Utah Statewide Archaeological Society Newsletter, Volume 10, Number 2, June 1964

A Newsletter

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UTAH ARCHAEOLOGY is published quarterly by the UTAH STATEWIDE ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Sub· scription is included in membership. Membership in the society is available from the secretary-treasurer at $2.00 per year. Correspondence concerning the activities of the society should be directed to the president. All manuscripts and news items should be sent to: Utah Statewide Archaeology Society % Dept. of Anthropology, University of Utah.

UTAH STATEWIDE ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY PRESIDENT& Francis Hassel 906 Rancho Blvd, Ogden, utah VICE PRESTI>ENTa George Tripp 98 W. 2000 S('Iuth, Bountiful, Utah SECRETARY...JI'REASURERI Carol Hassel Rancho Blvd, Ogden, Utah ADVISOR: Dr. Jesse D. Jennings, Univ. of Utah, Salt Lake City 12, utah EDITOR. W. D. Pack, 310 South 3rd East, Preston, Idaho

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EDITORTS NOTES We had a ver,y successful yearly meeting of the USAS in Salt Lake Ci~ About thirty five of our 200 members were present. The Ogden, Salt Lake, Bountiful, Logan and Provo chapters were represented. We wuuld like to have ever,y chapter represented next year. in April.

At the April meeting we had s orne very excellent papers presented.

John CrosB reported en his expl~ration in Old Mexico, and a short report "f the trip is in this issue. We hope to print more about this first trip plus information on eaoh succeeding one just as soon as John can prepare them ,for us. As the other articles get into our hands that were given at our annual meeting we will print them in the newsletter and send them out.

In this issue you will also find a study of the Great basin that should be of interest to all of you. It shows Borne of the relationships among the archeological studies that have been made in our area in the last few years.

This is the first of three installments.

A brief summary of meetings held in the Logan and Ogden Chapter since our last news letter.

Ogden In April we had a b11ahl,ol'le meet.tng and infonnal get-together. The evening was spent discussing possibilities of future field trips. May•• Mr. T. Vandergr-dff showed us his collect1.ol1 of: Tl)(Han ad.=,f(;s,,,,ts~ 'l'he field trip with Mel Aikens to the Bear River site was cal'!c el1.ed be():;);,t)v vi' ~ l"... ~,.~ commi tment of Mel's. May we also add our congratu. .~.:~.ions to Mom and Dad. June• • An outstanding meeting is planned with Dr. Jennjngs and Dr. Eukler.

Also a possible field trip into surrounding states.

Logan. Our annual Rock Show was held April 25-26. This was our largest and bestshaw. :There were 7rJ displays and 7 machines shown. Each of our 64 members supported this show. Gladys Hansen and W. Don Pack puolished our first Club Director.y this year. They did an outstanding job and we appreciate their efforts. At our April meeting Dr. Donald Olsen presented "Grov ing Cl'lystale at Home." May •• Dr. George Kelker, qualified Red Cross Instructor, "Desert Survival and First Aid. n June ... Club Members .Albert and Karla Zbinden, "iulcj on1J Indian Ruins of Central America."

Our meetings are all very tn'bcresting and well attended ..

1l'ATAHUMARA John L. Cross A scarce 350 miles south of the Mexican berder lies Creel, a small Mexican village, the center of the lumber and mining industry ef the fantastic land known as the Grande Barrancas of the Tarahumara. The elevation of Creel nears 8,000 feet, placing the village right on the continental divide. The waters of the Rio Conchos head up here as do the waters of the Rio Creel. The Conchos empties into the Rio Grand and eventually into the Gulf of Mexico while the water of the Creel empties into. the Rio. Urique and into. the Gulf of California. They head sca rcely 6 miles apart.

