Early Holocene Prehistory in the Intermontane West: Reinvestigation of the Pine Spring Site, Southwest Wyoming

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With National Science Foundation support Dr. Robert Kelly will conduct one field season of archaeological research at the site of Pine Spring located on the North face of Black Mountain in southwestern Wyoming. The site was originally excavated in 1964 by Floyd Sharrock from the University of Utah and it provides much of the earliest evidence for human use of this intermountain region. Although it is relatively shallow, based on Sharrock's data Pine Spring contains a long sequence from at least 10,000 year before the present to recent times. Thus it has the potential to shed light on human adaptation to the changing environmental conditions which characterize the period following the last ice age. Sharrock's notes indicate that the site appears to have three separate cultural horizons, the earliest of which may coincide with the Altithermal, a warm interval which had its greatest impact in Western North America from ca. 9,000 to 6,000 years ago. The problem however is that the evidence for the tripartite division is not definitive and before significant effort is expended on analysis of the Altithermal materials it is important to verify their integrity. Dr. Kelly and colleagues have conducted preliminary research at the site and working with a field school they will excavate in selected areas to obtain the necessary stratigraphic data. They will plot the location of individual artifacts to determine three dimensional distribution in space and collect large numbers of samples for radiocarbon dating.The long term goal of the research is to test models derived from optimum foraging theory to determine how technologically simple prehistoric societies adapted through dietary and social means to a semi-desertic environment which fluctuated unpredictably over different time scales and at differing orders of magnitude. The Western United States provides an excellent venue for such research both because of its ca. 12,000 year archaeological record and its spatial variation ranging from the Great Plains through mountain and intermountain regions. Dr. Kelly's research will provide essential information for one important area and time period. Because the work will be conducted in the context of a summer field school, the educational impact will be significant.