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Paleoethnobotanical perspectives are essential for understanding past lifeways yet continue to be underrepresented in Paleoindian research. We present new archaeobotanical and radiocarbon data from combustion features within stratified cultural components at Connley Caves, Oregon, that reaffirm the inclusion of plants in the diet of Paleoindian groups. Botanical remains from three features in Connley Cave 5 show that people foraged for diverse dryland taxa and a narrow range of wetland plants during the summer and fall months. These data add new taxa to the known Pleistocene food economy and support the idea that groups equipped with Western Stemmed Tradition toolkits had broad, flexible diets. When viewed continentally, this work contributes to a growing body of research indicating that regionally adapted subsistence strategies were in place by at least the Younger Dryas and that some foragers in the Far West may have incorporated a wider range of plants including small seeds, leafy greens, fruits, cacti, and geophytes into their diet earlier than did Paleoindian groups elsewhere in North America. The increasing appearance of diverse and seemingly low-ranked resources in the emerging Paleoindian plant-food economy suggests the need to explore a variety of nutritional variables to explain certain aspects of early foraging behavior.

Paisley 5 Mile Point Caves, Oregon, U.S.A. offer a unique perspective on Native Americans living in the Great Basin during the Younger Dryas. The cave sediments are mixed with abundant, disaggregated, packrat coprolites. We developed a technique for processing these packrat coprolites. Using this technique, this study analyses fifteen packrat coprolite samples separated from sediments collected from the sidewall of a test unit within Paisley Caves #2. The results were then used to create a paleoenvironmental reconstruction of the region. This reconstruction was then compared to a previous reconstruction based on the fossil pollen in the sediment from the same site. The reconstructions were similar. However, we found that the packrat coprolites were prone to dietary biases that could mask the true paleovegetation of the area. By studying the differences and similarities of these two sample sets, we obtained a better understanding of how each set reflects the local environment.

We review some of the current problems and prospects in ongoing Western Stemmed Tradition (WST) studies and highlight recent discoveries at important sites in the Intermountain West. While the regi...

Cougar Mountain Cave is located in Oregon's Fort Rock Basin. In 1958, avocationalist John Cowles excavated most of the cave's deposits and recovered abundant fiber, lithic, wood, and osseous artifacts. A crew from the University of California, Davis returned to the site in 1966 to evaluate the potential for further research, collecting additional lithic and fiber artifacts from disturbed deposits and in situ charcoal from apparently undisturbed deposits. Because Cowles took few notes or photographs, the Cougar Mountain Cave collection—most of which is housed at the Favell Museum in Klamath Falls, Oregon—has largely gone unstudied even though it contains diagnostic artifacts spanning the Holocene and, potentially, the terminal Pleistocene. We recently submitted charcoal and basketry from the site for radiocarbon dating, providing the first reliable sense of when Cougar Mountain Cave was first occupied. Our results indicate at least a Younger Dryas age for initial occupation. The directly dated basketry has provided new information about the age ranges and spatial distributions of diagnostic textile types in the northwestern Great Basin.

Younger Dryas and early Holocene Western Stemmed Tradition occupants of the northern Great Basin appear to have practiced a broad-based subsistence strategy including the consumption of a wide variety of small animal and plant resources. However, much of our evidence for human diet and land use during this period comes from dry cave and rockshelter sites where it can be challenging to distinguish plant and small animal remains deposited as a result of human versus nonhuman activity. This study presents new direct evidence for Younger Dryas and early Holocene human diet in the northern Great Basin through multiproxy analysis of nine human coprolites from the Paisley Caves, Oregon, USA. The evidence indicates that Western Stemmed Tradition occupants consumed plants, small mammals, fish, and insects, including direct evidence for consumption of whole rodents and several types of beetle. Occupation of the caves occurred during the summer and fall by individuals foraging on wetland, sagebrush grassland, and riparian ecological landscapes suggesting geographical and seasonal variability in land-use patterns during the Younger Dryas and early Holocene periods. This research suggests that Western Stemmed Tradition settlement patterns were seasonally centered on productive valley bottom lakes and wetlands but also included forays to a variety of ecological landscapes. The results highlight the importance of plant and small animal resources in the human diet during the terminal Pleistocene settlement of North America and contribute to debates about the process of the peopling of the Americas.

This study describes the results of palynological, macrobotanical, and microfaunal investigations of 19 coprolites from the Paisley Five Mile Point Caves locality (35LK3400) situated in south-central Oregon, USA. This collection represents two discreet chronological phases (ca. 2200 and 9600–10800 radiocarbon years before present (RCYBP)) and suggests the use of a wide array of faunal and floral resources found adjacent to the cave complex. Here we compare macrofossils, animal hair and pollen recovered from these samples with regional ethnographic and historic data to infer probable exploitation of dietary resources by the inhabitants of the rockshelter. Our results suggest that the residents of the Paisley Caves during the late Pleistocene and early Holocene transition followed subsistence regimes heavily reliant on lagomorphs and dryland plant resources similar to those employed by later Native groups.

