Spring Creek Mastodont specimen except (Kurten and Anderson 1980:344; King the distal radii. The scheduling of and Saunders 1984:316), probable Late epiphyseal fusion in modern elephants is Pliocene or Early Pleistocene-aged poorly known (Haynes 1991:170), and mastodonts are relatively rare in North some epiphyses can remain unfused until America. On-going research will attempt the fifth decade of life Haynes (1991 : 147). to determine a more precise age for the

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Spring Creek locality and to determine the other mastodont localities In North importance of the site in comparison to America.

References Cited

Anderson, E. 1984 Who's Who in the Pleistocene: A Mammalian Bestiary. In Quaternary Extinctions: A Prehistoric Revolution, edited by P. S. Martin and R. G. Klein, pp. 40-89. University of Arizona Press, Tuscon.

Binford, L. R. 1981 Bones: Ancient Men and Modern Myths. Academic Press, Orlando.

Figgins, J. D. 1933 A Further Contribution to the Antiquity of Man in America. Colorado Museum of Natural History Proceedings 12(2):4-8.

Gillette, D. D., and D. B. Madsen 1993 The Columbian Mammoth, Mammuthus Columbi, from the Wasatch Mountains of Central Utah. Journal of Paleontology 67: 669-680.

Gingerich, P. D. 1993 Rates of Evolution in Plio-Pleistocene Mammals: Six Case Studies. In Morphological Change in Quaternary Mammals of North America, edited by R. A. Martin and A. D. Barnosky, pp. 84-106. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Haynes, G. 1980 Evidence of Carnivore Gnawing on Pleistocene and Recent Mammalian Bones. Paleobiology 6:341-351.

1983a A Guide for Differentiating Mammalian Carnivore Taxa Responsible for Gnaw Damage to Herbivore Limb Bones. Paleobiology 9:164-172.

1983b Frequencies of Spiral and Green-Bone Fractures on Ungulate Limb Bones in Modern Surface Assemblages. American Antiquity 48: 102-114.

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1991 Mammoths, Mastodonts, and Elephants: Biology, Behavior, and the Fossil Record. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

1995 Pre-Clovis and Clovis Megamammals: A Comparison of Carcass Disturbance, Age Profiles, and Other Characteristics in Light of Recent Actualistic Studies. In Ancient Peoples and Landscapes, edited by E. Johnson, pp. 9-27. Museum of Texas,Tech University, Lubbock.

King, J. E., and J. J. Saunders 1984 Environmental Insularity and the Extinction of the American Mastodont. In Quaternary Extinctions: A Prehistoric Revolution, edited by P. S. Martin and R. G. Klein, pp. 315-339. University of Arizona Press, Tuscon.

Kreutzer, L. A. 1992 Bison and Deer Bone Mineral Densities: Comparisons an Implications for the Interpretation of ArchaeologicaFaunas. Journal of Archaeological Science 19:271-294.

Kurten, B., and E. Anderson 1980 Pleistocene Mammals of North America. Columbia University Press, New York.

Macdonald, J. R. 1956 A Blancan Mammalian Fauna from Wichman, Nevada. Journal of Paleontology 30:213-216.

Lyman, R. L. 1984 Bone Density and Differential Survivorship of Fossil Classes. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 3:259-299.

Lyman, R. L., L. E. Houghton, and A. L. Chambers 1992 The Effect of Structural Density on Marmot Skeletal Part Representation in Archaeological Sites. Journal of Archaeological Science 19:557-573. Mawby, J. E. 1986 An Unusual Proboscidean Skull from Fish Lake Valley, Nevada. Nevada Archaeologist 5(2):19-21. Miller, W. E. 1987 Mammut americanum, Utah's first record of the American Mastodon. Journal of Paleontology 61 : 168-183.

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Olsen, S. J. 1979 Osteology for the Archaeologist 3: The American Mastodonand the Woolly Mammoth. Papers of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology 56:1-44.

Ortner, D. J., and W. G. J. Putschar 1981 Identification of Pathological Conditions in Human Skeletal Remains. Smithsonian Contributions to Anthropology No. 28.

Todd, L. C., and G. C. Frison 1986 Taphonomic Study of the Colby Site Mammoth Bones. In The Colby Mammoth Site: Taphonomy and Archaeology of a Clovis Kill in Northern Wyoming, edited by G. C. Frison and L. C. Todd, pp. 27-90. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.

Tuohy, D. R. 1986 Nevada's Fossil Elephants. Nevada Archaeologist 5(2):8-19.

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The Elusive Fremont of Eastern Nevada by Marc Kodack

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 1222 Spruce St., St. Louis, MO 63103

Over the last two decades, viewed latitudinally include effective archaeologists have implicitly explored temperature, primary biomass, and net how the distribution and density of human primary productivity. Effective tempera exploitable resources varies across ture is a measure of how much solar latitude when resources in different radiation falls on a particular point on the latitudes are compared on a global scale. earth's surface and how this radiation is The environmental structure that is distributed. Primary biomass is how much present is then used to discuss regional living matter is within an area. Net primary hunter-gatherer organizational structure productivity is how much living matter is and mobility (Binford 1983; Kelly 1983). available to herbivores in an area (Kelly Latitudinal variability in resource 1983:282-283). distribution and density reflects a well known ecological principal first stated by While effective temperature, primary Alfred Russell Wallace in 1878 (Schall biomass, and net primary productivity and Pianka 1978:679), that is, species explain certain aspects of environmental diversity decreases from the equator structure that varies across large changes towards the poles. However, significant in latitude, we can broaden Binford's and exceptions to this principal occur that Kelly's discussions by looking for other have direct implications for human variables that also affect the global populations. Examples of these distribution and density of resources. exceptions include marine and terrestrial Other variables such as elevation and species restricted to the Arctic and the longitude, when viewed globally also have world-wide distribution of conifers. significant impacts to resource distribution Conifers have their highest species and species density. Along with latitude, richness in higher latitudes outside of the elevation and longitude form a troika that tropics (Brown and Gibson 1983:493; can serve as the starting point for Stevens 1989:248). examining hunter-gatherer organizational structure. However, these variables Specific variables that change when cannot be divorced from the underlying

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environmental structure that directly distribution. One of the most comprehen affects biogeographical distributions of all sive of these models was that presented living organisms. by C. Hart Merriam, a zoologist. Based on work Merriam conducted in northern Environmental structure consists of Arizona, he proposed a series of irregular the many abiotic variables that affect, shaped life zones around the San either alone or in combination, the Francisco Peaks (Merriam 1890). Within presence and distribution of individuals each life zone a recurring association of and species at a particular point either on plant species was consistently found. or below the earth's surface and adjacent Refinements of the life zone concepts still bodies of water. Ecological and evolu appear (Holdridge 1967), although broad tionary forces also shape environ-mental use has fallen out of favor as an structure through individual/species explanation of biogeographical distri interactions that may vary from mutualis butions. tic, neutral, and/or competitive (Brown and Gibson 1983: 16), predator-prey Merriam highlighted the relationship interactions, and island biogeo-graphic between latitude and elevation. He principals such as island area and suggested that "belts of similar vegetation distance to the nearest mainland occur both at low elevations in high (MacArthur and Wilson 1963, 1967). latitudes and high elevations in lower Abiotic variables, especially elevation, are latitudes" (Brown and Gibson 1983: 13; emphasized here. Merriam 1894:229). Especially critical in the distribution of plants are temperature The recognition by scientists that the and moisture (Merriam 1890:26). These geographical distribution and composition variables influence the location of broad of species vary across the earth is not continental vegetation or life zones new. Observations in the late 18th and (Merriam 1894:238). early 19th century by Alexander von Humboldt highlighted the relationship Derived from Merriam's and others between climate and the distribution of work, a corollary to the ecological princi plants (Merriam 1894:229; Holdridge ple that species richness decreases from 1967:11). Humboldt also noted that the equator towards the poles, is that latitude and elevation are complimentary species richness decreases from low to (Merriam 1890:30). By the end of the 19th high elevations (Brown and Gibson century numerous biologists (Holdridge 1983:502). Exceptions exist especially 1967: 11; Brown and Gibson 1983: 13) when the lowest elevations are composed presented models to explain species of desert environments like the Mojave

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Desert of southeastern California, south contained in smaller and smaller areas, ern Nevada, and northwestern Arizona ultimately resulting in very low species (see Grayson 1993:22 for boundary map) diversity approaching zero near barren and high species diversity occurs at mountain summits. I use the distribution intermediate elevations (Brown and of bryophytes to illustrate how elevation Gibson 1983:502). affects their distribution.