It was frem this tiny village that Cross Tours & Explor ations Inc. originated the expedition to cenquer the Urique river by boat and t o. bring out, as the first white men on record to. traverse the length of t he canyon, pictures and reports of the peo.ples living in the depth of the Uri que canyon, known as the Barranca del Cobre or Canyon of Co.pper. Reports available indicated that it was believed tha t this great canyon reached a depth twice that ef the Grand Canyon of the Colorado in Arizona.

The entire Barranca ceuntry is covered with a crust of volcanic tuff to an average depth of about 2,000 feet. This tuff is highly ereded by wind and water and it centains countless natural caves, many of which are inhabited by the Tarahumara Indians.

The community of the Tarahumara is the pueblo and would approximate 20 miles in diameter within which live 10 to 25 families. A pueblo. referring to a geographical area rather than a building. The authority within the pueblo is the gevernor and he is endowed with abselute pewer highly respected by all parties cencerned. The center of the pueblo socially, always contains a dance patio. and may contain a church, a ene reom school, a community heuse or any cembination of these. The indians gather here on Sunday er on special days for religieus, secial er festival e1rents. Such events were also. witnessed inside some of the larger caves, however, even though a dance patio and church were less than a mile away. On some eccasions all three types er reasens for gathering may be cembined into ene great event. Being somewhat anti-social by nature, families may be lecated 10 to 15 miles apart altho it is not unusual to fina 3 or 4 families living fairly close together at the center of the pueblo.

The canyon ceuntry covers some 35,000 square miles, about three times the area of the Grand Canyen of the Celerado, and there is estimated to be abeut 50,000 of the Tarahumara inhabiting it, a little ever 1 person per square mile.

The housing of the Tarahumara varies from bare caves to. caves carpeted with goat skins, to. reck-walled caves, to rock heuses built in the o.pen, usually on some lew prominence, to weod slab heuses. Personal belengings are meager and no. sentimental value appears to be placed on these items in most instances, the ugh on ene occasion a Tarahumara woman became very much exercised when her husband appeared about ready to trade her rosary. This she voiciferously opposed.

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The most important of the family belongings is the pottery, grinding stones, baskets sledge and axe, the latter ~vo items are usually traded from the Mexicans as is the cloth for their native costume or the Mexican clothing that has been adopted by some of the Indians on the outer fringes of the T~rahumara country.

Nearly every family owns a violin and one or two other instruments, some a rifle and an assortment of wooden bowls, game devices, and miscellanious odds and ends.

The pottery is made by the coil method, which is peculiar to the ~ra­ humara, the surrounding tribes using the paddle and anvil method. Ground sherds are used along with silica as temper. Most of the pottery has a slip and all is fired. Only one or two of the pueblos appear to find interest in decorating the pottery and Fuego and Sisoguichi are among these. Five basic types of pottery are used with the olla most popular and versitile. Its use ranging from the common cooking pot about 10 inches in diameter to three foot vessels used for their native beer. Lumholtz (Unknown Mexico 1903) reports on seeing one of these vessels that was 8 feet in diameter. A fantastic accompB_shment by any standard.

The art of violin making was learned from the Spanish at the time of the conquest, as was the art of making guitars. Both instruments are made by most primitive means including intricate shaping with sharp stones or pieces of broken glass. These two instruments have been added to the native instruments of the Tarahumara which include the 3 hole flute, gourd rattle, rasping stick, and tamborine-type drum. It is reported that the one string bow utilizing the mouth as a sounding box was used anciently by this peo) le, but no evidence of the instrument remains today. Nearly every family owns a violin and the great majority of male adults are able to play the instrument. The women do not play it. It is interesting to note that native Tarahumara music is played on the violin while only Mexican music is played on the guitar.

The physical abilities and stamina of this people has long astounded the white man. They have been called the greatest runners of the Western Hemisphere.

The Indians oall themselves 'Raramuri' which means 'Foot-Runner'. The word Tarahumara is a Spanish oorruption of the name. A Tarahumara can run 150 miles without stopping and one is reported to delivered a letter to a point 300 miles away and returned 6 days later. Nearly every festival includes a foot race among the men who kick a wooden ball to add to the ohallenge of the race. A race may la at for 72 hours and the night course is lighted by torches oarried by the women and children who run along, lii,:ht the way and cheer their favorites.

