Palynological Perspectives on Younger Dryas to Early Holocene Human Ecology at Paisley Caves, Oregon (original) (raw)
Quaternary International, 2011
Global climate change associated with the onset of the Younger Dryas chronozone affected different regions of the northern hemisphere in different ways. In the Great Basin of western North America, the effect was positive for human populations. Relatively cool temperatures causing effectively wetter conditions filled some pluvial basins with shallow but permanent lakes and other basins with wellwatered marshes or meadows. Vegetation communities dominated by sagebrush and grasses promoted healthy and diverse animal populations. Ten archaeological sites from the region have been dated to the Younger Dryas chronozone. Evidence from these sites indicates that Paleoindians with skull shapes and mitochondrial DNA similar to modern western North American Indians occupied the region. These early humans produced a material culture characterized predominantly by large stemmed bifacial points, although one site contained a small fluted point. Curated tool forms and technological activities represented in analyzed lithic assemblages suggest a highly mobile settlement strategy, and redundant short-term occupations of sites indicate frequent and long-distance residential moves across territories spanning distances of up to 400 km. Paleoindian subsistence pursuits focused on artiodactyls (primarily mule deer, bighorn sheep, and pronghorn antelope), leporids (chiefly jackrabbits), birds (sage grouse and waterfowl), insects (grasshoppers), and possibly fish. Easy-to-process plants like cactus pads were also eaten, but small seeds do not seem to have been an important part of Great Basin human diets until long after the Younger Dryas, closer to 9500 cal BP. The Great Basin record contains no evidence for natural catastrophe at the onset of the chronozone. Instead, the Younger Dryas appears to have been among the best of times for human foragers in this region of North America.
Quaternary Science Reviews, 2021
The extent to which long-term climate change has influenced cultural evolution among hunter-gatherers has long been debated. In the Great Salt Lake desert (USA), a detailed record of paleoenvironmental change has been developed for the last 15,000 years, but a similarly complete chronicle of human occupation and adaptation is less secure. Here, we report and analyze one of the largest datasets (n ¼ 247) of radiocarbon ages yet amassed from a single archaeological site in the Americas d Bonneville Estates Rockshelter, Nevada d to investigate human-environment interaction in this desert setting since 13,000 years ago. Results show a striking consistency in human-occupation intensity and oscillations between cool, mesic and warm, arid climate, specifically high occupation intensity during relatively cool times, and low intensity d even abandonment d during extended periods of drought. The ultimate outcome is a clear case of how long-term oscillations in climate can repeatedly motivate change in foraging societies in a marginal environmental setting.
Quaternary International, 2011
Three approaches are used to test whether or not human populations across North America were affected by abrupt climate change and/or other environmental factors associated with the onset of the Younger Dryas (YD) cooling episode at ca. 12,900 cal BP. They are: (1) frequency analyses of Paleoindian projectile points from across North America; (2) time series of lithic assemblages from eleven Paleoindian quarry sites in the southeastern United States; and (3) summed probability analyses (SPA) of radiocarbon dates from cultural (human-related) sites across North America and parts of the Old World. The results of each analysis suggest a significant decline and/or reorganization in human population during the early centuries of the YD, varying in extent by region. Archaeological settings formerly heavily utilized, such as stone quarries in the southeastern U.S., appear to have been largely abandoned, while over large areas, a substantial decline occurred in the numbers of diagnostic projectile points and cultural radiocarbon dates. Later in the YD, beginning after about 12,600 cal BP, there was an apparent resurgence in population and/or settlements in many areas, as indicated by increases in projectile points, quarry usage, and human-related radiocarbon ages.