By incorporating elevation into global Bryophytes include mosses, explanations of how resource distribution liverworts, and hornworts. They are and density affect hunter-gatherer common non-vascular plants of the humid organizational variability, we increase the tropical rain forests found in the Old and range of variability in models proposed to New World. Although numerous plants explain why individuals and groups could be used to illustrate how changes in expend time in one place and not elevation affect that vegetation, another, and perform certain activities bryophytes are excellent biological here and not there. The construction of indicators of local temperature and multidimensional models can be pieced humidity. They are easily observed and together by focusing on a different global directly reflect the gradual lowering of variable and exploring its possible effects temperature with increases in elevation on human movement and use of a (Frahm and Gradstein 1991 :669). landscape. In the lowest elevations, 0-500 m, If we return to the tropics where bryophytes are limited in distribution effective temperature, primary biomass, because of the presence of acidic soils. and net primary productivity all have high Their mass does not exceed 10g/m2 values when compared to non-equatorial (Table 1). The number of understory areas, we can illustrate what happens to species does not exceed 25 to 30 per the surrounding environmental structure hectare. On individual trees many more along an elevational and not latitudinal species, 68 in one study, and 154 on a gradient. An additional ecological total of two dozen trees in another study, principal with relevance for mountain were present. Species here are small in masses is that as area increases species size. Moving up into the montane and diversity and richness increases subalpine forests, bryophytes greatly (MacArthur and Wilson 1967:8). increase in number with a maximum Implications of this principle coupled with dryweight reached at 3000 m. In the ascension to higher elevations are that submontane forest, whose maximum higher and higher elevations are elevation reaches 1000-1400 m, bryo-

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Table 1. 8ryophytes and Elevation

Elevation Range Maximum Percent Phytomass g/m2 Ground Cover Subalpine 3000-3500 m 80+ 120-400gl Upper Montane 2000-3500m 70-80 80-200 Lower Montane 1400-2400m 25-50 30-50 SUb-montane 500-1400 <10 10-30 Lowland 0-500 m <10 10

phytes cover 10% of the area. In the elevation has on local environmental lower tropical montane forest, bryophyte structure. Although I focus on elevation, cover varies from 25-50% and mass is numerous other abiotic variables includ 30-50g/m2. Fifty species per hectare can ing local temperature and humidity, soils, be present. The upper limit of this forest location on the windward or leeward sides varies from 1800-2400 m, but can reach of mountain masses, and amount of 3000 m. Approximately 70-80% of the sunlight reaching the lower levels of the upper tropical montane forest area is rain forest, all interact with elevation to covered by bryophytes with a mass of determine the geographic distribution of from 80-200 g/m2. The upper limit occurs bryophytes. Although it is unknown if any at 2000-3500 m. The subalpine forest hunter-gatherer groups ever monitored occurs above 3000-3500 m. Here the bryophytes during resource acquisition "percent cover, phytomass and number of forays, environmental information could species may reach peak values" (Frahm be extracted from bryophytes and the and Gradstein 1991 :674). Bryophyte surrounding vegetation on general geo mass varies between 120-400 g/m 2 with graphic position. The information could be up to 100 species per ha. Ground cover used to determine the suitability of the exceeds 80% (Frahm and Gradstein local area for obtaining specific species. 1991 :670-676). However, the two ecological principles of higher elevation and smaller area act to The elevational gradient along which decrease species richness, thus con bryophytes occur can be monitored by straining the choices available to hunter human groups moving along that gatherers. The reduced availability would gradient. The increasing presence of directly affect immobile plant resources. bryophytes in higher elevations is one Mobile animal resources could move to biological indicator of the impact other physical locations (see Janzen 1967

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for plant movement in the tropics vs. the period A. D. 500 to A. D. 1350 temperate regions). (Madsen 1989).

The effect that elevation has on a The Fremont are a cultural historical global scale to environmental structure is entity (Morss 1931) who once occupied visible in the tropics when mountain the eastern Great Basin. Material items masses occur near or at the equator, in that are distinctive of the Fremont include middle latitudes such as the Great Basin, one-rod-and-bundle basketry, moccasins or in high latitudes such as the Brooks made from deer or mountain goat hide, Range in Alaska. The Great Basin with its trapezoidal clay figurines, and pottery contrasting basin and range topography (Madsen 1989: 9-11; R. Madsen 1977). offers a large area where both the Although evidence for a number of regional and local affects of elevation on different, regional variants is proposed environmental and hunter-gatherer (Ambler 1966; Madsen and Lindsay 1977; organizational structure can be studied. Marwitt 1970, 1986; but see Hogan and One such area in the Great Basin is Great Sebastian 1980), for the purposes of this Basin National Park and sur-rounding research the Fremont are characterized environs during the period A.D. 500-1350 by the aforementioned material items and when the Fremont occupied the area. variable organizational strategies that ranged from being full time hunters and Archaeology in Eastern Nevada gatherers to settled horticulturalists (Madsen 1989:24-25). Archaeological investigations in eastern Nevada (James 1981; James and Previous research In the region Zeier 1982, National Archeological surrounding the project area has Database-White Pine County) document identified portions of the Fremont a long history of occupation of the region settlement system on the valley floor and (Table 2) beginning with the Paleoindian in the immediately adjacent uplands. period at 8700 B.C. (Thompson Fremont ceramics (R. Madsen 1977) are 1985:117; but see Bryan 1979:243) and the most common indicator used by continuing through the Archaic, Fremont, archaeologists to identify Fremont Paiute\Shoshone, and Historic periods. occupation of a location. A number of The goal of the present study is to different kinds of Fremont sites, in examine possible Fremont organizational different physical settings, are known variability in a portion of the southern from the Snake Valley and surrounding Snake Range (Figures 1 and 2) during areas. Because major vegetational

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changes have not taken place naturally probably structures (Zancanella 1989:25- since well before the period of Fremont 28, 34). To the east in Utah, Fremont occupation (Thompson 1984, 1985), the ceramics are known from open sites on modern vegetation zones are probably in valley floors (Berge 1964; Rudy 1953; very similar locations to those that existed William Zukofsky, personal during the period AD. 500 to AD. 1350. communication, 1994) or slopes above the valley floor, both of which are in the The most archaeologically visible sagebrush zone (Berge 1974; Wells Fremont sites are multi-room, valley 1990). To the north near the Deep Creek bottom sites such as the Baker (26Wp63) Mountains, open sites and a possible (Wilde and Soper 1993) and Garrison village site were near present or former sites in Snake Valley (Taylor 1954; Wilde marsh areas (Lindsay and Sargent 1992; Zancanella 1989:25-28, 34; see 1979:22-24). Slightly higher in elevation also Lindsay and Sargent 1979). Both are open sites or cave/rockshelters in the sites are located on old alluvial fans in the pinyon-juniper zone elevation are in the sagebrush/shadscale zone. On the same transitional zone. (Berge 1974; Bunch alluvial fan as the Garrison site were at 1985; Fowler 1976, 1977; Gruhn 1979; least eight other Fremont sites, varying Lindsay and Sargent 1979; Tuohy 1979; from small to large artifact scatters with Wells 1990). one or two mounds, most of which are

Table 2. Culture History of the eastern Great Basin (after Madsen 1982:213-221, 1989; Thompson 1985:117; Tuohy 1979:74)

Period Name Time Period Historic AD. 1800 to present Paiute/Shoshone AD. 1300 to AD. 1800+ Fremont AD. 500 to AD. 1350 Late Archaic 1500 B.C. to AD. 500 Middle Archaic 3500 B.C. to 1500 B.C. Early Archaic 7000 B.C. to 3500 B.C. Paleoindian 8700 B.C. to 7000 B.C.

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Sites at approximately 2280 m in However, despite previous work in the between pinyon-juniper and montaine Snake and Spring Valleys, the extent or vegetation (Lindsay and Sargent 1979; intensity of Fremont use of upland Wells 1990). Fremont settlement diversity environments is not well known. These is less well known in Spring Valley higher elevational areas may have been because of limited survey and the integral to regional Fremont settlement absence of intensive excavation. and subsistence strategies. Previously reported Fremont sites in Spring Valley consist of variable-sized Although the aforementioned research artifact scatters in open areas in the has documented Fremont use of the sagebrush zone (James and Zeier region surrounding the project area, a 1981:30-34; Zancanella 1990). theoretical framework for understanding and explaining how the Fremont exploited Based on previous work in Snake and the resources on this regional landscape Spring Valley, adjacent to Great Basin has not been presented. We might expect National Park, at least four different different organizational strategies physical settings for Fremont sites are employing residential or logistical mobility known (Table 3). For two of these to exploit different kinds of resources due settings, a very limited amount of direct to the abrupt vertical topography in subsistence evidence has been eastern Nevada and the effect this recovered and includes maize, pinyon nut topography has on environmental hulls in juniper bark lined caches, and structure and resource distribution and faunal remains from bighorn sheep, composition. antelope, rabbits, squirrels, deer, bison, and birds (Taylor 1954:60; Tuohy In the past, the lack of a theoretical 1979:33,35). The importance or percent framework for understanding Fremont age of floral and faunal resources in the settlement variability has hindered Fremont diet is unknown due to the attempts at explaining the variability that paucity of basic element counts and existed during the Fremont occupation of quantitative analysis, lack of information eastern Nevada. However, working to the concerning excavation strategies and east in Utah, Simms (1986) proposed a recovery methods, and absence of a model for Fremont settlement and discussion of natural and cultural subsistence variability. Simms (1986:204- formation processes (see Madsen 205) suggests that to understand the 1980:25; Sharp 1989:20, 24). known archaeological variability in settle-