This great endurance may be in some pa rt due to the eating habits.

Mainstay of diet is parched corn, ground to a fine meal, mixed with water and eaten as a gruel, called by its Spanish name, 'pinole'. Meat is eaten only on festival occasions and fresh fruits nuts and berries are eaten in season. Where trade is possible or agriculture permits, beans, squash and potatoes may suppliment the diet.

Those Indians living close to the Mexican settlements may have one or two head of cattle, if so, the ground used for planting is tilled to a degree.

Ancient-type plows of wooden beams are drawn by a pair of oxen. The seeds are planted in a hole dug with an ancient~type digging stick, covered, and left for 'r:ature to care for.

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The harvested corn is husked in the field, placed in stilt-legged cribs to dry. The corn is then stored in graineries for winter use. Beans are stored in ollas or baskets and squash is husked, cut into long strips and dried for future use. Potatoes are usually sliced and fried when eaten.

Little affection is evidenced by family members towards one another in the presence of strangers. outsiders, on rare occasion may witness a wife combing her husband's hair with a comb made from the fibrous core of a pine cone. Romance is evidenced when a maiden eyes a prospective male. Stopping in front of his cave, the maiden throws rocks at one of her choice. If he ignores the gestures, she knows she has been scorned. If, however, he throws the stones back, she has been accepted. Marriage ceremonies are conducted and this is serious business, though some writers deny it. The writer found during his experience with the Tarahumara, no newly weds, men, under twenty years and many single men were over twenty years. The youngest married woman encountered was 18 years.

Women bear their children in a standing position usually unattended. The mother-to-be grasps a branch overhead for support and the babe is delivered into a nest of grass and leaves prepared previously by the mother. Immediately after birth the babe is wrapped in a loose shawl and carried about on its mother's back and in such a manner that it can be easily moved to the breast for feeding.

The babe receives its first bath when it is one year old, but long before this it is being given Tesquino, nati,re beer to drink.

Doctors engaged in a medical mission to some of the more accessable pueblos, estimate that 80% of the children die before they reach their 5th year. The great killer is Amoebic dysentary. Few Indians live to be 45 years according to this same report, though reports of those exceeding 100 years are common in the fastness of the Barrancas.

Near the termination of the exploration at the lower end of the Canyon of Copper, Tarahumara women were photographed weaving baskets of Sotol leaves and spinning wool for blankets. The baskets were much like those found all over Mexico. Most being single twilled though some were double twilled.

Nested baskets are oommon in the dwelling.

The blankets and wedding bands or girdles are frequently woven from wool spun by hand without the aid of any mechanical devices. The actual weaving is frequently done without the aid of a loom, even the ancient hand-ground loom.

Pians are now underway for a return to more prtmitive areas of the Tarahumara and Tephuane Indian fastness of the San Miguel River in the fall of 1964. Purpose of this expedition will be the conquest of the river by boat and a further study of the Tarahumara in more primitive circumstances than those studied in the Barranca del Cobre, a canyon with a depth of nearly 7,000 feet, half again the depth of the Grand Canyon of the Colorado.

CULTURAL DEVELOPlitlENT IN THE GREAT BASIN by

James A. Goss TABLE OF CON'IEN'IS

Part I

The Present EnvirorJIJE nt Map of Maj or Early Sites of the Great Basin The Population of the Great Basin at Time of contact Great Basin Subsistence Patterns at Time of contact The Pleistocene and Pest Pleistocene

Enviror~ent

The Archaeological Record

The Present Environment The Great Basin (see IA:ap 1,) consists of that large area nf interior drainage which lies in the western United States between the Rocky Mountains on the east and the Cascade-Sierra. Nevada mountain complex on the west.

