DOCSLIB.ORG

University of Nevada, Reno Late Holocene Toolstone Procurement

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
University of Nevada, Reno Late Holocene Toolstone Procurement University of Nevada, Reno Late Holocene Toolstone Procurement and Land-Use Strategies in the Black Rock Desert and High Rock Country of Northwest Nevada A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Anthropology by Stephen J. LaValley Dr. Geoffrey M. Smith/Thesis Advisor May, 2013 Copyright by Stephen J. LaValley 2013 All Rights Reserved THE GRADUATE SCHOOL We recommend that the thesis prepared under our supervision by STEPHEN J. LAVALLEY entitled Late Holocene Toolstone Procurement and Land-Use Strategies in the Black Rock Desert and High Rock Country of Northwest Nevada be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS Geoffrey M. Smith, Ph.D., Advisor Gary Haynes, Ph.D., Committee Member Scott D. Bassett, Ph.D., Graduate School Representative Marsha H. Read, Ph.D., Dean, Graduate School May, 2013 i Abstract This thesis tests current interpretations of Late Holocene (5,000 cal BP to present) archaeology for the Black Rock Desert and High Rock Country (BRD/HRC) through an assessment of the toolstone procurement and land-use strategies of the region’s prehistoric occupants. This is achieved through: lithic analysis from Paiute Creek Shelter (PCS), a recently excavated rock shelter with stratified cultural remains spanning the Late Holocene; X-ray fluorescence analysis of artifacts from PCS, Hanging Rock Shelter, Silent Snake Springs, and Smokey Creek Cave; and spatial analysis of 623 archaeological sites in the BRD/HRC. Results indicate that no changes occurred in how obsidian toolstone was procured between the Middle Archaic (5,000-1,500 cal BP) and Late Archaic (1,500 cal BP to contact), while residential mobility intensified during the Late Archaic, likely promoting increased trade in the region. ii Acknowledgements There are numerous people and organizations that I would like to thank for their participation in helping me complete this thesis. I would first like to thank SARF/ GBPRU and the anthropology department for funding my studies at UNR. My research could not have happened without funding from the College of Liberal Arts, the Graduate Student Association, and the Desert Research Institute. I also would like to thank the Am-Arcs of Northern Nevada and GSA for supporting my travels to several conferences. There are many individuals to whom I am greatly thankful for their support and aid in the completion of this thesis. Craig Skinner and Jennifer Thatcher at the Northwest Research Obsidian Studies Laboratory and Richard Hughes at the Geochemical Research Laboratory provided the XRF analysis for this thesis, sometimes within unthinkably fast turnaround. Some source provenance data in this thesis was shared by Geoff Smith, Kristina Wiggins, Melinda Leach, and John Fagan; thank you all very much, it has provided much needed substance. Thanks go to Kathryn Ataman and Dave Valentine at the BLM Winnemucca Field Office for their assistance and support. Finally, thank you Gene Hattori, Rachel Malloy, and Maggie Brown for providing access to collections in the Nevada State Museum. In addition to the many SARF/GBPRU student employees and volunteers who have assisted in the cleaning, labeling, and recording of the PCS assemblage, I would like to thank those before me who excavated the shelter including: Ghufran Ahmed, Anna Camp, Mark Estes, Ted Goebel, Jon Grant, Brant Ivey, Lisbeth Louderback, Geoff iii Smith, and Dave Valentine. Also, special thanks to Janine Tingson for illustrating the artifacts, Kristina Wiggins for helping analyze debitage, and Ellie Maniery for the flake tool analysis. I must thank my committee – Dr. Geoffrey M. Smith, Dr. Gary Haynes, and Dr. Scott D. Bassett – for their support, critiques, and edits. Thank you Geoff for introducing me to PCS and the Black Rock Desert/High Rock Country; I am not convinced that I would have found as much fulfillment in Grass Valley. Gary, thanks for being awesome; I look forward to an invitation to the Clovis Mafia. And thank you Scott for showing me the ways of GIS and deterring me from taking a bigger bite out of it than I could chew. I would also like to thank my family and friends, for whose support could not be found anywhere else. Thanks go to Tony Taylor, the only other member of my cohort, and Verla Jackson, for their support and advice along the way. I am very grateful for my parents, who encourage my pursuits down whatever path I decide to wander. And finally, Chrissy – I am forever indebted to her for everything she has done. I had no clue what I was doing in graduate school before I met her. She gave me invaluable advice and structure in my life that has made me a better student, archaeologist, and person. She was and is the sounding board for all my woes and I look forward to spending many more years with her. iv Table of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................ i Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................. ii List of Tables .................................................................................................................... vii List of Figures .................................................................................................................... xi Chapter 1: Introduction ....................................................................................................... 1 The Black Rock Desert/High Rock Country .......................................................... 3 Background ............................................................................................................. 3 Climate/Environment .................................................................................. 3 Archaeology ................................................................................................ 7 Addressing the Issue of Scale ............................................................................... 15 Previous Regional Studies ........................................................................ 15 The Current Study ..................................................................................... 18 Research Goals...................................................................................................... 