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Table 3. Known Fremont Settlement Types in Spring and Snake Valley

Kind of Site Dominant Surrounding Direct Vegetation Subsistence Evidence

Open, ceramic/lithic scatter Sagebrush N/A

Open, ceramic/lithic scatter Pinyon-Juniper or N/A Transition Between Pinyon-Juniper and Montane Vegetation

Cave/rockshelter, ceramics Pinyon-Juniper Pinyon nut hulls or between the in juniper bark Sagebrush and lined cache pits, Pinyon-Juniper maize Zone

Alluvial fan or terrace with Shadscale or Maize, various architecture Sagebrush faunal remains

ment of previously recorded Fremont sites Strategy 1 such as large villages, rock-shelters, lithic and ceramic scatters, we should consider Logistical groups leave the at least two alternative strategies. I horticultural base, engage in one or more have not included a third strategy activities on the surrounding landscape, suggested by Simms, a period when both and then return to the horticultural base. horticulturalists and hunter-gatherers are While away from this base where co-resident in the same area, to heighten considerable labor is invested in the the contrast between periods when construction and maintenance of pit horticulture was common and periods and/or surface structures, "short term use when hunting and gathering was or special-use sites" (Simms 1986:206) prevalent. are created and then quickly abandoned.

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One indicator of this strategy may be Fremont (in terms of material culture) the presence of "morphologically identical hunter-gatherers, who were not ceramics at both the larger horticultural necessarily collecting resources for sites and sites thought to represent these transport to a large habitation/hort short term camps" (Simms 1986:206). icultural base site (Simms 1986:206). Temperature and moisture restrictions on maize (Hevly 1983:29), the dominant food As with strategy 1, almost all horticultural plant most likely grown at horticultural activities will be restricted to elevations sites (see Madsen 1980:25, 29-30), below 2100 m. Small maize plots may occur confine this strategy to elevations below above 2100 m. 2100 m where maize is capable of being successfully produced under the then Although areas above 2100 m could existing water supplies and number of be used in both strategies, we might frost free days. Small plots of maize may expect more intensive usage during occur above 2100 m, but compared to strategy 2 if all horticultural areas are lower elevations, these plots will provide temporarily abandoned. Upland eleva a very small percentage of the total tions offer non-maize food resources such harvest. as pinyon nuts, wood for fuel and shelter, small mammals or birds, and bighorn Strategy 2 sheep that are unaffected by the physiological constraints these same Strategy 2 is a variable strategy where elevations place on maize horticulture. different degrees of mobility were Areas above 2500 m present problems to employed as a response to short term populations using either strategy because failures or reductions in horticultural these areas severely constrain the yields. One response may have been to temporal and spatial distribution of mobile move to a new area where horticultural and sessile food sources (see below). activities were more productive. New pit houses and surface structures could then Verticality and Fremont Settlement be constructed. An alternative response, Variability was to abandon horticulture as a subsistence option altogether and The eastern Nevada landscape has concentrate on hunting and gathering. an abrupt vertical component that undoubtedly affected Fremont behavior, If this was the case, many smaller, particularly the kinds of mobility strategies short term and special-use sites would employed to obtain resources. The effect have resulted from the activities of ofthis landscape on Fremont organization

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may be even more pronounced in the numerous local environmental factors absence of significant geologic structural especially elevation, soils, surface and upheavals and large scale vegetational ground water; and rainfall. The number of shifts (Thompson 1979, 1984:5, 71-73, locations that satisfy minimum physical 1985). Three elevational areas that occur conditions for successful horticulture are on this landscape have the greatest limited. For example, physiological potential to impact organizational characteristics of maize limit the areas strategies because of their significant where it could have been grown. Maize spatial and temporal limitations on resource composition and distribution. is a summer annual requiring The first area occurs between 1800 and adequate moisture (usually more 2100 m in elevation, where rainfall than 5 cm) of rain per month, horticulture may have been practiced, warm temperature (usually above particularly in Snake Valley on the east 650 F during the day and above side of the southern Snake Range. The 550 F during the night) and a long second area is a "transitional" zone growing season usually longer occurring between 2100 and 2500 m. The than 110 days (Hevly 1983:29). third area consists of elevations over 2500 m that overlook Spring and Snake The constraints of minimum moisture Valley. The three elevational zones and temperature imposed on maize described here would have presented greatly reduce the chances of successful Fremont populations with the opportunity returns above 2100 m (Hevly 1983:33). to harvest a different combination of Higher locations may have permitted a potential resources, the exploitation of small amount of maize to be grown in which would have affected Fremont some years, but the extent of these areas organizational strategies and, in turn, is probably very limited and yields would mobility. always be restricted. Although some varieties of maize can be grown at very high elevations, up to 3500 m in the Areas Between 1800 and 2100 m Andes (Brush 1977:73-82), these maize varieties were not grown prehistorically in Areas between 1800 and 2100 m in the Great Basin (Winter 1973). Hevly elevation, where maize probably was (1983:33) suggests that: grown, represent the first elevational zone that affected resource composition and . . . until the adoption of water distribution. Procurement strategies that control technology it would be pre include horticulture are affected by dicted that populations dependent

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on horticulture would be floor and the smaller, more temporary concentrated near permanent occupations higher in elevation. water sources or at elevations between 1800 and 2100 m, assuming the current climatic Areas Above 2500 m conditions. The high seasonal contrasts that Thus, upland areas above Snake or occur above 2500 m would have spatially Spring Valley where the moisture require and temporally restricted all exploitable ments for maize are supplied solely resources including conifers, herbivores, through rainfall may have been an and smaller animals. Use of this zone by integral part of overall horticultural the Fremont probably was restricted to production. Valley floor locations with the summer months because of the potential access to more secure "semi constant threat of frost for cultivated permanent" water supplies were used by plants. We thus might expect very Fremont populations just east of the temporary use of this zone with a sparse project area (i.e. the Baker Site near and dispersed archaeological record. Baker, Nevada, excavated by Brigham Young University [Wilde and Soper 1993]). Raw Material Acquisition

The range of activities that occur at a Areas Between 2100 and 2500 m site, the location on the landscape of these different activities, and the distance This zone links areas below 2500 m and kind of resources that can be and above 2100 m. In this zone more obtained will be directly affected by intensive occupation should occur when elevationally induced differences in Fremont groups followed Strategy 2. Use resource composition and distribution. of this "transitional" zone offered better The greater the degree of mobility in a positioning for access to higher and lower settlement system, the likelihood elevational food resources. Although this increases that more places on a zone is too high for anything but small, landscape such as the highly variable sheltered maize plots, the extreme spatial physical setting of the southern Snake and temporal restrictions that occur above Range and vicinity, will contain artifacts 2500 m are lessened. We should expect deposited by a range of activities. to find base camps intermediate in size Fremont groups employing Strategy 1 between the village sites on the valley because of reduced residential mobility,

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should have left behind fewer artifacts reported here. Locally available quartz across the landscape than Fremont cobbles in the northern Snake Range and groups using Strategy 2. However, a quarry in Spring Valley provided some Fremont task groups (Strategy 1) could portion of the quartzite toolstone used overcome the more limited movement of (Carmichael and Weed 1981 :22-23; the whole group by sweeping across the Gruhn 1979: 119). Overall, the southern landscape to acquire specific resources. Snake Range is poor in high quality We might expect that the kinds of toolstone, e.g. obsidian. toolstone reduction techniques used will vary with the organizational strategy Influences on technological organiza employed. Thus, we should expect tion are many (see M. Nelson 1991 for differences in tools and debitage between review). As a starting place for under the horticulturally based Fremont standing Fremont organizational vari (Strategy 1) and Fremont groups less ability, the focus of this research is on raw dependent on, or who had abandoned, material acquisition, archaeologically horticulture (Strategy 2). visible by the surface materials collected.

Toolstone such as obsidian, chert, Raw material availability will affect quartzite, and quartz were commonly rates of curation and expediency used in artifact production at previously (Bamforth 1986, 1990:97 -98); the dis recorded Fremont sites in the southern tance from a source of lithic material Snake Range. The specific sources for directly influences the kinds of stone cherts, quartzite, and quartz are not artifacts produced at residential sites currently known (Bonnichsen and Birnie (Elston 1988). The following hypotheses 1985; Gruhn 1979:116, 119; Rudy are proposed to understand Fremont 1953:23, 103; Taylor 1954:45-47; Wells organizational variability. These hypo 1990:81-84). Local outcrops of cherty theses are tested by examining toolstone limestone and dolomite (Hose and Blake acquisition and use and their effect on 1976) probably provided some of the raw settlement variability. I expect that the material. Obsidian sources used by highly varied topography conditioned prehistoric people in the southern Snake Fremont organizational strategies. These Range occur to the east in Utah (Nelson strategies should be visible in the and Holmes 1979), in northeastern archaeological record as differences in Nevada, and southeastern Idaho as toolstone procurement, reduction, and use between Fremont site assemblages.