The northern extremities of the Great Basin reach into southern Oregon and southern Idaho. On the eastern boundary the Great Basin reaches slightly into western Wyoming and includes western Utah. On the south the Great Basin is bounded by the drainage of the Colorado River. The boundary continues south~ ward ar:d westward to include the ~n:ojave Desert and Death Valley areas of southern California. The western boundary, as previously mentioned is the eastern escarpment of the cascade-Sierra Nevada mountain complex. Thus the Great Basin includes parts of southern Oregon and Idaho, a small section in western Wyoming, Utah west of the Wasatch Mountains and north of the Colorado Plateau, nearly all of Nevada, and parts of southern and northeastern California.

The interior drainage pattern and unique physiographic features set this region off from the adjacent areas. Main physiographic features of the Great Basin are (1) a rather high elevation ranging from 3,000 to 6,iCC feet, (2) a series of mountain ranges and tablelands with valleys and basins between them, trending generally north and south, formed in the most part by faulting along a North-8outh axis, and (3) the interlying basins between the fault-bJ,ock highlands eatch the precipitation which runs off the highlands, this forms playa lakes which fluctuate from season to season depending upon the amolmt of precipitation. Thes e lake s which are usually a bit salinG, due 1-.0 1-116 lack

MAJOR EARLY SITES OF THE GREAT BASIN

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ARIZONA

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Fort Rock Cave Cougar Mr. Cave Klama th Sites Paisley Caves

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8.

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Humboldt C~ves Danger Cave Sal t Lake Caves Gyptmm Cave & Tul e Springs Lake Mchave & Pinto Basin

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of outlets, are eharacteristic of this region.

This area is Cluite arid and is generally classified as IIstepptll though there are large areas which could be classed as true desert (St eward, 1'3 8 ).

The changes in altitude due to the alternatton of the ranges and basin also are correlated with changes in the amount of precipttation and life zones.

These life zones, largely determined by altitude, are crucial to the patterns r;f sUbsistence of the aboriginal Great Basin peoples, The Population of the Great Basin at Time of contact At the time of contact almost the entire Great Basin was populated by speakers of Shoshonean languages, including such groups as the Northern Paiute, Shosholl-i, Southern Pai1lte, ute, and such groups i n southern California as the IrawaB.SU and the 'l'l1bat.l11_abal. These larJguages are al l very c19sely related and probably have a maximal '~ime depth for separat i on of only 2,~C0 years (Lamb, 1958).

According to Krosber (1953:142), the Great Basin has an area of 1 1091 J OOO square kilometers and at contact had an approximate population of 26,700 persons. From these figures is derived a denSity of 2.47 persons per l <'ft square kilometers. The only large areas of aboriginal North iUnerica having a scanter population are the northern Subarctic and Arctic extremities of the continent.

This lew population is a direct reflection of the meager resources the offers to a non-agricultural foraging type of culture.

env1rcr~ent

Great Basin Subsistence Patterns at Time of Contact* The valleysof the Great Basin are marked by l~w rainfall (from below 5 inches to around ;-e) inches per year). Such conditions sustain a "Xero"9hytic vegetationtt consi9ting of such shrubs as sagebrush and greasewood. Such vegetation is not of great subsistence value but plants vii th em ble seeds and tubers may be found in sheltered valleys and near streams and springs.

These pl ants, of course, only yielded a limited quantity of food and could not support large groups of people, or many game animals.

Animal food was largely limited to small roden ts and an occasJonal antelope or deer. These animals were not plentiful, however, and hunting was not the major source of subsistence. The Basin ShoshonearJs suppleu.ented the rare kill of larger game with rats, mice, gophers, locusts, ants, grass M hoppers, ant eggs, larvae of flies and other insects, snakes and lizards, and with practically anything they saw move. ~~ere

fish

~ere

available in the streams and lakes they were used.

