xxviii, 463 p. : ill., maps. A print copy of this title is available through the UO Libraries under the call number: KNIGHT F868.M65 J45 1991 / The environmental context and chronology of the
transition from Early Holocene Lake Mojave to Middle
Holocene Pinto cultural complexes of the southern California
deserts has long been debated. This dissertation re-examines
that debate, based on excavations at two major sites, and a
rethinking of our most basic assumptions concerning culture
change, cultural ecology, site formation processes, and
dating techniques.
Archaeological data recovered from two Lake
Mojave/Pinto sites at Fort Irwin, in the Central Mojave
Desert, were analyzed in order to track chronologically sensitive shifts in Lake Mojave-Pinto artifact assemblages
through time. The archaeological assemblages recovered from
Rogers Ridge and the Henwood sites were carefully analyzed
into 36 depositional/analytical components for this task.
Defining and chronologically ordering these assemblages
required systematic consideration of artifact distributions
and the development and application of 3 obsidian hydration
rates based on associations with twelve 14C dates.
The analysis shows that the Pinto Complex occurred in
three phases. Phase I, ca. 8,200 to 7,500 BP, is marked by
the addition of Pinto points to the Lake Mojave assemblage
and a continuation of the basic Lake Mojave settlementsubsistence
patterns. Phase II, 7,500 to 5,000 BP, is marked
by the gradual disappearance of Lake Mojave points from the
archaeological assemblages. Dramatic decreases in assemblage
size and increases in assemblage diversity mark changing
logistical strategies to infrequent and specialized site
use. Phase III, 5,000 to 4,000 BP, is marked by a strong
predominance of Pinto points and slightly larger
assemblages. Patterns of variation among assemblages suggest
that logistical strategies continued to emphasize infrequent
and specialized site useage.
The link between environmental change and shifting
settlement-subsistence strategies was apparently relatively
direct during the Pinto period, Environmental changes during the Early Holocene (11,000 to 8,000 BP) Mojave Desert led to
subsistence stress among populations of the Pinto Complex.
Cultural adjustments resulted in smaller human populations
moving through larger home territories. It is suggested that
critical thresholds in communication and mating networks
were crossed which resulted in the collapse of social
systems in the Mojave Desert about 7,000 BP. / Committee in charge: C. Melvin Aikens, Ann
Simonds, Don E. Dumond, and William Loy
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uoregon.edu/oai:scholarsbank.uoregon.edu:1794/9459 |
| Date | 06 1900 |
| Creators | Jenkins, Dennis L. |
| 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., 1991; |
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