Alyce Branigan
The main goal of the work done in the Alvord Basin by the Sundance Archaeological Research Fund during the summer of 2001 was to gather information for a Master's Thesis by Alyce Branigan to be completed in December 2002. The proposed thesis will compare and contrast economic and ecological models of settlement and subsistence patterns with a cognitive processual landscape model based on Renfrew and Bahn (1982) and Renfrew and Zubrow (1996). The crew chief and project director was Alyce Branigan. Crew members included Teresa Wriston, Kurt Perkins, Jerry Jerrems, Amy Patrick, Kirk Peterson, Guy Fett, and Diane Ness.
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| Figure 1: Map of Oregon. |
The Alvord Basin is located in the hydrographic Great Basin on the northeastern and southeastern borders of Nevada and Oregon (Figure 1). The area is of interest to Sundance because the basin is typical of other Great Basin localities which contain extinct paleolakes and remnant landforms associated with high stands of these bodies of water. Many archaeologists have worked in the Alvord Basin, starting with Luther Cressman in 1942, leading to the discovery and recording of many prehistoric sites. Despite these projects, no firm lakeshore chronology has been developed for the Alvord Basin, and no comprehensive regional analysis of the archaeological record has been attempted. Sundance field research in 2001 was directed at filling in some of these gaps.
Pre-field research was conducted in January 2001 at the Bureau of Land Management office in Burns, Oregon, with the assistance of Scott Thomas, Burns District Archaeologist. A search of site forms and cultural resource management literature led to the decision to conduct a pedestrian survey. Survey was conducted at 30-meter intervals using various survey strategies. The survey strategy was designed to look at areas not covered by past surveys. Also, survey areas were selected that ensured coverage of all major topographic and vegetation zones in the Alvord region. In all, about 3,000 acres were surveyed. The final site and isolate count has not been finished, but several new prehistoric sites were discovered (Figure 2) and numerous isolated points from all periods, including a Clovis base (Figure 3), were collected.
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| Figure 2: Sundance survey crew at Juniper Lake. | Figure 3: Clovis fluted point base found during 2001 Sundance survey. |
A geographic information systems (GIS) amenable database is being designed, and GIS layers are in the process of being constructed. Layers will include reconstructed paleoshorelines and paleovegetation. Two-hundred early (11.5 to 6.5 BP) projectile points will be sourced and a least-cost-path analysis will be done tracing lithic artifacts to sources. Variables such as view shed not normally included in prehistoric site studies will be analyzed through GIS to determine patterns and preferences in site location.
Renfrew, Colin, and Paul Bahn
1991 Archaeology: Theories, Methods, and Practice. New York: Thames and Hudson.
Refrew, Colin, and Ezra Zubrow (editors)
1994 The Ancient Mind: Elements of Cognitive Anthropology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.