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Hypotheses for Strategy 1 further away from spatially restricted high quality toolstone sources (Goodyear Fremont groups employing Strategy 1 1979:3). We should expect an increase in leave the residential base for the specific the use of local toolstone sources as the purpose of acquiring raw material, or this high quality tootstone supply is material could be obtained secondarily by exhausted. This would be a direct a task group searching for another consequence of frequent residential resource(s), thus embedding toolstone movement. Based on Strategy 2, we procurement in other resource searches should expect that as Fremont groups and acquisition. The use of task groups increase their mobility, residential sites might allow frequent replenishment of will be occupied for shorter periods of higher quality non-local toolstone such as time resulting in the rapid depletion of the obsidian. Based on Strategy 1, we expect initial supplies of high quality toolstone that if Fremont groups occupy an area for brought from outside the area (Elston longer periods of time, then the residential 1988: 159). People will then be forced to base should contain evidence for the concentrate on local sources of toolstone. continued use of both high and low I suggest that conservation of high quality quality toolstone. Given a readily raw material is emphasized. Conservation available supply of obsidian, lithic efforts might include flake tools technology should be expedient (Parry manufactured from biface thinning flakes and Kelly 1987:297) with evidence for and possibly a small number of broken, reduction through percussion of both expended bifaces. Cores manufactured cores and utilized flakes. For lower quality through percussion will probably not be local toolstone such as chert and composed of high quality toolstone, quartzite, we expect a similar expedient although a small number of used technology. Oebitage of both high and percussion flakes may be present. Tools low quality toolstone should be present in with evidence of edge rejuvenation, or the roughly equal percentages. use of a bipolar technique may occur and may reflect attempts at lengthening the availability of high quality toolstone Hypotheses for Strategy 2 (Elston 1988: 160). Evidence of the final stages of biface reduction, maintenance, More mobile Fremont groups and recycling should also occur (Strategy 2) may only have high quality (Goodyear 1979). As depletion of high toolstone on hand for a limited time quality toolstone occurs, lower quality raw because frequent movement of the material should begin to predominate residential base camp places the group among tools and debitage. We might

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expect heat alteration of local toolstone people to use local toolstone will be materials to improve control over flaking. reinforced in the respective assemblage at temporary camps. Temporary Camps and Strategies 1 and 2. Verticality, environmental structure, organizational strategies, and mobility are The above hypotheses are directed at a tightly integrated set of variables and identifying differences in toolstone and responses affecting all prehistoric Native the artifacts made from different toolstone American populations of eastern Nevada. at Fremont sites. The temporary camps of Variability in the distribution and each strategy may parallel the raw composition of food resources occurs as material evidence from the residential a direct result of the vertical physical bases characteristic of each strategy. environment. Fremont organizational Thus, temporary camps associated with variability should be a response to Strategy 1, although functionally differen differential resource availability in this tiated from the base camp, may still vertical environment. This resulted in provide material evidence of the ability to Fremont populations adopting two acquire a mix of both high and lower strategies, one based on residential quality toolstone. Determination of which mobility, the other based on logistical toolstone to use may be opportunistic mobility. These strategies attempted to (Nelson 1991 :96); situations arise that are overcome the spatial and temporal not planned and a response is differences in resource availability immediately required. Temporary camps brought on by verticality and climatic per generated as part of Strategy 2 may, due turbations. Each of these mobility to decreasing supplies of high quality strategies is associated with different toolstone, force the occupants to use kinds of lithic assemblages. A strategy lower quality local materials while using logistical mobility will continue to temporarily away from the residential consume both non-local high quality and camp. Reuse of these temporary camps, lower quality local toolstone. A strategy will as always blur the interpretation of the using residential mobility will quickly archaeological record. However, if deplete the introduced stocks of high separate clusters at the same location are quality toolstone and be forced to use used as a coarse indicator of reoccu lower quality local toolstones. The inter pation, we might expect that the ability to play between these variables and Fre acquire non-local toolstone in Strategy 1 mont responses, and the material or the restrictions of Strategy 2 that force remains that resulted, are visible in the

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regional archaeological record of eastern Stem, Elko Corner Notched, Desert Side Nevada. Notched, Cottonwood Triangular, Rose Spring, and Bull Creek. The majority of Survey Results projectile points, 26 of 51, were uniden tifiable. However, some evidence is pre Few of the 25 prehistoric sites or sent that hints at the kinds of activities isolated finds recorded during the two prehistoric populations, possibly including field seasons of survey in and around the Fremont, were doing. Great Basin National Park (Figure 2; Table 4) contained any artifacts that could Three elevation zones, 1800-2100 m, be assigned to the Fremont period. The 2100-2500 m, and above 2500 m, have only time sensitive artifacts, projectile been discussed as being significant for points and sherds, were not common. Fremont settlement variability in a topo The projectile points that could be graphically diverse landscape. Archaeo identified included Gatecliff Contracting logical materials were recorded in each of these zones (Table 4).

Table 4. Prehistoric Sites and Isolated Finds by Elevation Zone

1800 m to 2100 m 2100 m to 2500 m >2500 m

26Wp2669 UCSB-92-IF1 26Wp2670 26Wp2672 26Wp2674 UCSB-92-IF2 26Wp2671 UCSB-93-IF9 26Wp2675 UCSB-92-IF3 26Wp2673 UCSB-93-IF10 26Wp2676 UCSB-92-IF4 26Wp2882 26Wp2677 UCSB-92-IF16 26Wp2890 26Wp2877 UCSB-92-IF17 26Wp2891 26Wp2878 UCSB-92-IF18 26Wp2892 26Wp2879 UCSB-92-IF19 UCSB-92-IF10 26Wp2880 UCSB-92-IF20 UCSB-92-IF11 26Wp2881 UCSB-92-IF21A UCSB-92-IF15 26Wp2883 UCSB-92-IF21B UCSB-93-1 F8 26Wp2884 UCSB-92-IF23 26Wp2885 UCSB-92-IF24 26Wp2886 UCSB-92-IF25 26Wp2687 UCSB-92-IF26 26Wp2888 UCSB-92-IF27 26Wp2889

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Table 5. Number of Artifacts Per Elevation Zone

Zone (m) Total Number Number of. Quadrats Average Artifacts (Sites and Isolated Finds) per Quadrat

2500+ 40 3.0 13 2100- 642 4.4 146 2500 1800- 910 9.6 94 2100

With archaeological materials re finds, we find different archeological corded in each zone, how many artifacts "members" of these vegetation zones. occurred in each zone? To make Modern vegetation boundaries are similar comparisons between zones valid, I to those that existed in the southern standardized the area surveyed by Snake Range over the last 6,000 years number of artifacts observed, using a 500 (Thompson 1984) with some changes x 500 m quadrat, the basic sampling unit possible as a result of historic/modern in the fieldwork, as one standard unit.The mining and grazing. I suggest that we highest average number of artifacts per can combine the Lower Sagebrush 500 x 500 m quadrat, occurs in the Juniper with the Pinyon-Juniper Zone intermediate elevational zone, 2100-2500 because any zone with juniper is at the m. Decreases in the average number of lower end of the first montane forest artifacts occur below and above this zone zones encountered in the southern Snake (Table 5). Range and elsewhere in the Great Basin (Cronquist et al. 1972). I discard the The elevational zones used here are alternative then of assigning the Lower "imposed" on the landscape using maize Sagebrush-Juniper to the upper eleva physiology to determine the boundary. If tional end of the Sagebrush Zone. With instead, we temporarily abandon these three vegetation-based zones, the over artificial boundaries and look at the whelming majority of artifacts, n= 1516 dominant modern vegetation (Table 6) or 96% of all observed artifacts, occur in surrounding each of the sites and isolated the Pinyon-Juniper Zone (Table 7).