Quaternary International, 2011
This paper reviews the current archaeological and palaeo-environmental evidence from the Younger Dryas period on the Northwest Coast of North America. Sea level histories are region-specific, ranging from 100 m lower to 150 m higher than modern at ca. 12,200 cal BP, the mid-point of the Younger Dryas. Palaeo-environmental evidence shows temperature decrease across the study area, but in some regions this is accompanied by greater precipitation and glacial advance whereas in other conditions were drier. Terrestrial vegetation reflects this variability, with northern areas in particular showing evidence for expansion of herb and shrub tundra and southern areas marked by increased mountain hemlock and other species. Marine, intertidal and terrestrial fauna indicate productive ecosystems, with some sub-regional changes, such as extirpation of deer and bison, perhaps associated with the Younger Dryas onset. Stable isotope analysis of bear remains show these species, which are a good ecological analogue for humans, exploited both marine and terrestrial resources. Despite patchy and dynamic marine and terrestrial environments, these results suggest a challenging, yet viable environment for humans. Archaeological evidence for Younger Dryas human occupation is currently limited to six sites, of which four are associated with karst caves. The earliest of these are in Haida Gwaii, where bear hunting is dated to at least 12,650 cal BP, during the heart of the Younger Dryas interval. Other sites in southeast Alaska and in the Fraser River lowlands date to around 12,100 cal BP. In Puget Sound, the presence of ca. 13,000 cal BP Clovis surface collections, and the emerging data from the pre-Clovis Ayer Pond bison butchery site, suggest pre-Younger Dryas occupation. The Northwest Coast was open to population movement from both the north and south in the poorly known interval before the Younger Dryas, when conditions may have been more moderate and stable. The sub-regional variation and the scale of environmental change in the Younger Dryas, especially sea level fluctuation, makes discovery of Pleistocene archaeological sites challenging. The Younger Dryas may therefore be seen as something of a worst-case scenario for both the human occupation and the archaeological investigation of the Northwest Coast.
2012
The relationship between climate change at the Pleistocene-Holocene Boundary (ca. 12,600-10,200 cal B.P.) and cultural responses to attendant shifts in the environment remains a vexing issue for archaeologists. This study compiles and analyzes glacial, palynological, faunal, and stratigraphic/geomorphological proxy datasets for climate change in the Pacific Northwest of North America and compares them to the coeval archaeological record. The primary purpose of this exercise is to consider the potential ways in which climate change at the Pleistocene-Holocene Boundary affected cultural development for Late Paleoindian-Early Archaic peoples in the Pacific Northwest. Results indicate that climatic and environmental change at this interval was rapid or abrupt, and of a magnitude that likely produced varying adaptational responses by peoples of different cultural traditions who appear across the region at this period. Transformations in tools and technology, shifts in dietary habits, migration and regionalization, and trade intensification are all elements of Late Paleoindian-Early Archaic cultural responses to rapid climate change.
Late Holocene Occupation of the Birch Creek Site (35ML181), Southeastern Oregon
2009
Recent studies of the Late Archaic period in the Great Basin have identified major changes in settlement, subsistence, and technology compared to those seen during the Middle Archaic. The concern of this study is whether the Late Archaic at the Birch Creek Site (35ML181) is marked by a significant change in adaptive strategy, as it appears to be in much of the Great Basin. This thesis uses the sediments encountered and material recovered from the 2006 excavations of the Birch Creek Site, including datable samples, ancient pollen, ground stone tools, chipped stone tools and debitage, faunal remains, and evidence of ceramic technology as evidence of the adaptive strategy of Late Archaic people at the Birch Creek Site. The Late Archaic component was expected to be structured very differently from earlier materials if it were created by a new group of people practicing a new adaptive strategy beginning during the Late Archaic. Comparisons of Late Archaic artifact assemblages to previously studied materials from the Middle Archaic component of the Birch Creek Site were used to determine if a discontinuity in adaptive strategy exists. Material evidence of settlement, subsistence, and technological organization do not reflect direct continuity, nor do they indicate an abrupt shift, in adaptive strategies. The adaptive strategy during Late Archaic occupation of the Birch Creek Site appears to be a product of relatively local conditions related to subsistence and tool raw material resources, with some indications of wider regional interactions.