On the mountain ranges grew the

piny~n t~~es

which yielded the pinyon

*Large1y drawn from Steward(1938 and 1955),Kroeber (1953) and Underhill (1953).

nuts whioh were nearly as important a staple food to many Basin Shoshonean groups as were the aoorns to the groups of the great central valley of California.

Rainfall was greater at this altitude and the species of seed and root bearing plants proliferated, and more game could subsist. Deer were more in abundance, and on the ridges the mountain sheep were hunted. However, the Shoshonean people were forced by the productivity of their environment to depend upon the gathering of vegetal foods and smaller animals, orily occasionally feasting on a chance kill of a large game animal. steward (1938) lists about 100 plant foods which were of varying importance to the Shoshonean peoples.

In the Canadian Spruoe-fir biotic belt (9,000~1,000 feet) Steward note~ 16 species of grass, most of which probably served as food, 3 species of berry, the wine gooseberry, the wax currant, and the elderberry.

In uhe Canadian Aspen-fir biotic belt (7,000-9,500 feet) were found 11 food plants, 6 varieties of grasses, the strawberry, the service berry, choke-cherry, and the rose and elder.

In the Mahogany belt - transitional biotic belt the mountain mahogany is the predominant plant. Within this zone 11 species of plants were utilized as food - 10 grasses and the raspber~.

In the Upper Sonoran-Pinyon-Juniper biotic belt (5,000-7,000 feet) the Pinyon (Pinus Monophylia in Nevada, Pinus Edulis in utah) is the chief source of food. Many of the plants from the higher areas also range downward in areas of sufficient moisture.

In the Upper Sonoran-Artemisia biotic belt; in the foothills and most of the valleys the Xerophytic drought resistant flora is found. Sagebrush was utilized in times of great famine. Winter villages were located in this belt at the base of ranges, along streams or rivers, or at springs.

The Lower Sonoran zone appears in the low warmer valleys. A few edible plants such as the Joshua tree, the Mesquite and Screw bean, and some varieties of cacti and yucca grow in this zone.

There was some variation from north to south in particular species of plants but this survey gives a general picture. There were also more tubers and berries to be had in the northern reaches of the Great Basin than in the southern.

For the gathering subsistence patterns special tools were utilized. '!he digging stick and seed beaters were very important; also the stone mortar and pestle and the flat milling stone or "metate" and hands tone or Itmanc" which were used to grind seeds and other foods in order to render them digestible. Basketry was essential in the form of gathering and

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storage baskets.

For the entire area the gathering activities were roughly divided into four seasons. In the spring the food that had been stored f or the winter was usually gone; the greenB ~f the first edible plants to s pring forth were eagerly eaten. These were in the lower areas around the s t r eams and l akes.

In the early summer some seeds were ripening. The harvest of these seeds required the people to begin their nomadic circuits away from the winter village. VThen those foods were harvested in the lowlands, those in the mountains would be ripening and the people would move up the slopes.

1he people al ways went to the places where the foods were found to be the most abundant, as the quantity of harvest was erratic at different places in different years. The harvesting circuit was not the same each year.

It was determined by the localities of various abundances during a given year.

In the late surrmer tubers were matured and ready to be dug and berries were picked.

In the early f al l t he pine nuts ripened. This harvest was very erratic from year to year . Some years there was a great abundance, others scarcely any. The ute t radi tionally believe that abundant harvests of pinyon nuts come in cycles every seven years.

The availability of wild food plants thus forces the Great Basin Shoshoneans on a erratic circuit of patches of wild plants. This circuit is the prime characteristic of Basin Shoshonean groups and is indeed essential to their mere survival. Steward (1938) points up the fact that the subsistence problems of the area were essentially uniform, but the fertility and abundance of harvests in local areas was somewhat variable.

Seeds, roots and berries were gathered and prepared in the twined baskets for which the Shoshoneans are famous. 'IJITater jars were even made from basketry and lined with pitch, for the long trips between sources of drinking water.

Roots were dug wi th a digging stick which usually was of some hard woed such as mountain maho gany and had a fire-hardened point.

