Paleoindian Land Use at Pluvial Lake Mojave in California’s Mojave Desert - Dr. Edward J. Knell

Описание: Paleoindian Land Use at Pluvial Lake Mojave in California’s Mojave Desert

Dr. Edward J. Knell – California State University, Fullerton

Fluctuations in the extent and productivity of wetland habitat around Great Basin/Mojave Desert pluvial lakes influenced Paleoindian land use strategies. Paleoindians responded to resource fluctuations using a “wetland transient” land use strategy represented by frequent moves between pluvial lakes or a “wetland stable” strategy characterized by comparatively long stays at resource hotspots. To assess the optimal Paleoindian land use strategy around pluvial Lake Mojave—today’s Silver and Soda Lake playas—I and colleagues create a biotic resource structure-based and optimal foraging theory inspired land use model that predicts the conditions Paleoindians at Lake Mojave optimally should select a wetland stable land use strategy (when Lake Mojave supported substantial wetland habitat and was thus a high-rank resource patch) versus a wetland transient strategy (when Lake Mojave supported limited wetland habitat and was thus a low-rank resource patch). The model ultimately predicts that Paleoindians occupied Lake Mojave at a time of reduced wetland habitat or low patch rank, resulting in a wetland transient land use strategy being the optimal land use solution; the amount of wetland habitat and thus patch rank increased after Paleoindian times, with Middle Holocene and more recent groups optimally switching to a wetland stable land use strategy. This prediction is preliminarily tested and ultimately supported using multiple lines of archaeological evidence from 30 Paleoindian and recent period sites from Lake Mojave. Implications of this result are assessed in relation to other Great Basin and Mojave Desert pluvial lakes.

Edward J. Knell earned his MA from the University of Wyoming, his PhD from Washington State University, and is currently a Professor of Anthropology (Archaeology Program) at California State University, Fullerton. His Great Basin research focuses on the Mojave Desert of California, with a long-term research project around pluvial Lake Mojave, that has addressed lithic technology and technological organization strategies, land use, settlement patterns, lithic raw material conveyance, and past climate. He addressed similar questions for the Late Paleoindian Cody complex of the Great Plains. Dr. Knell’s research is published, among other places, in American Antiquity, Journal of Archaeological Science, Journal of Field Archaeology, Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology, PaleoAmerica, Plains Anthropologist, and a volume he co-edited titled Paleoindian Lifeways of the Cody Complex (University of Utah Press).

Presented to the Pacific Coast Archaeological Society (PCAS) on March 9, 2023.

For additional information on the Pacific Coast Archaeological Society, see the PCAS website at www.pcas.org