18 Chapter 2: Materials .......................................................................................................... 20 Paiute Creek Shelter .............................................................................................. 21 X-Ray Fluorescence Lithic Assemblages ............................................................. 26 Paiute Creek Shelter .................................................................................. 27 Hanging Rock Shelter ............................................................................... 28 Silent Snake Springs ................................................................................. 30 Smokey Creek Cave .................................................................................. 31 Regional Site Inventory ........................................................................................ 33 NVCRIS .................................................................................................... 33 Previous Sundance Fieldwork................................................................... 35 Chapter 3: Methods ........................................................................................................... 39 Excavations at Paiute Creek Shelter ..................................................................... 39 v Laboratory Analysis .............................................................................................. 41 Descriptive Analysis ............................................................................................. 42 Lithic Raw Material .................................................................................. 42 Debitage Analysis ..................................................................................... 42 Core Analysis ............................................................................................ 44 Tool Analysis ............................................................................................ 45 Groundstone Analysis ............................................................................... 50 Integrative Analysis .............................................................................................. 52 X-Ray Fluorescence Analysis ................................................................... 52 Biface Reduction Curves .......................................................................... 55 Statistical Analysis .................................................................................... 57 Geographical Information System ........................................................................ 57 Site Inventory ............................................................................................ 58 Site Distribution ........................................................................................ 58 Site Function ............................................................................................. 59 Characterization of Prehistoric Land-Use ................................................. 60 Summary ..............................................................................................................
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Stalking Elephants in Nevada Thomas N. Layton Western Folklore, Vol. 35
    Stalking Elephants in Nevada Thomas N. Layton Western Folklore, Vol. 35, No. 4. (Oct., 1976), pp. 250-257. Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0043-373X%28197610%2935%3A4%3C250%3ASEIN%3E2.0.CO%3B2-8 Western Folklore is currently published by Western States Folklore Society. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/about/terms.html. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/journals/wsfs.html. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. The JSTOR Archive is a trusted digital repository providing for long-term preservation and access to leading academic journals and scholarly literature from around the world. The Archive is supported by libraries, scholarly societies, publishers, and foundations. It is an initiative of JSTOR, a not-for-profit organization with a mission to help the scholarly community take advantage of advances in technology. For more information regarding JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. http://www.jstor.org Wed Jan 23 23:37:03 2008 Stalking Elephants in Nevada THOMAS N.
    [Show full text]
  • The Terminal Pleistocene/Early Holocene Record in the Northwestern Great Basin: What We Know, What We Don't Know, and How We M
    PALEOAMERICA, 2017 Center for the Study of the First Americans http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/20555563.2016.1272395 Texas A&M University REVIEW ARTICLE The Terminal Pleistocene/Early Holocene Record in the Northwestern Great Basin: What We Know, What We Don’t Know, and How We May Be Wrong Geoffrey M. Smitha and Pat Barkerb aGreat Basin Paleoindian Research Unit, Department of Anthropology, University of Nevada, Reno, NV, USA; bNevada State Museum, Carson City, NV, USA ABSTRACT KEYWORDS The Great Basin has traditionally not featured prominently in discussions of how and when the New Great Basin; Paleoindian World was colonized; however, in recent years work at Oregon’s Paisley Five Mile Point Caves and archaeology; peopling of the other sites has highlighted the region’s importance to ongoing debates about the peopling of the Americas Americas. In this paper, we outline our current understanding of Paleoindian lifeways in the northwestern Great Basin, focusing primarily on developments in the past 20 years. We highlight several potential biases that have shaped traditional interpretations of Paleoindian lifeways and suggest that the foundations of ethnographically-documented behavior were present in the earliest period of human history in the region. 1. Introduction comprehensive review of Paleoindian archaeology was published two decades ago. We also highlight several The Great Basin has traditionally not been a focus of biases that have shaped traditional interpretations of Paleoindian research due to its paucity of stratified and early lifeways in the region. well-dated open-air sites, proboscidean kill sites, and demonstrable Clovis-aged occupations. Until recently, the region’s terminal Pleistocene/early Holocene (TP/ 2.