Seeds were caught in baskets as the plants were beaten with a basketry "seed beater".

Seeds were rendered digestible by hulling and grinding with milling stones.

The "Basketry - Gathering" complex which probably goes back at least lO,CCO years in the Great Basin (see wauchope, 1956) is very functional and efficient in this area, and is probably the only type of complex which would enable a non-agricul tural aboriginal group to survive in this demanding and stingy enviror~ent.

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Animal foods are much less abundant and less important to the Great Basin Shoshoneans but where they are available they are eagerly utilized.

Small game was much more important than the occasional kill of a large game animal, as was previously mentioned. Reptiles, insects, fish, and rodents of all sorts were utilized. Grasshoppers, locusts, crickets and ants were often taken in large numbers and were roasted and stored, and highly valued as food.

The American antelope, or pronghorn, though not the most important source of food, was honoured with more ritual than any other source of nutrition. The antelope drive was one of the few activities that drew together more people than one or two family groups for any amount of time. Through co-operative effort a large group of Indians would drive a small herd of antelope into a corral where they could easily dispatch them. These drives were managed by an antelope Shaman, who held one of the few roles of authority found among the Basin Shoshoneans, and this was only active during the actual antelope frive. This Shaman is supposed to have received the supernatural power to charm antelope in a dream or a vision.

Antelope were also hunted by the groups having horses, utilizing the true surround,; they were also stalked by the individual hunter di sguised in an antelope hide. The mule deer was hunted in the same varieties of ways that the antelope was, though not with the associated ritual. An occasional bison, elk, or mountain goat was killed, but too rarely to be of great significance.

Throughout the entire Great Basin the jackrabbit was very imp.rtant.

This rodent furnished the majority of the Shoshoneans l animal food and the hides were used to make the sabbit skin robes which were the major articles of clothing for the Shoshoneans.

Rabbit drives were imp~rtant, during which the rabbits were driven into nets and killed with clubs. A surround with fire was also used to catch rabbits. Jackrabbits were also taken individually by stalking with the bow and arrow, or by pulling them from their burrows with a curved stick.

Marmots, badgers, gophers, ground squirrels, prairie dogs, chipmunks, pack-rats, beavers, muskrats, and the chuckwalla lizard were also eaten a Fish were eaten where obtainable; the salmon on the tributaries of the Snake river were available to some of the more northern groups. The rivers of the area also offered suckers, chubs, minnows of several sorts, and some trout. Fishing techniques included nets, dams, and basketry wiers, shooting, harpooning, spearing, hooks and lines, diverting streams and stranding, and poisoning or stupifying.

There was little specialization among the Shoshoneans. The only real specialist was the Shaman and even he never earned a livelihood from his practice alone. Some men were also quite skilled at flintwork rr making bews, and some women were skillful potters, but none of these specialties were so developed as to furnish full support of an individual. As a rule

eaoh fan ily group made and gathered what it needed. The 'VIOmen did the gathering and prepared foods, made their utensils and olothing. The men did the hunting, made their weapons, the digging stioks, rabbit skin robes, built the houses, and helped move camp. steward (1938) defines the basie cultural orientation ~f the Basin Shoshonean groups a "gastric". He contends that, "Starvation was so oommon that all aotivities had to be ~rganized toward the food quest, which was carried on mostly by independent families."

The Pleistocene and Post Pleistocene Enviromnent During the Pleistocene the mountains bordering the Great Basin were subjected to local glaciation even though no great continental ice sheet eutered the area. Glacial scars may also still be seen on the higher mountain ridges within the Great Basin. The Steens Mountains of southeastern oregon, on the western flanks of which the Catlow Caves are located, are out by several "U" shaped valleys, mute testimony of Alpine glaciation.