Quaternary Research, 2011
The last glacial-interglacial transition (LGIT; 19-9 ka) was characterized by rapid climate changes and significant ecosystem reorganizations worldwide. In western Colorado, one of the coldest locations in the continental US today, mountain environments during the late-glacial period are poorly known. Yet, archaeological evidence from the Mountaineer site (2625 m elev.) indicates that Folsom-age Paleoindians were over-wintering in the Gunnison Basin during the Younger Dryas Chronozone (YDC; 12.9-11.7 ka). To determine the vegetation and fire history during the LGIT, and possible explanations for occupation during a period thought to be harsher than today, a 17-ka-old sediment core from Lily Pond (3208 m elev.) was analyzed for pollen and charcoal and compared with other high-resolution records from the southern Rocky Mountains. Widespread tundra and Picea parkland and low fire activity in the cold wet late-glacial period transitioned to open subalpine forest and increased fire activity in the Bølling-Allerød period as conditions became warmer and drier. During the YDC, greater winter snowpack than today and prolonged wet springs likely expanded subalpine forest to lower elevations than today, providing construction material and fuel for the early inhabitants. In the early to middle Holocene, arid conditions resulted in xerophytic vegetation and frequent fire.
Human Response to Climate during the Younger Dryas Chronozone in Central Alaska
Quaternary International, 2011
Human response to climatic conditions during the turbulent terminal Pleistocene has long concerned archaeologists and paleoecologists alike, especially with regards to the Younger Dryas. In some regions of the Northern Hemisphere the Younger Dryas was not significantly felt; however, in far northern regions affects of climate change are often acute. This paper focuses on the central Alaskan record to explore humaneenvironment interactions during the terminal Pleistocene and tackle questions regarding human response to the Younger Dryas. This region of Beringia preserves a wealth of both paleoecological and archaeological data. Relative to other northern landscapes, proxy data from central Alaska indicate the Younger Dryas signal was somewhat muted but still characterized by return to cooler and/or more arid conditions. This phenomenon likely affected distributions and character of both floral and faunal resources, altering human perception of the surrounding landscape and potentially leading to reorganization of technologies, subsistence behavior, and land-use strategies.
Reinvestigating Cougar Mountain Cave: New Perspectives on Stratigraphy, Chronology, and a Younger Dryas Occupation in the Northern Great Basin, 2019
to evaluate the potential for further research, collecting additional lithic and fiber artifacts from disturbed deposits and in situ charcoal from apparently undisturbed deposits. Because Cowles took few notes or photographs, the Cougar Mountain Cave collection-most of which is housed at the Favell Museum in Klamath Falls, Oregon-has largely gone unstudied even though it contains diagnostic artifacts spanning the Holocene and, potentially, the terminal Pleistocene. We recently submitted charcoal and basketry from the site for radiocarbon dating, providing the first reliable sense of when Cougar Mountain Cave was first occupied. Our results indicate at least a Younger Dryas age for initial occupation. The directly dated basketry has provided new information about the age ranges and spatial distributions of diagnostic textile types in the northwestern Great Basin. La Cueva de Cougar Mountain se encuentra en la Cuenca de Fort Rock, en Oregón. En 1958, el arqueólogo vocacional John Cowles excavó la mayor parte de los depósitos de la cueva y recuperó abundantes artefactos de fibra, piedra tallada, madera y hueso. Un equipo de la Universidad de California, Davis, regresó al sitio en 1966 para evaluar su potencial investigativo. Durante esta visita también se recolectaron nuevos artefactos líticos y de fibra de los depósitos perturbados y se tomaron muestras de carbón in situ de depósitos aparentemente intactos. Debido a que Cowles tomó pocas notas o fotografías, la colección de la Cueva de Cougar Mountain, la mayoría de la cual está almacenada en el Museo Favell en Klamath Falls, Oregón, ha quedado sin estudiar, a pesar de que contiene artefactos que abarcan el Holoceno y, potencialmente, el Pleistoceno terminal. Hace poco sometimos muestras de carbón y cestería del sitio a datación por radiocarbono, lo que nos proporcionó una primera estimación confiable de la ocupación inicial en la Cueva de Cougar Mountain. Nuestros resultados indican que la ocupación inicial ocurrió por lo menos en el Dryas Reciente. La cestería, que fue fechada directamente, nos proporciona nueva información sobre los rangos de edad y la distribución espacial de tipos de textiles diagnósticos en el noroeste de la Gran Cuenca.