    [Show full text]
  • Program of the 79Th Annual Meeting
    Program of the 79th Annual Meeting April 23–27, 2014 Austin, Texas THE ANNUAL MEETING of the Society for American Archaeology provides a fo- rum for the dissemination of knowledge and discussion. The views expressed at the sessions are solely those of the speakers and the Society does not endorse, approve, or censor them. Descriptions of events and titles are those of the orga- nizers, not the Society. Program of the 79th Annual Meeting Published by the Society for American Archaeology 1111 14th Street NW, Suite 800 Washington DC 20005 5622 USA Tel: +1 202/789 8200 Fax: +1 202/789 0284 Email: [email protected] WWW: http://www.saa.org Copyright © 2014 Society for American Archaeology. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reprinted in any form or by any means without prior permission from the publisher. Contents 4 Awards Presentation & Annual Business Meeting Agenda 5 2014 Award Recipients 12 Maps 17 Meeting Organizers, SAA Board of Directors, & SAA Staff 19 General Information 21 Featured Sessions 23 Summary Schedule 27 A Word about the Sessions 28 Student Day 2014 29 Sessions At A Glance 37 Program 214 SAA Awards, Scholarships, & Fellowships 222 Presidents of SAA 222 Annual Meeting Sites 224 Exhibit Map 225 Exhibitor Directory 236 SAA Committees and Task Forces 241 Index of Participants 4 Program of the 79th Annual Meeting Awards Presentation & Annual Business Meeting April 25, 2014 5 PM Call to Order Call for Approval of Minutes of the 2013 Annual Business Meeting Remarks President Jeffrey H. Altschul Reports Treasurer Alex W. Barker Secretary Christina B.
    [Show full text]
  • Late Quaternary Environmental Change in the Bonneville Basin, Western USA
    Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 167 (2001) 243±271 www.elsevier.nl/locate/palaeo Late Quaternary environmental change in the Bonneville basin, western USA D.B. Madsena,*, D. Rhodeb, D.K. Graysonc, J.M. Broughtond, S.D. Livingstonb, J. Hunta, J. Quadee, D.N. Schmitta, M.W. Shaver IIIa aUtah Geological Survey, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, USA bDesert Research Institute, Reno, NV 89512, USA cUniversity of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA dUniversity of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84102, USA eUniversity of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA Received 9 December 1999; received in revised form 24 July 2000; accepted for publication 7 September 2000 Abstract Excavation and analyses of small animal remains from strati®ed raptor deposits spanning the last 11.5 ka, together with collection and analysis of over 60 dated fossil woodrat midden samples spanning the last 50 ka, provide a detailed record of changing climate in the eastern Great Basin during the late Pleistocene and Holocene. Sagebrush steppe dominated the northern Bonneville basin during the Full Glacial, suggesting that conditions were cold and relatively dry, in contrast to the southern basin, which was also cold but moister. Limber pine woodlands dominated ,13±11.5 ka, indicating increased dryness and summer temperatures ,6±78C cooler than present. This drying trend accelerated after ,11.5 ka causing Lake Bonneville to drop rapidly, eliminating 11 species of ®sh from the lake. From ,11.5±8.2 ka xerophytic sagebrush and shadscale scrub replaced more mesophilic shrubs in a step-wise fashion. A variety of small mammals and plants indicate the early Holocene was ,38C cooler and moister than at present, not warmer as suggested by a number of climatic models.
