Judson Byrd Finley

OBSIDIAN SOURCE USE IN THE GREATER YELLOWSTONE AREA, WYOMING BASIN, AND CENTRAL ROCKY MOUNTAINS

Using x-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis from nearly 2,300 sourced obsidian artifacts in western Wyoming, southwestern Montana, and eastern Idaho, we demonstrate regional diachronic changes in access to and preference for particular obsidian sources throughout the West. We focus on both (I) long-term patterns of obsidian use that may inform us about the timing of precontact migrations of Numic (Shoshone) speakers into the Rocky Mountains and (2) the extent to which later contact among Native inhabitants and European immigrants was a mechanism for reducing elements of precontact mobility and exchange in the postcontact era. We view indigenous responses to contact in the study area as an active, strategic process with measurable material consequences. Despite a well-documented increase in mobility among local Native groups as a result of the introduction of the horse, our study demonstrates a restriction and reduction in Historic period source use in western Wyoming. We propose that changes in obsidian source use are a reflection of ethnogenesis and development of ethnographic bands as a response to culture contact among indigenous inhabitants and with Europeans.

The frequency and typology of ceramic sites in western Wyoming

Abstract Native ceramics are rare in the northwestern High Plains and Central Rocky Mountains where prehistory is dominated by mobile foraging societies and pottery appears late in the archaeological record. Our survey of the Wyoming Cultural Resource Information System for 11 western Wyoming counties and the Yellowstone National Park found 209 sites with sherd frequencies ranging from less than 10 to more than 1,000 yielding an estimate of 6175 total sherds. Ceramic sites are most common in southwest Wyoming, due in part to intense energy development and associated archaeological inventories but also to the overlap of multi-regional ceramic traditions. Ceramic typologies for western Wyoming are poorly standardized with variable grey wares attributed to Fremont, Shoshone, and Crow ceramic traditions. In this study, we summarize the frequency and typology of Wyoming ceramic traditions and outline a protocol for further research of an understudied but potentially informative component of the regional archaeological record.

Domestic campsites and cyber landscapes in the Rocky Mountains

The dwellings of prehistoric Native North Americans are amongst the hardest archaeological structures to find and characterise – they leave only a shallow ring of stones. But the authors show that, when recorded to modern levels of precision, these tipi-stances contain a wealth of information. The stone rings are mapped in detail by hand, and located by GPS, their hearths are located by fluxgate survey and sampled for radiocarbon dating, and the results displayed in layered maps on GIS. Different social groups had different floor plans, so that, even where artefacts are missing, the movement of peoples can be dated and mapped. The results also bring to the fore the great cultural value of these, the dominant monument types of Bighorn Canyon National Recreational Area.

SINGLE-GRAIN OPTICALLY STIMULATED LUMINESCENCE AGES OF BROWNWARE POTTERY IN THE MIDDLE ROCKY MOUNTAINS AND THE SPREAD OF NUMIC CERAMIC TECHNOLOGY

This study presents the results of a single-grain optically stimulated luminescence (SG-OSL) analysis of brownware pottery from four Late Prehistoric-period sites in the Middle Rocky Mountains, Wyoming, USA. SG-OSL of quartz ceramic temper provides improved age control for sites where radiocarbon dating has proven problematic due to old wood, recent wildfires, and calibration uncertainties. SG-OSL results are compared to fine-grain infrared stimulated luminescence (FG-IRSL) results from the same sherds and associated radiocarbon ages. We find that the single-grain technique applied to quartz sand temper provides improved accuracy and precision over both FG-IRSL and radiocarbon. We compare our results to directly dated brownwares from the southern and eastern Great Basin based largely on thermoluminescence analysis. While brownware ceramics appear earliest in the southwestern Great Basin, our data show that the technology spread quickly to the northeastern margin of the Numic homelands. We suggest that knowledge of ceramic technology in Formative (i.e., Ancestral Pueblo and Fremont) societies was important in the adoption of pottery by Numic hunter-gatherers and that, like in the southwestern Great Basin, this technological adaptation in the Middle Rocky Mountains may have occurred within a context of resource intensification during the last 800 years. Este trabajo presenta los resultados de un análisis de luminiscencia ópticamente estimulada de grano único (SG-OSL) de la cerámica café procedente de cuatro sitios del período prehistórico tardío en las Montañas Rocosas centrales, Wyoming, Estados Unidos. El análisis SG-OSL de cuarzo usado como desgrasante en la cerámica proporciona un mejor control cronológico para sitios donde la datación por radiocarbono ha resultado problemática debido a madera vieja, incendios recientes e incertidumbres de calibración. Se comparan los resultados del análisis SG-OSL con los de la luminiscencia estimulada por infrarrojo de grano fino (FG-IRSL) de los mismos tiestos y con las edades de radiocarbono asociadas. Encontramos que la técnica de grano único aplicada al desgrasante de arena de cuarzo proporciona mayor precisión y exactitud que el FG-IRSL y el radiocarbono. Comparamos nuestros resultados con muestras directamente datadas de cerámica café procedentes de la Gran Cuenca meridional y oriental principalmente con base en el análisis por termoluminiscencia. Mientras que la cerámica café aparece antes en el suroeste de la Gran Cuenca, nuestros datos muestran que la tecnología se extendió rápidamente al margen noreste del territorio de origen de la gente de habla Numic. Sugerimos que el conocimiento de la tecnología cerámica en las sociedades formativas (es decir, Pueblo ancestral y Fremont) fue importante en la adopción de cerámica por los cazadores-recolectores númicos y que, al igual que en la Gran Cuenca del suroeste, esta adaptación tecnológica en las Montañas Rocosas centrales podría haber ocurrido en un contexto de intensificación de recursos durante los últimos 800 años.

