Prehistoric Pinyon Exploitation in the Southwestern Great Basin: A View From the Coso Range

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" Prehistoric Pinyon Exploitation in the Southwestern Great Basin: A View From the Coso Range "
Hildebrandt, William R; Ruby, Allika

Document Type	:	AL
Record Number	:	940591
Doc. No	:	LA3qx6161h
Language of Document	:	English
Main Entry	:	Hildebrandt, William R; Ruby, Allika
Title & Author	:	Prehistoric Pinyon Exploitation in the Southwestern Great Basin: A View From the Coso Range [Article]\ Hildebrandt, William R; Ruby, Allika
Title of Periodical	:	Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology
Volume/ Issue Number	:	26/1
Date	:	2006
Abstract	:	A rich archaeological record spanning much of the Holocene exists in the Coso Range of southeastern California. An archaeological survey of over 2,564 acres was focused within the pinyon-juniper zone of these uplands at Naval Air Weapons Station, China Lake. In total, 184 prehistoric sites were recorded, and are used here to evaluate a series of alternative models regarding the origins of intensive pinyon nut use in the southwestern Great Basin. These findings indicate that fully-ripened nuts were probably used on a regular basis deep into antiquity, but the more intensive(and expensive) harvest of green-cone pinyon nuts largely occurred after 1,350 B.P This conclusion has important implications for interpreting prehistoric land-use patterns in the region, and supports earlier hypotheses about the mechanisms responsible for the spread of Numic populations during the later phases of prehistory.