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Table 6. Sites and Isolated Finds by Modern Vegetation Zone

Lower Sagebrush Lower Pinyon-Juniper Upper Sagebrush Sagebrush/Juniper

26Wp2675 26Wp2881 26Wp2669 UCS8-93-IF9 26Wp2677 26Wp2882 26Wp2670 UCS8-93-IF10 UCS8-92-IF16 26Wp2884 26Wp2671 UCS8-92-IF17 26Wp2886 26Wp2672 UCS8-92-IF18 26Wp2888 26Wp2673 UCS8-92-IF19 26Wp2892 26Wp2674 UCS8-92-IF20 26Wp2676 UCS8-92-IF23 26Wp2877 UCS8-92-IF24 26Wp2878 UCS8-92-IF25 26Wp2879 UCS8-92-IF27 26Wp2880 UCS8-93-IF5 26Wp2883 26Wp2885 26Wp2887 26Wp2889 26Wp2890 26Wp2891 UCS8-93-IF2 UCS8-92-IF3 UCS8-92-IF4 UCS8-92-IF10 UCS8-92-IF11 UCS8-92-IF15 UCS8-92-IF21 UCS8-92-IF26 UCS8-93-IF1 UCS8-93-1 F2 UCS8-93-IF3 UCS8-93-IF4 UCS8-93-IF6 UCS8-93-IF7 UCS8-93-IF8

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Table 7. Number of Artifacts Per Modern Vegetation Zone

Dominant Modern Vegetation Total Number of Artifacts Observed

Upper Sagebrush 2 Pinyon-Juniper 943 Lower Sagebrush/Juniper 573 Lower Sagebrush 74

I divided the 25 sites recorded into four obsidian, we reinforce the two-to-one categories: 1) those sites with more chert, dominance, by weight, of chert/"other" 2) those with more obsidian, 3) "other" toolstones when compared to obsidian at where "other" consists mostly of quartzite sites. and limited quantities of chalcedony, basalt, welded tuff, and quartz, and 4) Complimenting an increased use of those sites with almost equal amounts of local toolstone, should be the use of re two or more of the other categories. One duction strategies that seek to conserve site, 26Wp2892, stands out from the rest. higher quality, non-local, toolstone such This "anomaly" occurs because as obsidian. 26Wp2892 had almost one-fourth, 170, of all the randomly selected artifacts, 721, The median size of flakes when and almost 30% by weight, 311.9 g out of viewed by raw material across maximum 1048.49 g total, of all the artifacts length, maximum weight, maximum collected during the two field seasons thickness, and weight indicates that flakes (Table 8). of obsidian are smaller in all these dimensions when compared to other raw Chert is the most common raw materials (Table 9). The smaller size of material by weight at 14 sites, followed by the median obsidian flakes is a direct obsidian at seven sites. Almost equal result of the intensity of reduction. amounts, within 0.5 g, of obsidian and chert or obsidian and "other", occur at Additional suggestive evidence of 26Wp2877, 26Wp2880, 26Wp2884, and mobility is available in the obsidian 26Wp2889. No sites had "other" as the sourcing analysis. I expected that the dominant toolstone. If we combine chert obsidian encountered would be from one and "other" to reflect a locally available of the many sources in western Utah. The toolstone category versus the non-local majority of the artifacts I submitted for

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Table 8. Total Weight (g) of Chipped Stone Raw Material at Sites

Site Number Obsidian Chert Other

26Wp2669 0.57 0.00 0.00 26Wp2670 0.42 10.43 4.60 26Wp2671 11.01 7.05 1.80 26Wp2672 7.52 0.00 0.00 26Wp2673 1.58 6.41 0.00 26Wp2674 13.50 2.33 3.06 26Wp2675 26.74 3.82 1.11 26Wp2676 7.58 8.77 0.00 26Wp2677 0.18 124.50 0.00 26Wp2877 1.10 0.70 0.00 26Wp2878 7.60 1.30 4.30 26Wp2879 5.30 18.90 0.00 26Wp2880 5.7 5.60 0.00 26Wp2881 32.50 78.76 4.50 26Wp2882 5.90 0.20 0.00 26Wp2883 1.60 5.50 0.00 26Wp2884 5.00 5.00 0.00 26Wp2885 4.30 65.05 0.40 26Wp2886 10.30 32.15 15.80 26Wp2887 3.50 12.30 0.00 26Wp2888 2.65 66.40 15.80 26Wp2889 4.90 0.00 4.40 26Wp2890 1.85 39.50 0.00 26Wp2891 4.70 20.15 0.00 26Wp2892 81.95 209.55 20.40

Totals 247.95 724.37 76.17

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Table 9. Median Measurements (mm or g) of Flakes

Maximum Length Maximum Width Maximum Thickness Weight

All Flakes 15.45 10.74 0.45 2.70 Chert/Other 16.52 11.35 0.51 2.74 Obsidian 14.26 9.80 0.37 2.53

x-ray fluorescence analysis are indeed Conclusion derived from western Utah sources including Topaz Mountain, the Mineral The effect that elevation has on global, Mountains, Panaca Summit, and the regional, and local environmental struc Black Rock Desert. However, one artifact ture has been noted in biology for over each comes from the diffuse Brown's 200 years. I suggested that the impact Bench source in northeastern Nevada, that this environmental structure has on and the Malad, Idaho area in the hunter-gatherer organizational structure southeastern portion of that state. The should parallel the global affect latitudinal Brown's Bench source area is 330 km to variability has on hunter-gatherers. the northwest and the Malad source is However, we might expect that the 380 km to the northeast from the slopes availability and variability of of the southern Snake Range. Very high environments across an elevational mobility or trading relationships could gradient may reduce the regional both explain the presence of obsidian procurement area because resources from these distant sources. At present that would only be available with large either one of these alternatives is changes in latitude might be available by possible, although other non-locally moving up in elevation. Using one or available artifacts such as turquoise and more mountain masses might result in an shell recovered in the excavations the equivalent resource diversity to large Baker Site indicate that obsidian was not latitudinal changes, but the diversity is the only distant material that found its contained in a smaller regional procure way to the southern Snake Range and ment area. In conjunction with smaller vicinity. procurement areas, diet breadth might

32 Nevada Archaeologist Volume 13 1995

also be constrained by two ecological Acknowledgments principles previously discussed. De creasing area and ascent to higher The field surveys were most ably elevations both reduce species diversity. conducted by Hank Borst, Tony By seeking out resources across the Carpenter, Frank Czubas, Chuck entire elevational gradient present within Dobson, Sam Greene, Beth Sonnenberg, a range of mountain masses, resource Bonnie Lind, Johanna Ludewig, Molly choice is lowered. The reduced choice Shaw, Jan Greenough, Gary Whiteley, should affect the decision to leave a Elsie Fox, Bette Hurlbut, Elizabeth patch because of the underlying Kallenbach, Linda Brewer, Bob Zinkhan, environmental structure, in this case, a Chris Ritchie, and Jonathan Peter. reflection of elevation. Additional help in the field was provided by Jay Proetto, Linda Lieberman, Blain I suggested that Simms (1986) model Wheeler, Malcom Hanks, Sarah Caspar, of oscillating Fremont settlement could Sheryl Allbritton, and Anne Hopkins. The be viewed through environmental struc project was partially funded by the Uni ture as manifested by elevation. Al versity of California, University Research though I proposed two alternative Expeditions Program; the University of strategies of raw material acquisition and California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), use, neither of the strategies had Department of Anthropology; the UCSB conclusive archaeological support. General Affiliates; UCSB Humanities/ Support does exist however, for Social Science Research Grant; Great acquisition of non-local obsidians either Basin National Park, and the Central through trade or high mobility. A States Anthropological Society. Their definitive test of Simms (1986) model of support is greatly appreciated. Logistical Fremont settlement oscillation model in support while in the field was provided by eastern Nevada remains to be Great Basin National Park, the Ely conducted. Ranger District of Humboldt National Forest, and the Ely District of the Bureau of Land Management. Without the help of all these individuals or organizations and many others, none of the work presented here could have been accomplished.

33 Nevada Archaeologist Volume 13 1995

References Cited

Ambler, J. Richard 1966 Caldwell Village. University of Utah Anthropological Papers No.8.

Bamforth, D. B. 1986 Technological Efficiency and Tool Curation. American Antiquity 51.

1990 Settlement, Raw Material, and Lithic Procurement in the Central Mojave Desert. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 9:70-104.

Berge, D. L. 1964 An Archaeological Survey of White Valley, Millard County, Western Utah. Unpublished M. A. thesis, Department of Anthropology, Brigham Young University.

1974 Preliminary Report of Archaeological Investigations in the Southern Wah Wah Mountains, Beaver County, Utah. Submitted to Earth Sciences, Golden Colorado by Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.

Binford, L. R. 1983 Willow Smoke and Dogs Tails: Hunter-Gatherer Settlement Systems and Archaeological Site Formation. In Working at Archaeology, edited by L. R. Binford, pp. 337-356. Academic Press, New York.

Bonnichesen, R. And R. I. Birnie 1985 Pleistocene Peoples of the Snake Range: 1984 Report of Activities. Ms. on file, Center for the Study of Early Man, Institute for Quaternary Studies, University of Maine, Orono.

Brown, J. H. And A. C. Gibson 1983 Biogeography. CV. Mosby Co., St. Louis.

Brush, S. 1977 Mountain, Field, and Family: The Economy and Human Ecology of an Andean Valley. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia.

34 Nevada Archaeologist Volume 13 1995

Bryan, A L. 1979 Smith Creek Cave. In The Archaeology of Smith Creek Canyon, Eastern Nevada, edited by D. R. Tuohy and D. L. Rendall, pp. 164-251. Nevada State Museum Anthropological Papers No. 17, Carson City.

