xviii, 326 p. : ill. (some col.), maps. A print copy of this title is available through the UO Libraries under the call number: KNIGHT GN799 .F6 H46 2002 / Archaeological evidence indicates that cold storage of bison meat was
consistently practiced on the eastern Snake River Plain over the last 8000 years.
Recent excavations in three cold lava tube caves have revealed a distinctive artifact
assemblage of elk antler tines, broken handstones, and bison bone in association with
frozen sagebrush features. Similar evidence has also been discovered in four other
caves within the region.
A patch choice model was utilized in this study to address how the long-term
practice of caching bison meat in cold caves may have functioned in prehistoric
subsistence patterns. Because the net return rate for bison was critical to the model,
the hunting success of fur trappers occupying the eastern Snake River Plain during
the early 1800s, as recorded in their daily journals, was examined and quantified. According to the model, the productivity of cold storage caves must be evaluated
against the productivity of other patches on the eastern Snake River Plain, such as
ephemeral ponds and linear river corridors from season to season and year to year.
The model suggests that residential bases occurred only within river resource
patches while ephemeral ponds and ice caves would contain sites indicative of
seasonal base camps.
The predictions of the model were tested against documented archaeological
data from the Snake River Plain through the examination of Geographic Information
Systems data provided by the Idaho Bureau of Land Management. The results of
this analysis indicate that seasonal base camps are directly associated with both
ephemeral and perennial water sources, providing strong support for the model's
predictions. Likewise, the temporal distribution of sites within the study area
indicates that climate change over the last 8000 years was not dramatic enough to
alter long-term subsistence practices in the region. The long-term use of multiple
resource patches across the region also confirms that, although the high return rates
for bison made them very desirable prey, the over-all diet breadth for the eastern
Snake River Plain was broad and included a variety of large and small game and
plant foods. Bison and cold storage caves were a single component in a highly
mobile seasonal round that persisted for some 8000 years, down to the time of
written history in the 19th Century. / Committee in charge: Dr. C. Melvin Aikens, Chair; Dr. Lawrence Sugiyama ;
Dr. Jon Erlandson ;
Dr. Dennis Jenkins ;
Dr. Cathy Whitlock ;
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uoregon.edu/oai:scholarsbank.uoregon.edu:1794/9458 |
| Date | 12 1900 |
| Creators | Henrikson, Lael Suzann, 1959- |
| Publisher | University of Oregon |
| Source Sets | University of Oregon |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Relation | University of Oregon theses, Dept. of Anthropology, Ph. D., 2002; |
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