    [Show full text]
  • Harney Area Cultural Resources Class I Inventory
    Portland State University PDXScholar Dissertations and Theses Dissertations and Theses 1980 Harney area cultural resources class I inventory Ruth McGilvra Bright Portland State University Follow this and additional works at: https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds Part of the Archaeological Anthropology Commons, Cultural Resource Management and Policy Analysis Commons, and the Geography Commons Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation McGilvra Bright, Ruth, "Harney area cultural resources class I inventory" (1980). Dissertations and Theses. Paper 3264. https://doi.org/10.15760/etd.3255 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of PDXScholar. Please contact us if we can make this document more accessible: [email protected]. AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OF Ruth McGilvra Bright for the Master of Arts in Anthropology presented August 7, 1980. Title: Harney Area Cultural Resources Class I Inventory. APPROVED BY MEMBERS OF THE THESIS COMMITTEE: Daniel Scheans Gordon ;OoB ~i ,_,,I This document presents the Cultural Resources Overview for the Harney Area in southeastern Oregon. The Harney Area combines three of the four planning units in the Burns Bureau of Land Management District. Most of the land in the Harney Area is located in Harney County, although a few parcels are just outside the county line in Lake and Malheur Counties. Almost all of Harney County is included. There are approximately 3,320,000 acres of Bureau administered public land within the Harney Area, as well as other public and private lands.
    [Show full text]
  • University of Nevada, Reno Paleoindian Settlement Strategies
    University of Nevada, Reno Paleoindian Settlement Strategies Across Time and Space in the Northwestern Great Basin: Lithic Technological Organization at Last Supper Cave, Nevada A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Anthropology by Danielle C. Felling Dr. Geoffrey M. Smith/Thesis Advisor May, 2015 © by Danielle C. Felling 2015 All Rights Reserved THE GRADUATE SCHOOL We recommend that the thesis prepared under our supervision by DANIELLE C. FELLING Entitled Paleoindian Settlement Strategies Across Time And Space In The Northwestern Great Basin: Lithic Technological Organization At Last Supper Cave, Nevada be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS Geoffrey M. Smith, Ph.D., Advisor David E. Rhode, Ph.D., Committee Member Douglas P. Boyle, Ph.D., Graduate School Representative David W. Zeh, Ph.D., Dean, Graduate School May, 2015 i ABSTRACT Last Supper Cave (LSC) is a stratified cave site in northwestern Nevada. It was fully excavated in the late 1960s and early 1970s by Thomas Layton and Jonathan Davis. Excavations revealed an extensive record of human occupation including a Paleoindian component recently re-dated to as old as 10,280±40 14C B.P. Despite the potential for the site to reveal information about Paleoindian lifeways in the Great Basin during the Terminal Pleistocene/Early Holocene (TP/EH), analysis of its lithic assemblage was never completed. LSC is located ~20 km away and 350 m higher than the nearest pluvial basin that sustained a wetland during the TP/EH. As a result, LSC represents a rare stratified upland Paleoindian site in the Great Basin and research on the collection has the potential to reveal how groups operated away from wetland environments.
    [Show full text]
  • Past, Present and Future Issues in Great Basin Archaeology: Papers in Honor of Don D
    U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Bureau of Land Management NEVADA Past, Present and Future Issues in Great Basin Archaeology: Papers in Honor of Don D. Fowler Edited by Bryan Hockett Cultural Resource Series No. 20 2009 1 Past, Present, and Future Issues in Great Basin Archaeology: Papers in Honor of Don D. Fowler Edited by: Bryan Hockett US Department of Interior Bureau of Land Management 3900 East Idaho Street Elko, Nevada 89801 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction by Bryan Hockett ……………………………………………………………...……………3 CHAPTER 1……………………………………………………………………………...………………5 Historical Perspectives on a Great Basin Career by Donald Hardesty CHAPTER 2……………………………………………………………………………...……..………10 CRM – The Next Generation by Alice Baldrica & Renée Corona Kolvet CHAPTER 3………………………………………………..……………………………...