Bunch, J. H. 1985 The Archaeology of Two Rock Shelters Near Cave Lake, Ely, Nevada. NOOT Archaeological Technical Report Series No.1. Cultural Resources Section, Environmental Services Division, Nevada Department of Transportation, Carson City. NDOT 053-85T, W.O. j20726.

Carmichael, T.A and K. Weed 1981 Cultural Resources Assessment for Proposed Aggregate Studies in Cave, Lake, and Spring Valleys, Lincoln and White Pine Counties, Nevada. Submitted to the Bureau of Land Management, Ely, by ERTEC Northwest, Inc., Seattle. Antiquities Permit #81-NV-274.

Cronquist, A, AH. Holmgren, N.H. Holmgren, and J.L. Reveal 1972 Intermountain Flora. Vascular Plants of the Intermountain West, US.A Volume 1. Geological and Botanical History of the Region, its plant Geography and a Glossary. The Vascular Cryptogams and the Gymnosperms. Hafner, New York.

Elston, R. G. 1988 Flaked Stone Tools. In Preliminary Investigations in Stillwater Marsh: Human Prehistory and Geoarchaeology, Volume 1, edited by C. Raven and R. G. Elston, pp. 155-183. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Region 1, Cultural Resource Series No.1, Portland.

Fowler, D. D. 1976 Archaeological Survey of Cave Lake State Recreation Area, White Pine County, Nevada. Submitted to Nevada State Parks System by Desert Research Institute, Nevada Archaeological Survey, Reno.

1977 Final Report Assessment of Cultural Resources of Lehman Caves National Monument, White Pine County, Nevada. Desert Research Institute, Social Sciences Center Technical Report No. 34, Reno.

35 Nevada Archaeologist Volume 13 1995

Frahm, J.P. and S.R. Gradstein 1991 An Altitudinal Zonation of Tropical Rain Forests Using Byrophytes [sic]. Journal of Biogeography 18:669-q78.

Goodyear, A.C. 1979 A Hypothesis for the Use of Cryptocrystalline Raw Materials Among the Paleo-Indian Groups of North American. Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of South Carolina, Research Monograph Series No. 156, Columbia, South Carolina.

Grayson, D. K. 1993 The Deserts Past; A Natural Prehistory of the Great Basin. Smithsonian Institute Press, Washington, D.C.

Gruhn, R. 1979 Excavation in Army's Shelter, Eastern Nevada. In The Archaeology of Smith Creek Canyon, Eastern Nevada, edited by D. R. Tuhoy and D. L. Rendall, pp. 90-160. Nevada State Museum Anthropological Papers No. 17, Carson City.

Hevly, R. H. 1983 High-Altitude Biotic Resources, Paleoenvironments, and Demographica Patterns: Southern Colorado Plateaus, A. D. 500-1400. In High Altitude Adaptations in the Southwest, edited by J. C. Winter, pp. 22-40. United States Forest Service, Southwestern Region, Report No.2. Available from National Technical Information Service, Reference No. PB85-171932.

Hogan, P. And L. Sebastian 1980 The Variants of the Fremont: Methodological Variation. In Fremont Perspectives, edited by D. B. Madsen, pp. 13-16. Utah Division of State History Antiquities Section Selected Papers 7(16), Salt Lake City.

Holdridge, L. R. 1967 Life Zone Ecology. Tropical Science Center, San Jose, Costa Rico.

36 Nevada Archaeologist Volume 13 1995

Hose, R K. And M. C. Blake, Jr. 1976 Part I, Geology. In Geology and Mineral Resources of White Pine County, Nevada, Part I and II. Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology Bulleting No. 85, Reno.

Janzen, D. 1967 Why Mountain Passes are Higher in the Tropics. The American Naturalist 101 :233-249.

James, S. R, editor 1981 Prehistory, Ethnohistory, and History of Eastern Nevada: A Cultural Resources Summary of the Elko and Ely Districts. Contract No. YA-533- CTO-1025 between the Bureau of Land Management and the University of Utah Archaeological Center. University of Utah Archaeological Center Reports of Investigation 81-5, Salt Lake City.

James, S. RAnd C. D. Zeier 1981 The White Pine Power Project: Cultural Resource Considerations, Volume II, An Archaeological Reconnaissance of Eight Candidate Siting Locations in White Pine County, Nevada. Ms. on file, Intermountain Research, Silver City, Nevada.

1982 Eastern Nevada Study Unit. In An Archaeological Element for the Nevada Historic Preservation Plan, prepared for the Nevada Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology, pp. 123-159. Carson City, Nevada.

Kelly, R L. 1983 Hunter-Gatherer Mobility Strategies, Journal of Anthropological Research 39:277 -306.

Lindsay, L. M. W. And K. Sargent 1979 Prehistory of the Deep Creek Mountain Area, Western Utah. Utah Division of State History, Antiquities Section Selected Papers No. 14., Salt Lake City.

MacArthur, R. H. And E. O. Wilson 1963 An Equilibrium Theory of Insular Zoogeography. Evolution 17:373-387.

37 Nevada Archaeologist Volume 13 1995

1967 The Theory of Island Biogeography. Monographs in Population Biology, No. 1. Princeton University Press, Princeton.

Madsen, D. B. 1980 Fremont/Sevier Subsistence. In Fremont Perspectives, edited by D. B. Madsen, pp. 25-33. Utah Division of State History, Antiquities Section Selected Papers 7(16), Salt Lake City.

1982 Get it Where the Gettin's Good: A Variable Model of Great Basin Settlement and Subsistence Based on Data from the Eastern Great Basin. In Man and Environment in the Great Basin, edited by D. B. Madsen and J. F. O'Connell, pp. 207-226. Society for American Archaeology Papers No.2.

1989 Exploring the Fremont. Utah Museum of Natural History, University of Utah, Salt Lake City.

Madsen, D.B. and L. M.W. Lindsay 1977 Backhoe Vii/age. Utah Division of State History, Antiquities Section Selected Papers 4(12), Salt Lake City.

Madsen, R. E. 1977 Prehistoric Ceramics of the Fremont. Museum of Northern Arizona Ceramic Series No.6, Flagstaff.

Marwitt, J. P. 1970 Median Village and Fremont Regional Variation. University of Utah Anthropological Papers No. 95, Salt Lake City.

1986 Fremont Cultures. In Great Basin, edited by W. L. D'Azevedo, pp. 161-172. Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 11, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C.

Merriam, C. H. 1890 Results of a Biological Survey of the San Francisco Mountain Region and Desert of the Little Colorado, Arizona. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Dvision of Ornithology and Mammalogy, North American Fauna, NO.3. Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C.

38 Nevada Archaeologist Volume 13 1995

1984 Laws of Temperature Control of the Geographic Distribution of Terrestrial Animals and Plants. National Geographic Magazine VI:229-241.

Morss, N. 1931 The Ancient Culture of the Fremont River in Utah. Papers of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University 12(3), Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Nelson, F. W. And R. D. Holmes 1979 Trace Element Analysis of Obsidian Sources and Artifacts from Western Utah. Utah Division of State History, Antiquities Section Selected Papers No. 15, Salt Lake City.

Nelson, M. C. 1991 The Study of Technological Organization. In Archaeological Method and Theory, Vol. 3, edited by M. B. Schiffer, pp. 57-100. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.

Parry, W. P. And R. L. Kelly 1987 Expedient Core Technology and Sedentism. In The Organization of Core Technology, edited by J. K. Johnson and C. A. Morrow, pp. 285-304. Westview Press, Boulder.

Rudy, J. R. 1953 Archaeological Survey of Western Utah. University of Utah Anthropological Papers No. 12, Salt Lake City.

Schall, J. J. And E. R. Pianka 1978 Geographical Trends in Numbers of Species. Science 201 :679-686.

Sharp, N. D. 1989 Redefining Fremont Subsistence. Utah Archaeology 1989: 19-31.

Simms, S. R. 1986 New Evidence for Fremont Adaptive Diversity. Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology 8:204-216.

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Stevens, G. C. 1989 The Latitudinal Gradient in Geographic Range: How So Many Species Coexist in the Tropics. The American Naturalist 133:240-256.

Taylor, D. C. 1954 The Garrison Site. University of Utah Anthropological Papers No. 16, Salt Lake City.

Thompson, R. S. 1979 Late Pleistocene and Holocene Packrat Middens from Smith Creek, White Pine County, Nevada. In The Archaeology of Smith Creek Canyon, Eastern Nevada, edited by D. R. Tuhoy and D. L. Rendall, pp. 361-380. Nevada State Museum Anthropological Papers No. 17, Carson City, Nevada.

1984 Late Pleistocene and Holocene Environments in the Great Basin. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Arizona.

1985 The Age and Environment of the Mount Moriah (Lake Mohave) Occupation at Smith Creek Cave, Nevada. In Environments and Extinctions: Man in Lake Glacial North America, edited by J. I. Mead and D. J. Meltzer, pp. 111- 119. University of Maine, Center for the Study of Early Man, Orono.