During this period the climate was much oooler and ther was more precipitation and much less evaporation in the Great Basin. This led to the accumulation of very large bodies of water within the Basin. Largest of these were Lake Lahontan, a remnant of which is P,yramid Lake of Nevada, and Lake Bonneville of vhich only the Great Salt Lake remains (see Nap I, page 5). There were many other smaller lakes scattered between the ranges of the Great Basin. The r8mnants of many still survive as scattered playas, particularly throughc.ut the northern area, where desiccation has not been so complete.

Dr. Ernst Antevs has worked olosely with archaeologists and paleontologists to work out the Post Pleistocene history of the Great Basin and adjacent areas of western North America. His contributions have greatly aided the archaeologist, especially before the use of, and still in the laok cf absolute radio-carbon dating. Dr. Antevs suggests the following phases of the Post Pleistocene, or in his terminology, "The Neothermal", for the Great Basin (here reproduced as presented schematically by Cressman: 1956): THE NEO'PHERMAL (POSTGLACIAL OR POSTPLUVIAL) General temperature ages Moisture cllnditions in the Great Basin and oontiguous areas

Present •

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Me di thermal

Madera tely warm

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Arid and semiarid: Rebirth of lakes and glaciers; Summer Lake maximum 45 feet above average modern stand

2500 B.C • • • • • • • • • • • • • .

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•

•

•

ill

•

•

•

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Altithermal Distinctly warmer than at present 5000 B.C.

Arid: Disappearance of lakes and glaciers; Summer basin dry

. . . . . . ., . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Anathermal At first as today, but g1"owing warmer

7000 B. C• • •

Probably subhumid and semiarid: Lake in Summer basin at least 90 feet higher than modern lake

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Aschmann (1958) has recently criticized Antevs' sequences as being too neat. He holds that a lot of climatic fluctuation and modification has occllred in the Great Basin since the Pleistocene, but that the dating and neat packaging of phases of this period must await accumulation of more data.

Recent radio-carbon dates for occupation in caves within the extinct shorelines of prehistoric lakes are also in conflict with points of Antevs' dating.

The most that we can say at present about Great Basin Pleistocene and Post Pleistocene geochronology is that it is presently in a great state of flux. The cry is out for more absolute dating and in the meantime the chronology of Antevs and others must be used very carefully and with full . understanding of its deficiencies and limitations.

The Archaeological Record The archaeology of the Great Basin with reference to the particular sites will be best understood if I precede it with a preliminary presentation of the present status of Great Basin archaeological theory.

Recent publications on Great Basin archaeology (Jennings and Norbeck; 1956, Wauchope (Ed.): 1956, and Jennings: 1957) have postulated a basal culture of the G1"eat Basin which was rather uniform from about 9,000 years ago until about 5,000 years ago, after which there was regional differentiation on this base. This early culture is designated as "The Desert Culture."

The subsistence of this culture was based on the gathering of wild vegetable foods such as seeds, nuts, roots, and berries. According to Jennings (1957) this culture is, archaeologically, typically represented by the presence of the milling stone and the basket, the tools of a gathering, seed-grinding people. This culture doubtless has ties with the Cochise Culture of the American Southwest (Sayles, E. B., and Antevs, Ernst: 1941). Jennings (1957) also notes that the Desert Cul ture shares traits with Mocac Rock Shelter in IllinOiS, and the Guilford Focus in North Carolina.

The Desert Culture has been an object of controversy, This subdivision of ancient American culture has been attacked from several directions.

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Willey and Phillips (1955 :732-3) of the "limpers" scho('ll deny the bifurcation of the early American cul ture stage. They have simply thrown all of the ancient American cultural manifestations into a single stage: The Lithic stage (Willey and Phillips 1958:79). Their argument is: It is impossible to conceive of an early nonagricultural society that would not make the best use of whatever game and vegetable resources were available within the limits of its technology; consequently, any distinctions reflected in archaeology would simply be a function of the ecological balance in a particular time and place (Willey and Phillips 1955 :732-3).

