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Show David B. Madsen Environmental Sciences, Utah Geological Survey 1594 W. North Temple Salt Lake City, Utah 84114 GREAT BASIN PEOPLES AND LATE QUATERNARY AQUATIC HISTORY Abstract Fifty years ago, Ernst Antevs in his landmark 1948 paper on Great Basin climates and peoples, described " Neothermal" or post- Pluvial conditions as primarily arid to semiarid. Yet the basin- and- range topography of the Great Basin engenders a climatic regime that may be better described as " hemiarid" ( Currey 1991), a phrase which incorporates both the wet upland environments of Basin mountains and the dry arid environments of basin valleys. Throughout their 12,000 year history, Great Basin peoples have dealt with this dichotomous environment in a variety of ways. Primary among these has been a focus on the stream- fed, lake- margin, marsh environments common to most valley drainage systems. Historically, this marsh adaptation has taken the form of two alternative mobility patterns often referred to as " limnosedentary" and " limnomobile" strategies ( e. g., Thomas 1985). The former is most common where large, stable marshes occur. These are primarily along the eastern and western margins of the basin in the Lahontan and Bonneville drainages where extensive snowpack in the higher and more massive Sierra and Wasatch mountains provides large amounts of water. However, similar marshes, such as the Ruby and Malheur marsh areas, also occur adjacent to several of the larger central and northwestern basin ranges. Peoples living within these large marsh areas were not sedentary in the strict sense, but rather, moved around within the marsh collecting an array of seeds, tubers, and small animals throughout the year. Virtually all of these resources are relatively expensive to procure ( in terms of time spent for the number of calories gained), but have the advantage of being both abundant and closely spaced. Raven's ( 1993: 8) succinct summary of this limnosedentary strategy suggests ... a fairly steady- state population within the marshes ( but not at individual villages) throughout most of any hypothetical year; governed chiefly by the exigencies of women's foraging, small scale adjustments in residence location were made frequently, but the sheer richness, diversity, and predictability of marsh side productivity invited virtually continuous exploitation. Forays outside the immediate marsh precinct generally were short term ( i. e., day trips) and for the most part were resource- specific. Foodstuffs were stored as they were collected, usually within shifting habitation sites; stores were tapped as needed by groups overwintering in the vicinity of the marshes. Only occasionally did groups leave the valley floor, as when the marsh simply could not supply a necessary resource ( such as toolstone) or when the uplands offered seasonal resource opportunities more energetically profitable ( such as the nearly annual pinyon harvest). During such episodes, various upland resources ( such as large game) might be taken, and some surplus returned to marshland base camps; life on the valley floor, however, otherwise relied little on |