……………32 Walking and Running in the Sierra Tarahumara: A Reflection on Pedestrian Mobility and the “Known World” in Desert West Culture History by C. Melvin Aikens CHAPTER 4…………………………………………………………………………….....……………49 The Avoided Past: Great Basin Rock Art in Archaeological Thought and Its Potential in the Study of Past Identity by Alanah Woody & Angus R. Quinlan CHAPTER 5……………………………………………………………………………...…….….……67 Holocene Elk (Cervus elaphus) in the Great Basin by Donald Grayson & Jacob Fisher CHAPTER 6…………………………………………………………………………….....……………84 Netting, Net Hunting, and Human Adaptation in the Eastern Great Basin by J. M. Adovasio, R. L. Andrews & J. S. Illingworth CHAPTER 7……………………………………………………………………………...……………103 Recent Advances in Great Basin Textile Research by
    [Show full text]
  • The Zooarchaeology of Bonneville Estates Rockshelter: 13,000 Years of Great Basin Hunting Strategies
    Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 2 (2015) 291–301 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports journal homepage: http://ees.elsevier.com/jasrep The zooarchaeology of Bonneville Estates Rockshelter: 13,000 years of Great Basin hunting strategies Bryan Hockett ⁎ Bureau of Land Management, Nevada State Office, 1340 Financial Blvd., Reno, NV 89502, USA article info abstract Article history: Bonneville Estates Rockshelter (eastern Nevada) preserves a record of changing hunting patterns from the Received 31 December 2014 Paleoindian to the ethnohistoric periods. Diachronic changes in hunting patterns at Bonneville Estates, as well Received in revised form 16 February 2015 as a host of other cave and open-air sites from the Great Basin are compared with eight broad climatic phases Accepted 25 February 2015 recognized in the Great Basin. Recent studies of large-scale artiodactyl trapping structures and projectile point Available online 10 March 2015 frequencies present a more complete picture of long-term shifts in hunting strategies in the Great Basin. Overall, Keywords: there is much variability in the hunting of large and small game through time at individual sites, suggesting that fl Great Basin local environmental and social conditions exerted considerable in uence in micro and macro scale hunting Hunting patterns across the Great Basin. Creating an “average” Great Basin hunter by combining all the data analyzed Climate change here suggests limited artiodactyl hunting during the Paleoindian period followed by an upward trend in large game hunting through time. There is no significant drop in artiodactyl hunting intensity at any time over the last 5000 to 6000 years, despite major changes in climate and technology.
    [Show full text]
  • University of Nevada, Reno Catlow Twine Basketry Through Time And
    University of Nevada, Reno Catlow Twine Basketry through Time and Space: Exploring Shifting Cultural Boundaries through Prehistoric and Ethnographic Basketry Technology in the Northwestern Great Basin A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology by Anna Jeanne Camp Dr. Geoffrey M. Smith/Dissertation Advisor December 2017 © by Anna Jeanne Camp All Rights Reserved THE GRADUATE SCHOOL We recommend that the dissertation prepared under our supervision by ANNA JEANNE CAMP Entitled Catlow Twine Basketry Through Time And Space: Exploring Shifting Cultural Boundaries Through Prehistoric And Ethnographic Basketry Technology In The Northwestern Great Basin be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Geoffrey M. Smith, Advisor Pat Barker , Committee Member Eugene M. Hattori, Committee Member Gary Haynes, Committee Member Donica H. Mensing, Graduate School Representative David W. Zeh, Ph. D., Dean, Graduate School December, 2017 i Abstract In this dissertation, I focus on Catlow Twine basketry and address several questions about connections between prehistoric and ethnographic groups in the Great Basin and how and when prehistoric populations moved across the landscape. My results suggest that: (1) diagnostic basketry types in the northwestern Great Basin can be used to track different ethnolinguistic groups through time and space; (2) continuity in technological attributes of Catlow Twine basketry suggests an early and widespread occupation of Penutian speaking groups in the northwestern Great Basin; and (3) the technological relationship between Catlow Twine and ethnographic Klamath-Modoc basketry reflects continuity in basket making traditions that was severely disrupted by contact with Euro-American settlers and the sale of Native American basketry during the Arts and Crafts Period (1880-1920).