Younger Dryas Environments and Archaeology on the Northwest Coast of North America
Quaternary International, 2011
This paper reviews the current archaeological and palaeo-environmental evidence from the Younger Dryas period on the Northwest Coast of North America. Sea level histories are region-specific, ranging from 100 m lower to 150 m higher than modern at ca. 12,200 cal BP, the mid-point of the Younger Dryas. Palaeo-environmental evidence shows temperature decrease across the study area, but in some regions this is accompanied by greater precipitation and glacial advance whereas in other conditions were drier. Terrestrial vegetation reflects this variability, with northern areas in particular showing evidence for expansion of herb and shrub tundra and southern areas marked by increased mountain hemlock and other species. Marine, intertidal and terrestrial fauna indicate productive ecosystems, with some subregional changes, such as extirpation of deer and bison, perhaps associated with the Younger Dryas onset. Stable isotope analysis of bear remains show these species, which are a good ecological analogue for humans, exploited both marine and terrestrial resources. Despite patchy and dynamic marine and terrestrial environments, these results suggest a challenging, yet viable environment for humans. Archaeological evidence for Younger Dryas human occupation is currently limited to six sites, of which four are associated with karst caves. The earliest of these are in Haida Gwaii, where bear hunting is dated to at least 12,650 cal BP, during the heart of the Younger Dryas interval. Other sites in southeast Alaska and in the Fraser River lowlands date to around 12,100 cal BP. In Puget Sound, the presence of ca. 13,000 cal BP Clovis surface collections, and the emerging data from the pre-Clovis Ayer Pond bison butchery site, suggest pre-Younger Dryas occupation. The Northwest Coast was open to population movement from both the north and south in the poorly known interval before the Younger Dryas, when conditions may have been more moderate and stable. The sub-regional variation and the scale of environmental change in the Younger Dryas, especially sea level fluctuation, makes discovery of Pleistocene archaeological sites challenging. The Younger Dryas may therefore be seen as something of a worst-case scenario for both the human occupation and the archaeological investigation of the Northwest Coast.
The Great Basin has traditionally not featured prominently in discussions of how and when the New World was colonized; however, in recent years work at Oregon's Paisley Five Mile Point Caves and other sites has highlighted the region's importance to ongoing debates about the peopling of the 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.
The Holocene, 2010
We compare environmental changes recorded in stalagmites and alluvium from the mountainous Buckeye Creek basin of West Virginia, USA to a nearby, independent archaeological record of Native American presences in the forested watershed. A climatic record constructed from stable isotopic (δ 18 O calc and δ 13 C calc ) and trace metal (Sr/Ca) ratios in stalagmitic calcite is consistent with regional palynology during much of the Holocene. The stalagmite δ 13 C calc and Sr/Ca values track aridity associated with North Atlantic Ocean (NAO) ice-rafting events during solar minima. However, the δ 13 C calc record diverges sharply from the Sr/Ca record at~2100 (calendar) years BP, which maintains the same relationship with ice rafting in the NAO. A dramatic and sustained enrichment in δ 13 C calc values (>1‰) without a corresponding shift in Sr/Ca values, suggests a systemic change in above-cave vegetation and soil carbon. This hypothesis is corroborated by a record of the stable isotopic composition of bulk organic carbon (δ 13 C org ) in alluvial silts. Cultural artefacts record Native American presences in the watershed during the late Holocene and archaeologists place peak Native American presence as having occurred between 750 and 550 years BP, nearly contemporaneous with peaks in δ 13 C calc , δ 13 C org , and relative charcoal abundances documented herein. Notably, values of the three environmental proxies decrease after Native Americans abandoned the watershed. The available evidence is consistent with Native Americans having made significant changes to the area's ecosystem and soils prior to the arrival of Euro-colonial peoples at~225 years BP. Our findings highlight the active roles native peoples had in shaping the North American "wilderness" described prior to its destruction by early European settlers.
