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Early Holocene pinyon (Pinus monophylla) in the northeastern Great Basin

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

David B. Madsen  and
David Rhode
David B. Madsen
Affiliation:
Antiquities Section, Utah Division of State History, 300 Rio Grande, Salt Lake City, Utah 84101 USA
David Rhode
Affiliation:
Quaternary Studies Center, Desert Research Institute, P.O. Box 60220, Reno, Nevada 89506 USA
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Abstract

Fine-grained excavation and analysis of a stratigraphic column from Danger Cave, northeastern Great Basin, suggests prehistoric hunter-gatherers were collecting and using singleleaf pinyon (Pinus monophylla) near the site for at least the last 7500 yr. Human use of the cave began after the retreat of Lake Bonneville from the Gilbert level, shortly before 10,000 yr B.P. In stratum 9, culturally deposited pine nut hulls appear in the sequence by about 7900 yr B.P. and are continuously present thereafter. A hull fragment in stratum 10 is directly dated to 7410 ± 120 yr B.P. These dates are at least 2000 yr earlier than expected by extrapolation to macrofossil records from the east-central and central Great Basin, and necessitate some revision of current biogeographical models of late Quaternary pinyon migration.

Type
Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 33 , Issue 1 , January 1990 , pp. 94 - 101
Copyright
University of Washington

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