Pollen analysis from Paisley Cave 2 (35LK3400), in Oregon has produced a record of climate change affecting the Summer Lake Sub-basin during a 7000-year period beginning at roughly 14,500 cal. yr. ...

The subfossil remains of 14 cimicids (Hemiptera: Cimicidae) were recovered during archaeological investigations of the Paisley Five Mile Point Cave site (35LK3400), an exceptionally well-dated (n = 229 radiocarbon dates) late Pleistocene-early Holocene rock shelter site in south-central Oregon. Nine of the specimens have been assigned to three modern species of Nearctic Cimicidae-Cimex antennatus Usinger & Ueshima, Cimex latipennis Usinger & Ueshima, and Cimex pilosellus (Horvath)-whereas the remaining five individuals were too fragmentary to positively identify. The chronology of the insect assemblage puts one specimen at circa 5,100 calibrated years before present (cal. yr BP), and the remaining 13 range in age from 9,400 to almost 11,000 cal. yr BP. Although fossil and subfossil cimicid remains have been recovered at other archaeological sites, the fossil record for bed bugs is largely undocumented. The Paisley Caves specimens thus far represent the oldest remains of the genus in probable contact with humans on record.

We unequivocally confirmed pre-Clovis human occupation of the western Great Basin using fecal lipid biomarkers and a new 14C date., When and how people first settled in the Americas is an ongoing area of research and debate. The earliest sites typically only contain lithic artifacts that cannot be directly dated. The lack of human skeletal remains in these early contexts means that alternative sources of evidence are needed. Coprolites, and the DNA contained within them, are one such source, but unresolved issues concerning ancient DNA taphonomy and potential for contamination make this approach problematic. Here, we use fecal lipid biomarkers to demonstrate unequivocally that three coprolites dated to pre-Clovis are human, raise questions over the reliance on DNA methods, and present a new radiocarbon date on basketry further supporting pre-Clovis human occupation.

The arid northwest Great Basin underwent substantial hydroclimate changes in the past 15,000 years, greatly affecting its desert ecosystems and prehistoric people. There are conflicting interpretations of the timing of hydrologic changes in this region, requiring more records to resolve the dominant climatic drivers. The Paisley Caves archaeological site, located near former pluvial Lake Chewaucan, contains well-dated, stratified sediments best known for evidence of early human occupation in North America. We present a novel paleohydrologic record for the Chewaucan basin based on the frequency of fish remains (Salmonidae and Cypriniformes, likely tui chub) and their carbon, oxygen, and strontium isotope compositions, from the Paisley Caves. Cypriniformes abundance peaks first at the start of the Bolling/Allerod warm interval (∼14.7 ka) and again during the early Younger Dryas (∼12.8 ka). Isotope compositions indicate tui chub were derived from an expansive Lake Chewaucan throughout the Bolling/Allerod, but mainly from spring- or stream-influenced sources by the late Younger Dryas to the present. Fish abundance dropped sharply through the Younger Dryas and early Holocene, when isotope compositions indicate a mix of habitats. Isotope compositions indicate the driest conditions during the middle Holocene, followed by slightly wetter conditions up to the present. This record agrees with recent pluvial lake reconstructions, supporting the hypothesis that a northward shift in the winter storm track supported deep lakes throughout the Bolling/Allerod in the northwest Great Basin. Lake level decline during the Younger Dryas suggests drying climate, differing from more southerly records. During the Holocene, however, shifts in Chewaucan basin hydrology are consistent with the rest of the western U.S. This highlights the need for region-specific records to inform predictions of the hydrologic impact of climate change on arid regions.

The Connley Caves in the Fort Rock Basin of Oregon contain stratified deposits dating to the late Pleistocene/early Holocene transition and a stone tool assemblage characteristic of the Western Stemmed Tradition. This research brief details preliminary results including stratigraphic, geochronological, and cultural information yielded from Cave 4. Ongoing research at the site stands to shed light on WST technological activities, intra- and inter-assemblage variability and geochronology, and Paleoarchaic subsistence strategies of the northern Great Basin.

Although the Great Basin of North America has produced some of the most robust and ancient fiber artifact assemblages in the world, many were recovered with poor chronological controls. Consequently, this class of artifacts has seldom been effectively incorporated into general discussions of early chronological and cultural patterns. In recent years, the Great Basin Textile Dating Project has accumulated direct AMS dates on textiles (bags, sandals, mats, cordage, and basketry) from dry caves in the Great Basin, particularly in the northern and western areas. We focus here on the terminal Pleistocene/early Holocene, to identify chronological patterns in this class of artifacts and to evaluate Adovasio’s characterization of the region’s earliest basketry as simple and undecorated. New AMS dates now suggest that the region’s earliest people had sophisticated textile traditions that incorporated numerous decorative elaborations. Some distinctive structures, including Fort Rock sandals and weft-faced plaited textiles, have limited early temporal ranges and may serve as diagnostic indicators for terminal Pleistocene/early Holocene times. Other basketry forms and structures that appear by about 9000 cal B.P. persist into the historic period, suggesting a stronger thread of continuity (especially in the north) from this time than is apparent in lithic traditions