Synchronization of energy consumption by human societies throughout the Holocene

Significance We report coincident changes in the consumption of energy by human populations over the last 10,000 y—synchrony—and document patterns consistent with the contemporary process of globalization operating in the past. Our results suggest that the process of globalization may display great antiquity among our species, and this knowledge provides an entry point for integrating insights from archaeological research into discussions on the long-term consequences of globalization for building sustainable societies. Our results demonstrate the potential for archaeological radiocarbon records to serve as a basis for millennial-scale comparisons of human energy dynamics and provide a baseline for further cross-cultural research on the long-term growth and decline trajectories of human societies. We conduct a global comparison of the consumption of energy by human populations throughout the Holocene and statistically quantify coincident changes in the consumption of energy over space and time—an ecological phenomenon known as synchrony. When populations synchronize, adverse changes in ecosystems and social systems may cascade from society to society. Thus, to develop policies that favor the sustained use of resources, we must understand the processes that cause the synchrony of human populations. To date, it is not clear whether human societies display long-term synchrony or, if they do, the potential causes. Our analysis begins to fill this knowledge gap by quantifying the long-term synchrony of human societies, and we hypothesize that the synchrony of human populations results from (i) the creation of social ties that couple populations over smaller scales and (ii) much larger scale, globally convergent trajectories of cultural evolution toward more energy-consuming political economies with higher carrying capacities. Our results suggest that the process of globalization is a natural consequence of evolutionary trajectories that increase the carrying capacities of human societies.

Return to Fort Rock Cave: Assessing the Site's Potential to Contribute to Ongoing Debates about how and when Humans Colonized the Great Basin

Oregons Fort Rock Cave is iconic in respect to both the archaeology of the northern Great Basin and the history of debate about when the Great Basin was colonized. In 1938, Luther Cressman recovered dozens of sagebrush bark sandals from beneath Mt. Mazama ash that were later radiocarbon dated to between 10,500 and 9350 cal B.P. In 1970, Stephen Bedwell reported finding lithic tools associated with a date of more than 15,000 cal B.P., a date dismissed as unreasonably old by most researchers. Now, with evidence of a nearly 15,000-year-old occupation at the nearby Paisley Five Mile Point Caves, we returned to Fort Rock Cave to evaluate the validity of Bedwells claim, assess the stratigraphic integrity of remaining deposits, and determine the potential for future work at the site. Here, we report the results of additional fieldwork at Fort Rock Cave undertaken in 2015 and 2016, which supports the early Holocene occupation, but does not confirm a pre–10,500 cal B.P. human presence. La cueva de Fort Rock en Oregón es icónica por lo que representa para la arqueología de la parte norte de la Gran Cuenca y para la historia del debate sobre la primera ocupación de la Gran Cuenca. En 1938, Luther Cressman recuperó docenas de sandalias de corteza de artemisa debajo de una capa de cenizas del monte Mazama que fueron posteriormente fechadas por radiocarbono entre 10,500 y 9200 cal a.P. En 1970, Stephen Bedwell reportó haber encontrado herramientas líticas en asociación con una fecha de más de 15,000 cal. a.P., una fecha descartada como irrazonablemente antigua por la mayoría de los investigadores. Ahora, con evidencia de una ocupación de casi 15,000 años de antigüedad en las cercanas cinco cuevas de Paisley Five Mile Point, regresamos a la cueva de Fort Rock para evaluar la validez de las afirmaciones de Bedwell, evaluar la integridad estratigráfica de los depósitos restantes y determinar el potencial para investigaciones futuras en el lugar. Aquí presentamos los resultados de trabajo adicional en la cueva de Fort Rock llevado a cabo en 2015 y 2016. Estos apoyan la ocupación en el Holoceno temprano, pero no confirman una presencia humana antes de 10,500 cal a.P.