Tuohy, D. R. 1979 Kachina Cave. In Archaeology of Smith Creek Canyon, Eastern Nevada, edited by D. R. Tuhoy and D. L. Rendall, pp. 1-88. Nevada State Museum, Anthroplogical Papers No. 17, Reno.

Wells, S. J. 1990 Archaeological Survey and Site Assessment at Great Basin National Park. Western Archaeological and Conservation Center, Publications in Anthropology 53, Tucson.

Wilde, J. D. 1992 Finding a Date: Some Thoughts on Radiocarbon Dating and the Baker Fremont Site in Eastern Nevada. In Utah Archaeology 1992:39-53.

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Wilde, J. D. And R. Soper 1993 Baker Vii/age. A Preliminary Report on the 1991 and 1992 Archaeological Field Seasons at 26WP63, White Pine County, Nevada. Brigham Young University, Museum of Peoples and Cultures, Technical Series No. 93-10.

Winter, J. 1973 The Distribution and Development of Fremont Maize Argiculture: Some Preliminary Interpretations. American Antiquity 38:439-452.

Zancanella, J. 1989 Cultural Resources Report of Proposed Desert Land Entry and Carey Act Parcels in Snake Valley, White Pine County, Nevada, Cultural Resources CRR-04-713p. Ms. on file, Bureau of Land Management, Ely, Nevada.

1990 Cultural Resources Inventory of 47 Desert Land Entry Applications in Spring Valley, White Pine County, Nevada. Cultural Resources CRR-04-775p. Ms. on file, Bureau of Land Management, Ely, Nevada.

41 Nevada Archaeologist Volume 13 1995

A SAURIAN EFFIGY FROM WASHOE COUNTY, NEVADA by Robert R. Kautz1, Donald Tuohy2 and James Hutchins1

1Kautz Environmental Consultants, Inc., Reno, and 2Nevada State Museum, Carson City

A survey in anticipation of the resulted in the overall shape of this most construction of a residential and interesting artifact. recreational complex along Thomas Creek in southwestern Reno, Nevada, The Effigy produced a most unusual artifact. The cultural resource survey, conducted The stone effigy is constructed of a during the summer of 1994, was in the compact vesicular basalt covered with process of redescribing a well-known cupules and grooves, possessing short prehistoric site (26Wa99) referred to eye protrusions and obvious mouth parts locally as the "Lower Thomas Creek Site" suggestive of a reptilian or an amphibian (Aikens 1972:23), when the object, head (Figure 1). The effigy evidently interpreted herein as a saurian head began as a rounded, moderately effigy, was located. This site was first patinated boulder with knobby described in field notes by the late protrusions suggestive of an incipient amateur archaeologist, Gladys W. Smith, head. In size, the object measures 74 and has been revisited and further cm from "nose" to "nuchal area" (front to charaterized by a number of amateur back) and 55 cm from side of head to and professional archaeologists alike, side of head. The measurement from including Frank Parker and his sister of the center of one "eye" to the other is 34 Fernley, Nevada, and Alvin McLane of cm, while each "eye" is approximately 15 the Desert Research Institute of the cm in diameter. University of Nevada, Reno. The effigy was described by the rock art pro Shaping of the boulder began with fessional, McLane, in his field notes of the creation of the extensive cupmarks March 28, 1994, as "an elliptical rounded (cupules) that cover the boulder's dorsal basalt boulder ... with cup shaped pits and ventral surfaces. These cupules are and grooves." Though his description is shallow pits produced by repeatedly accurate, McLane apparently failed to pecking the boulder surface, creating discern the intentional fashioning that shallow (0.5 - 5 cm) and small (2 - 8 cm

42 Nevada Archaeologist Volume 13 1995

o 10 I ' Ceadmeten (ApproU.ate)

Figure1 . 3/4 View of Saurian Effigy.

in diameter) depressions. Likewise, a incorporation" (Smith 1987; Hedges shallow channel has been ground, 1992), thereby effecting a bas relief extending from side to side and crossing surface. This superimposed channeling the effigy's ventral surface (Figure 2) . round each of the effigy's eyes creates These features, the cupules and the short eye stalks that cross and cut furrow, appear similar to those commonly through several cupules (Figure 3). referred to in the literature of western Invariably, the pecked surface of these North American as representing the early cupules appears to be the older pit-and-groove style (Heizer and patination. The front of the effigy was Baumhoff 1962:208; Heizer and Clewlow further modified by grinding a groove into 1973; Hedges 1980, 1983). what may have been, at least partially, a natural crack and extending it around the Following an unknown period of time, entire anterior portion of the effigy's further modifications of the boulder's "face," continuing with small lateral surface were achieved . These include breaks around the entire boulder. This grinding shallow channels around the anterior mouth feature was further natural bulges representing the effigy's elaborated by grinding roughly eyes, a technique known as "rock feature perpendicular grooves into the mouth,

43 Nevada Archaeologist Volume 13 1995

thereby creating the uncanny impression of a mouth with natural wrinkles, five on the upper lip and at least three on the lower. One of these upper lip creases Front continues as a groove beneath the effigy, ending just short of connecting again to the mouth on the other side of the head. Three other groove elements, TopV~ one on the dorsal surface near the nuchal area, one on the ventral surface "I, underneath the eyes, and a third pair on the lateral sides of the head, complete the effigy's grooving. This bas relief effect has been described for other concentric petroglyph forms in the American West (Foster 1983:51), but rarely has it proved as effective as in the Bottom View present case. The overall impression left Figure 2. Schematic of by this imposing piece of stone carving is Groove Distribution . of a lizard or frog head (a saurian symbol?).

o 10 I

Figure 3. Plan View Illustrating Relationship of the "eye stalks" to the Cupules. 44 Nevada Archaeologist Volume 13 1995

The Site and a concentration of flaked and ground stone artifacts, makes for an unusual The prehistoric site upon which the effigy cultural context. These factors, was found is located on the first terrace combined with the presence in the above Thomas Creek in the south immediate vicinity (within a mile) of some western portion of Reno, Nevada. The fourteen other examples of rock art, site extends for a distance of almost two suggest the site may have possessed a thousand meters, paralleling the stream symbolic significance beyond that of a where it is deeply incised into the alluvial simple logistical camp. fan due to an array of local thrust faults. Today, even after fifty or more years The site has changed radically of looting, the site surface remains between the time it was first described by littered with hundreds of thousands of Mrs. Smith in the 1950s and today. flakes and several hundreds of ground Foremost in terms of impact has been stone fragments. This latter assemblage the repeated visits by illegal artifact is characterized by well-worn manos, looters. For instance, the Artifact Record some of which are fire-cracked, and the of Smith's collections from this site remains of fragmented slab metates, (Burrows 1964; 1967) lists a total of 41 some of which have been intentionally artifacts (in 40 entries) collected by Smith shaped and fire-cracked. The other from the site surface. Of these 41 relatively common artifact class evident artifacts, a total of 22 are described as on the surface is a full range of biface projectile points (51 %). During our elements from very crude to well-shaped recent work, the site surface yielded preforms. It is likely that this site had fewer than five projectile points, in spite recognizable surface features such as of an intensive survey of the entire site rock rings or house depressions, and it is surface by professional archaeologists even more likely that the distribution of spaced no more than four meters apart. artifacts across the site surface had a In contrast, vigorous excavations at the meaningful story to tell about the people site (over 40 m3 of hand excavated soil) who lived here prehistorically. However, prove that projectile points are common the recent looting has obscured these below the soil surface. Also, an assem relationships and hence has cloaked that blage of buried hearth and hearth-like important story. It is hoped that the features clustered in a single location intensive excavations currently underway (Locus 4), containing a large quartz at 26Wa99 will help to recoup a portion crystal, a ground stone pipe (for sucking of that loss. cures rather than smoking?, Figure 4),

45 Nevada Archaeologist Volume 13 1995

I I I I I I I I + ------::;;r.--______.

+------'"- I I I I I I

1 2 Jo., 1996 em t:1===- ....'