In lv auchope (1956:71) it is argued that there is a sufficient difference in both the techuology and the environmental adaptation to justify the separation of the Desert Culture from the broad Palso-Indian hunting complex.

The second school (The Splitters) argues that even the term "Desert Culture" is too broad. They see local variations of this broad Desert Cluture as being significant. I feel that this point of view is quite justified and that perhaps the Desert Culture is even too much of a "lump."

The splitting, howeyer, is probably too extreme as done by Meighan (1959), who believes that he can isolate five basic early cultural traditions in the Great BaSin. Jennings (1957) however, limits the Desert Culture stage tEmporally and postulates regional differentiation since about 5,000 years ago. The remaining argument is one of theory, that is: how much variation can be contained in one cultural tradition.

None-the-less, the Desert Culture classification is useful in this study in that it gives a concise listing of diagnostic traits for the early cultures of the Great Basin. The Desert Culture is characterized by the following traits, as listed in Virauchope (1956:70): TRAITS OF THE DESERT CUL'lURE SE T'!LEMEN 'IS : 1.

2.

3.

Sparse population and small sociopolitical groups.

Cave and overhang locations favored for settlement.

Bark or grass beds.

SUBSISTENCE:

5.

6.

Nonsedentary seasonal gatherers.

IntensiYe exploitation of the environment, non-specj~lized in the sense of no major reliance on one resource, but cl'se adaptation to everything available including small mammals such as rodents.

7. Small seed harvesting, with special techniques of preparation and cooking (parching, extensive use of flour and mush).

ARTIFACT IN,7EN'IORYI 12

8.

9.

10.

11.

Basketry (twined basketry generally predominant) and cordage.

Netting and matting.

Use of fur cloth.

Tumplines as carrying devices.

12. Sandals (at least by 7,000 B.C.) moccasins rare.

13. Atlatl.

14. Use at times of pointed hardwood forshafts for atlatl darts, without stone points.

15. Varied chipped projectile points often relatively small in size; (local variations on named types including Chiricahus-Amargos&, Pinto, Langtry, Gypsum, San Pedro, (Lake Mohave).

16. Preferential use of basalt, quartzite, and andesite for stone tools in early stages, later shift toward obsidian, chalcedony, and other glassy-textured rocks where available.

17. Percussion chipping techniques predominate; preferential use of large flakes, cores, and spalls.

18. Flat milling stones with cobble m:mo (by about 7,000 B. C. ); Basin milling stones also present.

19. A number of specialized stone tools (such as those called ovoid scrapers, choppers, pulping planes, scraper planes) of very crude "paleolithic" appearance.

2~.

T'igging stick.

21. Bunt points.

22. Firedrill and hearth.

23. Flat, curved wooden clubs.

24. Horn shaft wrenches.

25. Tubular pipes or sucking tubes.

26. Use of Oliva, Olivella, and other shell beads from the coasts of California and/or the Bulf of California.

27. Vegetable quids.

28. Dogs, at least by 4,000 B.C. Radiocarbon dates from the Desert Culture sites have clearly shown that t.he Desert Culture is at least as old as the Big Game hunting tradition to the east and it could, conceivably be older. Danger Cave, in the early occupation level, is dated at over 11,000 years ago (libby 1955) and Fort Rock Cave in Oregon is dated directly from textiles at over 9,000 years a60 (Libby 1955).

The origin of the Desert Culture is undetermined. There are several possibilities, each with a similar lack of positive and negative evidence.

1) ~he Desert Culture could have developed from a Big Game hunting base under pressures of a particular enviro nnent on this continent. 2) The resert Culture and the Big Game h~~ting culture could have both developed from an earlier common base on this continent, which is not yet defined.

3) The two traditions may have diversified in Asia from a corzjmon base.

4) 'The cultures may be of quite diversified origins in the Old World.

In view of the lack of data and the multitude of possible postulations the puzzles of the origin of the Desert Culture and the differentiations of the earliest known American cultures are far from solution at this time.

13