The discovery of five individual specimens of the spinose ear tick, Otobius megnini (Dug e s), in late Pleistocene through middle Holocene deposits of the Paisley Caves site highlights an interesting aspect of prehistoric life not ordinarily visible through the analysis of traditional archaeological artifacts. A review of the literature provides ample evidence to postulate how the tick remains got into the cave deposits, and also implies the possibility of host-switching behavior in this tick and explores the manner by which ancient people dealt with ectoparasites. Furthermore, these remains mark the first record of the species in both archaeological and paleontological contexts.

Paisley Caves in Oregon has become well known due to early dates, and human presence in the form of coprolites, found to contain ancient human DNA. Questions remain over whether the coprolites themselves are human, or whether the DNA is mobile in the sediments. This brief introduces new research applying an integrated analytical approach combining sediment micromorphology and lipid biomarker analysis, which aims to resolve these problems.

Analysis of taphonomic processes observable in undoubtedly cultural Younger Dryas-age faunal collections at the Paisley Caves establishes what cultural bone modification looks like in post-Clovis deposits at the site. Clearly stating the criteria by which these bones have been identified as culturally modified by stone tools, we apply the same criteria to bones found at the noncultural paleontological site of Mineral Hill Cave, Nevada, and find no cases of stone-tool-cut-marked bones. Applying these same criteria to bones recovered from pre-Clovis stratigraphic contexts at the Paisley Caves resulted in the identification of two cut-marked specimens, a mountain sheep (Ovis canadensis) mandible and a small artiodactyl rib that were both found in close proximity to human coprolites and artifacts. Directly radiocarbon dated prior to the beginning of the Clovis era (ca. >13,100 cal B.P.), these specimens increase the number of culturally modified items recovered from preClovis contexts and support previous DNA studies indicating that the northern Great Basin was occupied at least a mil lennium before Clovis points became widespread throughout North America. Dos cortar huesos marcados, una oveja de montana (Ovis canadensis) mandibula y un segmento pequeno artiodactyl ambos fueron encontrados en las proximidades de coprolitos humanos y artefactos en las cavernas Paisley, Oregon. Directamente radiocarbono fechado antes del comienzo de la era Clovis (ca. > 13.100 cal B.P.), estas muestras de aumentar el numero de elementos culturalmente modificados recuperados de pre-Clovis contextos y apoyar los estudios previos de ADN que indican la gran cuenca norte fue ocupado por lo menos un milenio antes de Clovis tecnologia se extendio a lo largo de America del Norte.

They Walked Together Paisley Cave in Oregon provides some of the earliest evidence for humans in North America. Jenkins et al. (p. 223 ) provide a wide variety of additional evidence of early human occupation of this site, including a series of radiocarbon ages extending back to nearly 12,500 radiocarbon years ago (about 14,500 calendar years ago). The find includes examples of projectile points representative of the Western Stemmed Tradition dating to about 11,100 radiocarbon years ago. The Western Stemmed Tradition has been thought to have evolved after the dominant Clovis technology, but the find suggests that the two cultures overlapped in time.

Despite decades of research, the roles of climate and humans in driving the dramatic extinctions of large-bodied mammals during the Late Quaternary period remain contentious. Here we use ancient DNA, species distribution models and the human fossil record to elucidate how climate and humans shaped the demographic history of woolly rhinoceros, woolly mammoth, wild horse, reindeer, bison and muskox.Weshow that climate has been a major driver of population change over the past 50,000 years.However, each species responds differently to the effects of climatic shifts, habitat redistribution and human encroachment. Although climate change alone can explain the extinction of some species, such as Eurasian muskox and woolly rhinoceros, a combination of climatic and anthropogenic effects appears to be responsible for the extinction of others, including Eurasian steppe bison and wild horse. We find no genetic signature or any distinctive range dynamics distinguishing extinct from surviving species, emphasizing the challenges associated with predicting future responses of extant mammals to climate and human-mediated habitat change

The timing of the first human migration into the Americas and its relation to the appearance of the Clovis technological complex in North America at about 11,000 to 10,800 radiocarbon years before the present ( 14 C years B.P.) remains contentious. We establish that humans were present at Paisley 5 Mile Point Caves, in south-central Oregon, by 12,300 14 C years B.P., through the recovery of human mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from coprolites, directly dated by accelerator mass spectrometry. The mtDNA corresponds to Native American founding haplogroups A2 and B2. The dates of the coprolites are >1000 14 C years earlier than currently accepted dates for the Clovis complex.

The arguments of Poinar et al . neither challenge our conclusions nor would contribute to the verification of our data. We counter their questions about the authenticity of our ancient DNA results and the reliability of the radiocarbon data and stand by the conclusion that our data provide strong evidence of pre-Clovis Native Americans.