Figure 4. Metavolcanic Pipe, Drilled From One Side. 46 Nevada Archaeologist Volume 13 1995

As the saurian effigy was found to differential patination as a guide, the have been undercut, and new piles of pitted and grooved boulder was not looted artifacts were observed next to the further modified for a relatively long object during each site visit in 1994, it period of time. Then, following this was evident that the artifact looters were hypothesized hiatus, the bas relief eye aware of this distinctive artifact. stalks were added and the anterior Therefore, Bob Kautz notified the surface was grooved to produce the landowners, the Washoe Tribe, and the effect of a wrinkled mouth. Nevada State Museum of the impending danger of its loss (Tuohy 1995). Thanks In contrast to the cupules and to the good will of The Nell J. Redfield grooves through which they are worked, Foundation (the landowners), the the grinding surfaces associated with Washoe Tribal representatives, and the these latter activities appear fresh. This anthropology staff at the Nevada State temporal interpretation is not inconsistent Museum, the effigy has been removed with secondary sources (Burrows 1964, from its in situ location and has been 1967; Aikens 1972) regarding the placed on temporary loan at the Nevada content of the G.W. Smith collection, State Museum by its new owner, the given the description of a great many of Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California. the projectile points as "large points" (site Precise replicas of the effigy have been record, 26Wa99). Excavation at Locus created by the Nevada State Museum 4, the localized area within the site with a staff, and plans are underway to display somewhat intact stratigraphic profile, the replica at the Museum for the also suggests the presence of two or enjoyment and enlightenment of the more components corresponding to a public. Middle to Late Archaic human presence. Projectile points of Late Martis (2500- Discussion 1500 years B.P.) to Early Kings Beach (1500-800 years B.P.) phases dominate Based upon the consistent the tool assemblage. superposition of elements and the obvious differential patination, it appears A preliminary run of eight obsidian that the effigy was modified on at least samples was x-ray fluorescent sourced two separate occasions. At the time of by Dr. Richard Hughes of the the earlier modification, the unadorned Geochemical Research Laboratory, boulder was pitted by the application of resulting in the identification of a single over a hundred cupule elements, and its local obsidian source from Sutro Spring ventral surface was grooved. Using the (4 specimens including a Rosegate

47 Nevada Archaeologist Volume 13 1995

point) and three more-distant southern It is suggested that the location of this sources including Bodie (2 specimens) site above Thomas Creek, as it incises and Mt. Hicks and Queen (each with 1 .through the broad slope (the Mt. Rose specimen). These same specimens fan, a pediment) descending from the were then submitted to Tom Origer at Carson Range below a spectacular Mt. Sonoma State University for obsidian Rose, provides a dramatic and hydration analysis. The results of the panoramic view of the entire Truckee hydration analysis suggest the presence Meadows below. Further, the site lies of at least two components. One cluster midway between the environmental of rind thicknesses that includes a enticements at the Steamboat Hot Rosegate point measures between 1.3 to Springs below and the canopy of the 3.1,U (5 specimens) and a second com evergreen forests on the mountain ponent represented by two specimens slopes above. The region itself is measures between 5.3 and 6.4,U (one crowded with other rock art, including specimen failed to provide a result). zoomorphs and large boulders with associated cupules; both varieties of rock Given the highly disturbed nature of art have been found within the area the site, it is possible that the effigy will surveyed for the present development. tell us more about the site than the site This style of petroglyph was referred to can inform regarding the effigy. as "pit-and-groove" first by Baumhoff, However, the mere presence of such an Heizer, and Elsasser (1958) but is best unusual and work-intensive form at this known through the work of Heizer and site would argue that the site may have Baumhoff (1962) from six Nevada sites. had special significance. Steinbring In the Owens Valley of California, von (1992:102), for example, maintains that, Werlhof (1965) adds a further eight sites to the total. This style is also common in ... almost every rock art site southern California where Hedges [has] some special qualities which (1973:21) suggested the name "cupule," probably aided in its selection by a more descriptive term, be applied to aboriginal peoples. And, this style of petroglyph. phenomenal attributes, while unquestionably conditioned by This cupule style of petroglyph is numerous cultural influences, present throughout California (Nissen exceed the merely pragmatic by and Ritter 1986; Smith and Lerch 1984; stimulating visual, auditory, and Minor 1975), and it is now known from at aesthetic responses. least fifty sites in Nevada (Tuohy 1973; Alvin McLane, personal communication).

48 Nevada Archaeologist Volume 13 1995

It is also found along the Gulf Coast near dating to at least 40,000 B.P. in France, Muleje, Baja California Sur, Mexico, and perhaps even earlier in India." ranging across the Columbia Plateau Parkman (1993:101) takes into account and the Northwest Coast (Steinbring the work of Dorn and Whitley (1983) and 1987). McGuckian et al. (1993:1), in Whitley and Dorn (1987, 1988), who fact, argue that, suggest a date of Heizer and Baumhoffs "pit-and-groove style" at 7,000 to 5,000 . . . despite the widespread B.P. in the Great Basin. global occurrence of cupules, until recently their incidence in the The entire region that includes the Great Basin has been considered south Truckee Meadows and the Mt. to be extremely rare. Rose pediment is currently included in a larger archaeological district based upon They also offer the following the relationship between the categories generalizations: cupule art in Nevada is of sites occurring within it and the far more common than had been seasonal distribution of humans suggested, cupules exhibit a patterned corresponding to the availability of plant distribution, "particularly as regards to and animal resources within it (Elston et proximity to reliable water sources, al. 1995). There is no question that the especially canyon derived streams," and life of the mind as reflected in the ritual that, as cupule art requires a minimal and religious life of the prehistoric amount of modification, it is probably the peoples of this region has been partially earliest of Nevada styles. archived in stone by means of the rich rock art that still survives. The effigy we A recent publication on these cupule have described herein is one of the most or "rain rocks" as they are sometimes unusual of this surviving record. called, addresses similar issues (Parkman 1993). Parkman believes that these petroglyphs were used by Native Acknowledgments American communities as "... ritual means making and stopping rain." He We wish to thank those persons who thinks the Indians may have drummed helped pull the diverse materials used in the cupules as an imitation of thunder, this article together, including Alvin thus creating one or more aspects of a McLane of the Desert Research Institute storm. Parkman (1993:101) also notes in Reno, Sue Ann Monteleone of the that cupules represent " ... humankind's Nevada State Museum in Carson City, earliest known symbolic expression, and Dr. Eric Ritter of the Bureau of Land

49 Nevada Archaeologist Volume 13 1995

Management, Redding Resource Area, Kautz Environmental Consultants, Inc., California. The remarkable artwork Reno, Nevada. All errors are the herein is the product of Mr. Jerry . responsibility of the authors. Oothoudt, M.A, Supervising Illustrator at

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Aikens, C. Melvin 1972 The G.W. Smith Collection. Desert Research Institute Publications in the Social Sciences Number 9. Reno and Las Vegas.

Baumhoff, Martin A, Robert F. Heizer, and AB. Elsasser 1958 Lagomarsino Petroglyph Site, Storey County, Nevada. University of California Archaeological Survey Reports 43 (Part 11):1-17. Berkeley.

Burrows, S. 1964 Artifact Record. University of Nevada Archaeological Survey, Wa1073. On file at the Nevada State Museum, Carson City.

1967 Artifact Record. University of Nevada Archaeological Survey, Wa1073. On file at the Nevada State Museum, Carson City.

Dorn, Ronald I. and David S. Whitley 1983 Cation-Ratio Dating of Petroglyphs from the Western Great Basin, North America. Nature 302(5911):816-818.

Elston, Robert G., Kathryn Ataman and Daniel P. Dugas 1995 A Research Design for the Southern Truckee Meadows Prehistoric Archaeological District. Prepared for the American Land Conservancy by Intermountain Research, Silver City, Nevada.

Foster, Daniel G. 1983 A Note on CA-MEN-1912: The Spyrock Road Site Mendocino County, California. Rock Art Papers, Volume 1. San Diego Museum Papers 16:51-56.

50 Nevada Archaeologist Volume 13 1995

Hedges, Ken 1973 Rock Art in Southern California. Pacific Coast Archaeological Society Quarterly 9(4):1-28.

1983 The Cloverdale Petroglyphs. Rock Art Papers, Volume 1. San Diego Museum Papers 16:57.

1992 Revealing the Face in the Rock: A Photo Essay. Rock Art Papers, Volume 9. San Diego Museum Papers 28:183-187.

Heizer, Robert F. and Martin A. Baumhoff 1962 Prehistoric Rock Art of Nevada and Eastern California. University of California Press, Berkeley.

Heizer, Robert F. and C. William Clewlow, Jr. 1973 Prehistoric Rock Art of California (2 Volumes). Ballena Press, Ramona, California.

McGuckian, Peggy, Alvin McLane, and C. William Clewlow, Jr. 1993 Northern Nevada Cupule Sites. Paper presented at the 20th Annual Conference of the American Rock Art Research Association, June 6, 1993. Reno, Nevada.

Minor, Rick 1975 The Pit-and-Groove Petroglyph Style in Southern California. San Diego Museum of Man Ethnic Technology Notes, No. 15. San Diego.

Nissen, Karen M. and Eric W. Ritter 1986 Cupped Rock Art in North-Central California: Hypothesis Regarding Age and Social/Ecological Context. In American Indian Rock Art 11, edited by William D. Hyder, Helen Crotty, Kay Sanger, and Frank Bock, pp. 59-75. American Rock Art Research Association, EI Toro, California.

Parkman, E. Breck 1993 Creating Thunder: The Western Rain-Making Process. Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology 15(1):90-110.

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Smith, Gerald A. and Michael K. Lerch 1984 Cupule Petroglyphs in Southern California. Quarterly of the San Bernardino County Museum Association 32(1&2).

Smith, Ron 1987 Rock Feature Incorporation. Rock Art Papers, Volume 5. San Diego Museum Papers 23:125-138.

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