Edited by Brian E. Hemphill and Clark Spencer Larsen Anthropology and Archaeology Prehistoric Lifeways of the Great Basin Wetlands  examines how the earliest inhabitants of the Great basin in Nevada, Utah, and  Oregon made use of ancient marshes and lakes.  When the Great Salt Lake  receded in the 1980s from its highest historically recorded levels, it exposed a  large number of archaeological and burial sites. Other wetland areas in the  region experienced similar flooding and site exposure. The resulting  archaeological bonanza resolved long-standing controversy over the role of  wetlands in prehistoric Great Basin human subsistence. Previously,  archaeologists argued two disparate views: either wetlands offered a wealth of  resources and served as a magnet for human occupation and rather sedentary  lifestyles, or wetlands provided only meager fare that was insufficient to  promote increased sedentism. The exposure of human remains coincided with  improved analytic techniques, enabling new conclusions about diet, behavior, and  genetic affiliation.  This volume presents findings from three Great Basin  wetland areas: Great Salt Lake, Stillwater Marsh (Nevada) and Malheur Lake  (Oregon). The evidence presented here does not indicate the superiority of one  interpretation over another but offers a more complex picture of variable  adaptation, high mobility, and generally robust health among peoples living in a  harsh setting with heavy physical demands. It is the first volume to draw  together new approaches to the study of earlier human societies, including  analysis of mtDNA for population reconstruction and cross-sectional geometric  assessment of long bones for behavior interpretation.

Prehistoric lifeways in the Great Basin wetlands: bioarchaeological reconstruction and interpretation PDF

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