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Show REVIEWS 103 The Sagebrush Ocean: A Natural History of the Great Basin, by Stephen Trimble. University of Nevada Press, Reno. 1989. 248 pages. $34.95. Reviewed by: David M. Jabusch Salt Lake-Davis Chapter Utah Statewide Archaeological Society 1144 South 1700 East Salt Lake City, UT 84108 Until recently my impression of the Great Basin was grim. In my Oregon State class in Natural History of Oregon, the Steens Mountains were characterized as the last uncharted wasteland in the United States. Raised in the rain forests of the Pacific Northwest, my first impression of the drive from Reno to Salt Lake City (not changed by thirty annual treks to my Redwood roots) was that of endless miles of sagebrush and salt. Two recent events have changed that impression, somewhat. The first was a project of surveying the Pony Express Stations across Utah and the other was the appearance of Stephen Trimble's The Sagebrush Ocean. Trimble provides a scientifically sound, stylistically interesting and visually enticing survey of the natural diversity of the Great Basin. He sets the stage with a geographical overview of the "four great basins" as well as the climatological origins of its "desert" ecology. Trimble develops the "Biogeography" of the Basin as he discusses the subtle changes in natural communities, the dynamic and dramatic development of its geologic past and "Mountains as Islands." Trimble then provides the reader with a fascinating vicarious visit to the wide variety of plant and animal communities in the Great Basin. He takes you through Playas and Deserts, Shadscale, Sagebrush, Dunes, and the surprising abundance of water in the desert wetlands. Moving up in elevation the author visualizes the Pinion-Juniper Woodland, Mountain Brush and Aspen Glens, Subalpine Forests and Alpine Deserts. He concludes his tour with the Transition Forests of the Western Wasatch and Eastern Sierras. Lacking the abundance of easily observed flora and fauna of wetter and more temperate climates, Trimble directs the attention of the reader to the less obvious but no less diverse plants and animals of the Basin. But this is not merely an enumeration (however fascinating) of the flora and fauna of the Great Basin. Trimble skillfully represents these natural communities as the complex, ever-changing ecological systems they are found to be in nature. While his discussion of the impact of human beings as an integral part of the Basin ecology could have been more fully developed, Trimble does point out the role of humans and their domesticated animals upon the change (he might say degradation) of the Basin ecology. The Sagebrush Ocean transcends enjoyable reading. Technically sound, it will provide a useful reference for avocational (and perhaps an occasional professional) archaeologists when struggling to distinguish among choices under "environmental data" on their IMACS forms. In his review of The Sagebrush Ocean, David Madsen laments the excellence of Trimble's book for its potential "to attract the L. L. Bean crowd," and make the Great Basin "just like California." As a native Californian, I have neither Madsen's love nor his knowledge of the Basin, but I agree that Trimble's interesting, accurate and beautiful book should attract a wide readership to the once solitary diversity of the Great Basin. Northern Anasazi Ceramic Style: A Field Guide for Identification, by William A. Lucius and David A. Breternitz. Center for Indigenous Studies in the Americas, Publications in Anthropology No. 1. 1992. Cost $10.00, pages 61. Reviewed by: Mark Bond Archaeological Consultant P. O. Box 56 Bluff, UT 84512 The typological identification of ceramic artifacts, and associations of these artifacts, is one of the more significant tasks faced by the field archaeologist while recording Formative Period prehistoric archaeological sites in the American Southwest. More often than not, inferences concerning the cultural affiliations, and hence chronological associations, of these archaeological sites are based on the field identification of the ceramic types observed and recorded. However, differentiation between similar |
