Geoff Smith
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| Figure 1: Map of Nevada showing location of Parman Lake sites. |
Northwest Nevada is rich in Paleoarchaic resources. Recent investigations have revealed that early-period hunter-gatherers were active in the Black Rock Desert–High Rock Canyon region. Fieldwork conducted during the 2004 season in the Five Mile Flat basin has identified several significant archaeological sites dating to between 11,500 and 7,500 years ago (BP) (Beck and Jones 1997). These sites promise to address issues of prehistoric mobility during the Terminal Pleistocene/Early Holocene transition.
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| Figure 2: View of Five Mile Flat and Parman archaeological localities. |
Sundance-sponsored field research in the Five Mile Flat basin was conducted in June 2004. Close-interval pedestrian survey of four sites initially identified by Thomas Layton in the late 1960s revealed the presence of over one hundred Great Basin stemmed projectile points and eight hundred associated lithic tools. These sites are situated above the 5,857’ contour interval interpreted by Layton (1979) and Mifflin and Wheat (1979) as representing a shoreline of Pluvial Lake Parman.
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| Figure 3: Dave Valentine, Ted Goebel, and Geoff Smith mapping Parman Locality 1. |
The adaptive strategies of early-period hunter-gatherers in the Great Basin are poorly-understood. Unfortunately, the subsistence record is scant. Jones and Beck (1999) suggest that lithic technological organization analysis and geochemical source provenance studies may supplement information provided by subsistence remains and contribute to an understanding of human adaptive strategies during the Terminal Pleistocene/Early Holocene.
Current research issues related to the Lake Parman assemblages include: (1) analyzing the lithic technological organization of the assemblages; and (2) identifying the territorial and/or subsistence ranges of the occupants of the sites through geochemical source provenance analysis (obsidian sourcing). The results of these analyses will be incorporated into a long-term study of mobility patterns in the northwest Great Basin. Studies of this sort are beginning to provide a picture of early-period territorial and subsistence ranges and suggest that there is considerable variation in how populations moved across the landscape in different regions of the Great Basin.
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| Figure 4: Stemmed points and point fragments from the Parman localities. |
Preliminary observations of the technological organization of the Lake Parman collections suggest that elements of curation, including multi-use tools and tool recycling, are present in the assemblages. Curated assemblages are frequently associated with highly mobile populations and the presence of these elements suggests that the occupants of Lake Parman were far-ranging.
Geochemical sourcing of 100 artifacts from the sites appears to confirm this hypothesis. The Lake Parman assemblages are primarily manufactured on obsidian, which originated from between approximately 5 km and 200 km away. Additional geochemical sourcing and more in-depth analysis of the lithic assemblages will provide a more complete picture of early-period technological organizations.
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| Figure 5: Neill Puckett (left), Doug Kalley, Travis Wiltse, and Geoff Smith taking a break during a hot Black Rock afternoon. |
Special thanks to Craig Skinner, Northwest Research Obsidian Laboratory, Corvallis, OR, the Nevada Archaeological Association, Am-Arcs of Nevada, and the Winnemucca Field Office of the Bureau of Land Management, for supporting this project.
Beck, Charlotte, and George T. Jones
1997 The Terminal Pleistocene/Early Holocene Archaeology of the Great Basin. Journal of World Prehistory 11(2):161-236.
Jones, George T., and Charlotte Beck
1999 Paleoarchaic Archaeology in the Great Basin. In Models for the Millennium, edited by Charlotte Beck, pp. 83-95. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.
Layton, Thomas N.
1979 Archaeology and Paleo-Ecology of Pluvial Lake Parman, Northwestern Great Basin. Journal of New World Archaeology 3(3):41-56.
Miffin, H. D., and M. M. Wheat
1979 Pluvial Lakes and Estimated Pluvial Climates of Nevada. Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology Bulletin 94. Mackay School of Mines, University of Nevada, Reno.