Evidence for Younger Dryas Global Climate Oscillation and Human Response in the American South¬west
Whether or not abrupt Younger Dryas climate change affected regional paleoenvironments and late Pleistocene hunter-gatherer populations is an important topic in the archaeology of the American Southwest. This paper reviews multiple, age-resolved proxy evidence to gauge the magnitude and direction of Younger Dryas Chronozone (YDC) environmental changes in different settings and systems. There is no record of YDC pluvial lake highstands in Arizona or New Mexico, but there are impressive records of vegetation, faunal, stable isotope, and geomorphological change coincident with the YDC. These correlate with important adaptive changes in human hunting and land use, as revealed in the analysis of the spatiotemporal distribution of late Pleistocene hunting technologies. Clovis and Folsom projectile point distributions do not support extant models of paleoenvironmental conditions in these interpretations. Significant cultural changes that coincide with the YDC include the Clovis-to-Folsom transition, the demise of mammoth hunting and the development of a highly successful emphasis on bison, increased regionalization, and the abandonment of the northwestern Chihuahuan and the Sonoran deserts by mobile, big-game hunters.
A continuous climatic impact on Holocene human population in the Rocky Mountains
Ancient cultural changes have often been linked to abrupt climatic events, but the potential that climate can exert a persistent influence on human populations has been debated. Here, independent population, temperature, and moisture history reconstructions from the Bighorn Basin in Wyoming (United States) show a clear quantitative relationship spanning 13 ka, which explains five major periods of population growth/decline and ∼45% of the population variance. A persistent ∼300-y lag in the human demographic response conforms with either slow (∼0.3%) intrinsic annual population growth rates or a lag in the environmental carrying capacity, but in either case, the population continuously adjusted to changing environmental conditions. climate change | demography | hunter-gatherers | paleoecology M any cultural changes have been linked to climate change, from the collapse of civilizations (1) to the frequency of civil conflict (2). However, tests of the relationship between climate and population size have been hampered by the lack of long-term, highresolution records that are collaboratively interpreted by archaeologists and paleoclimatologists (3). One consequence is that many archaeological examples emphasize the impact of severe events and have not resolved the importance of continuous climate change in shaping cultural history. Here, we report on high-resolution approaches to paleoclimate and population reconstructions that permit us to ask how human population size responds to moisture and temperature dynamics over long timescales. We examine the hunter-gatherer population history of the Bighorn Basin ( in Wyoming (United States) over the past 13,000 y and test whether that history is associated with changes in moisture and temperature.
Late Miocene climate and life on land in Oregon within a context of Neogene global change
Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 2004
Clarendonian (12 Ma) fossil soils, plants, molluscs, fish, and mammals of eastern Oregon allow reconstruction of late Miocene paleogeography, paleoclimate, and paleoecology on land between the global thermal maximum of the middle Miocene (16 Ma) and global cooling and drying of the late Miocene (7 Ma). Six different pedotypes of paleosols recognized near Unity and Juntura allow reinterpretation of local mammalian paleoecology. Fossil beavers dominated gleyed Entisols of riparian forest. Abundant camels and common hipparionine horses dominated Alfisols of wooded grassland and grassy woodland. Diatomites overlying mammal-bearing beds have bullhead catfish [Ictalurus (Ameiurus) vespertinus], as well as fossil leaves dominated by live oak (Quercus pollardiana). Fossil plants and soils of Unity and Juntura are most like those of grassy live oak woodland and savanna on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada in northern California today. Fossil plants and soils indicate mean annual temperature of 12.9 (7.7-17.7) 8C and mean annual precipitation of 879 (604-1098) mm. Miocene paleoclimatic changes in eastern Oregon show no relationship to changes in oxygen isotopic composition of marine foraminifera, usually taken as an index of global paleoclimatic change. Mismatch between land and sea paleoclimatic records is most likely an artefact of global ice volume perturbation of oxygen isotopic values. Instead, Miocene paleoclimatic change in eastern Oregon parallels changes in carbon isotopic composition of marine foraminifera, presumably through fluctuations in greenhouse gases. D