Gish, Jannifer W.

Hughes, Richard E.

Macdonald, Douglas H.

English

University of Montana

University of Montana ScholarWorks at University of Montana Anthropology Faculty Publications Anthropology 2011 Late-Paleoindian versus Early-Archaic Occupation of Yellowstone Lake, Wyoming Douglas H. Macdonald University of Montana - Missoula, douglas.macdonald@umontana.edu Richard E. Hughes Geochemical Research Laboratory Jannifer W. Gish JG Research Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umt.edu/anthro_pubs  Part of the Archaeological Anthropology Commons Let us know how access to this document benefits you. Recommended Citation Macdonald, Douglas H.; Hughes, Richard E.; and Gish, Jannifer W., "Late-Paleoindian versus Early-Archaic Occupation of Yellowstone Lake, Wyoming" (2011). Anthropology Faculty Publications. 6. https://scholarworks.umt.edu/anthro_pubs/6 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Anthropology at ScholarWorks at University of Montana. It has been accepted for inclusion in Anthropology Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at University of Montana. For more information, please contact scholarworks@mso.umt.edu. PROOFCURRENT RESEARCH IN THE PLEISTOCENE Vol. 28, 2011110Late-Paleoindian versus Early-Archaic Occupationof Yellowstone Lake, WyomingDouglas H. MacDonald, Richard E. Hughes, andJannifer W. Gishä Keywords: Altithermal, lithic technology, YellowstoneArchaeological data from sites in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) ofWyoming and Montana indicate that some portions of the region were attrac-tive to early- and middle-Holocene hunter-gatherers. In this paper, we providenew data on a high-elevation early Plains Archaic site, Fishing Bridge Point(48YE381), that suggest land-use patterns contrasting with those of the late-Paleoindian period.Fishing Bridge Point is located along the northwest shore of YellowstoneLake, Wyoming, at an elevation of 7,785 ft. amsl, on the S2 lake shorelinedated to the early Holocene (Pierce et al. 2007). This site contained an early-Archaic burn feature within a buried soil on the incipient beach of the lakeshore (MacDonald and Livers 2010). Wood charcoal from the feature re-turned an AMS 14C date of 5910 ± 50 RCYBP (Beta-265310), with a 2-σ calibra-tion of 6860–6640 CALYBP. It is the first early-Archaic feature ever to beexcavated in Yellowstone National Park.Comparing lithic raw-material data from Fishing Bridge Point with earlierlate-Paleoindian occupations at the Osprey Beach site (Johnson et al. 2004;Shortt 2003) at Yellowstone Lake suggests dynamic shifts in settlement pat-terns during the early Holocene. Located only 20 km south of Fishing BridgePoint, Osprey Beach contained significant amounts of chert (46%) from atleast six sources and volcanics from another 11 sources (54% of total). In starkcontrast, early-Archaic Fishing Bridge Point occupations yielded nearly exclu-sively obsidian (90%), with 95% of that sourced to Obsidian Cliff. Cashmandacite from southwest Montana was the only other non–Obsidian Cliff source,while 4–6 sources of chert and other materials account for less than 10 percentof the material at the site. Total lithic assemblages analyzed from the two sitesare not significantly different (n = 127 from Osprey Beach; n = 90 from Fish-ing Bridge).These data suggest that hunter-gatherers at Yellowstone Lake switched froma wide-ranging settlement and/or trade pattern in the late-Paleoindian period(represented by 17 lithic sources) to a constricted, tethered settlement/tradepattern in the early Archaic (using only 6–8 lithic sources, including mostlyDouglas H. MacDonald, Department of Anthropology, the University of Montana, Missoula, MT59812; e-mail: douglas.macdonald@mso.umt.eduRichard E. Hughes, Geochemical Research Laboratory, 20 Portola Green Circle, Portola Valley, CA,94028-7833; e-mail: rehughes@silcon.comJannifer W. Gish, JG Research, 5621 Grant Ave., Loveland, CO 80538; e-mail: jgresearch@yahoo.com123457611PROOFCURRENT RESEARCH IN THE PLEISTOCENE Vol. 28, 2011111Obsidian Cliff). Cannon and Hughes (1995, 1997) made similar observationsbased on obsidian source-use contrasts at sites also within Yellowstone Na-tional Park.Fossil pollen collected from the early-Archaic levels at Fishing Bridge Point(Gish 2010) indicates the presence of a shrub-grassland at Yellowstone Lake atthe time of occupation (elevation 7,750 ft. amsl). Our pollen data corroboratesoils data from nearby Dead Indian Pass in the Absaroka Mountains, whichindicate substantial grasslands in the pass (elevation 7,900 ft. amsl) approxi-mately 6000 RCYBP (Reider et al. 1988). Apparently, some portions of the high-elevation GYE drew grass-hungry ungulates and human predators during theearly-Archaic period.Lithic and pollen data from the Fishing Bridge Point site at YellowstoneLake support those from other regional sites, confirming that the Altithermalwas a significant climatic event for early- and middle-Holocene hunter-gather-ers. After 9000 RCYBP, hunter-gatherers living in the northern Plains andRocky Mountains moved into areas with reliable and permanent watersources, including river watersheds and lakes, especially those at higher(cooler) elevations such as Yellowstone Lake, Wyoming.References CitedCannon, K. P., and R. E. Hughes 1995 It’s Not Just Obsidian Cliff: Diversity of Obsidian SourceUse in Yellowstone National Park. Paper presented at the Second Biennial Rocky MountainAnthropological Conference, Steamboat Springs, Colorado.——— 1997 Provenance Analysis of Obsidian Paleoindian Projectile Points from YellowstoneNational Park, Wyoming. Current Research in the Pleistocene 17:101–04.Gish, J. W. 2010 Pollen Residue from Five Sites in Yellowstone National Park. Paper presented atthe 68th Plains Anthropological Society Meeting, Bismarck, North Dakota.Johnson, A., B. O. K. Reeves, and M. W. Shortt 2004 Osprey Beach: A Cody Complex Camp onYellowstone Beach Lifeways of Canada, Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Report submitted to YellowstoneNational Park, Wyoming.MacDonald, D. H., and M. C. Livers 2010 Montana Yellowstone Archaeological Project, Surveyand Evaluation of Sites along Yellowstone Lake’s Northern Shore, Interim Report of the 2009University of Montana Field Season. Report submitted by The University of Montana to YellowstoneNational Park, Mammoth, Wyoming.Pierce, K. L, K. P.Cannon, G. A. Meyer, M. J. Trebesch, and R. Watts 2007 Post-Glacial Inflation-Deflation Cycles, Tilting, and Faulting in the Yellowstone Caldera Based on Yellowstone LakeShorelines. In Recent Contributions to the Geology of Yellowstone, edited by L. A. Morgan, pp. 131–64.U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1717.Reider, R. G., G. A. Huckleberry, and G. C. Frison 1988 Soil Evidence for Postglacial Forest-Grassland Fluctuations in the Absaroka Mountains of Northwestern Wyoming, U.S.A. Arctic andAlpine Research 20(2):188–98.Shortt, M. W. 2003 Record of Early People on Yellowstone Lake: Cody Complex Occupation atOsprey Beach. Yellowstone Science: 2–9.8910

Late-Paleoindian versus Early-Archaic Occupation of Yellowstone Lake, Wyoming

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Late-Paleoindian versus Early-Archaic Occupation of Yellowstone Lake, Wyoming

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