    [Show full text]
  • University of Nevada, Reno an Examination of Western Stemmed Tradition Settlement-Subsistence, Territoriality, and Lithic Techno
    University of Nevada, Reno An Examination of Western Stemmed Tradition Settlement-Subsistence, Territoriality, and Lithic Technological Organization in the Northwestern Great Basin A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology by Derek J. Reaux Dr. Geoffrey M. Smith/Dissertation Advisor December 2020 © by Derek J. Reaux 2020 All Rights Reserved THE GRADUATE SCHOOL We recommend that the dissertation prepared under our supervision by DEREK J. REAUX Entitled An Examination of Western Stemmed Tradition Settlement-Subsistence, Territoriality, and Lithic Technological Organization in the Northwestern Great Basin be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Geoffrey M. Smith, Ph.D. Advisor Christopher Morgan, Ph.D. Committee Member Christopher S. Jazwa, Ph.D. Committee Member D. Craig Young, Ph.D. Committee Member Kenneth D. Adams, Ph.D. Graduate School Representative David W. Zeh, Ph.D., Dean Graduate School December 2020 i Abstract A paucity of stratified, open-air Western Stemmed Tradition (WST) sites has long been an issue for Great Basin researchers. Most Paleoindian sites are near-surface lithic scatters that lack subsistence residues, perishable technology, and materials that can be radiocarbon dated. While surface sites pose a number of interpretive challenges, they remain essential to our understanding of WST lifeways in the Great Basin. In this dissertation, I evaluate current models of WST settlement-subsistence and lithic technological organization in the northwestern Great Basin through analyses of recently discovered and previously reported lithic assemblages. I also explore novel methods of analyzing lithic and source provenance data to strengthen interpretations of surface assemblages and source profiles.
    [Show full text]
  • A Special Issue Honoring R. Lee Lyman
    J Archaeol Method Theory (2013) 20:365–380 DOI 10.1007/s10816-013-9171-x Introduction to Zooarchaeological Method and Theory: a Special Issue Honoring R. Lee Lyman Christyann M. Darwent & Virginia L. Butler & Michael J. O’Brien Published online: 7 March 2013 # Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013 Abstract The Society for American Archaeology presented R. Lee Lyman with the Fryxell award for Interdisciplinary Excellence in Zooarchaeology in 2011. Lyman has produced over 120 journal articles or book chapters, and four single-authored books on the topic, and this issue honors his contributions to zooarchaeological method and theory with six original pieces by his peers. Arguably, his greatest impact has been in the field of vertebrate taphonomy and the development of a means to measure density-mediated bone attrition, but of equal importance was emphasis in the disci- pline that unit selection, or what one measures, should be linked to a particular research question. Lyman's work has also stressed the importance of making zooarchaeology relevant to modern issues of conservation biology. Keywords R. Lee Lyman . Zooarchaeology . Vertebrate taphonomy . Conservation biology. Quantitative methods Introduction This special issue honors the contributions R. Lee Lyman has made to the field of zooarchaeology. For over 35 years, Lyman has been making seminal contributions to a range of topics including taphonomy, quantitative methods, biogeography and paleoecology, predator/prey interactions, and conservation biology. When we learned in spring 2010 that he had been honored with the Fryxell Award for Interdisciplinary Excellence in Zooarchaeology, we developed plans for a symposium at the 2011 Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology (SAA) in Sacramento, California, soliciting abstracts from scholars whose work has been enriched by Lyman's theoretical and C.
    [Show full text]
  • Stasis and Change in Holocene Small Mammal Diversity During a Period Of
    HOL0010.1177/0959683616632894The HoloceneStegner 632894research-article2016 Research paper The Holocene 1 –15 Stasis and change in Holocene small © The Author(s) 2016 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav mammal diversity during a period of DOI: 10.1177/0959683616632894 aridification in southeastern Utah hol.sagepub.com Mary Allison Stegner Abstract Biological conservation depends on understanding and disentangling the effects of decadal- to centennial-scale dynamics from the millennial-scale dynamics documented in the fossil record. The American Southwest is expected to become increasingly arid over the next few decades and will continue to experience large-scale human land use in various forms. A primary question is whether the ecological fluctuations recorded over the past few decades fall outside the range of variation expected in the absence of recent land use and management. I excavated and quantified mammal diversity change in two fossil-bearing alcoves, East Canyon Rims 2 and Rone Bailey Alcove, located in San Juan County, Utah. AMS radiocarbon dates on 33 bone samples from these sites span ~4.4–0.5 kyr and shed light on pre-industrial faunal dynamics in the region over the course of environmental change. Localities with comparable small mammal diversity have not been reported from this region previously, so these deposits provide novel insight into Holocene mammal diversity in southeastern Utah. Taxa recorded in these sites include leporids, sciurids, perognathines, arvicolines, Onychomys, Cynomys, Dipodomys, Peromyscus, Neotoma, and Thomomys. Using temporal cross-correlation, I tested for a relationship between regional temperature and species richness, evenness, relative abundance, and rank abundance. I also tested for changes in the overall taxon abundance distribution and visualized faunal relationships among time bins using non-metric multidimensional scaling of relative abundance data.
    [Show full text]