EXPLORING ANCIENT NATIVE AMERICA AN ARCHAEOLOGICAL GUIDE DAVID HURST THOMAS _| L i } \ Laon of he ey Arch tes cased hs hae. inthis chapter, you will encounter such Easter Archaic people at ‘Rall Cave (Alabama) and Poverty Pint (Lousiana). Burin much of westem Nosth America —where agricultural Wood Jand sdaptaions did not develop-—Achale refers to a more gener nds nonagriculturl fee. In ancient California, the Northwest ‘Cons, and the intermountain West, Archaic Ifeways led pechaps 10,000 yeas--well into the period of nial European contact—with people never elying on agriculture in any meaning way. "Phere i ever reason to telieve chat Indians ofthe Archaic period decended directly fom Paleoindian sncestos. But the extinction of Spigot des marion 51 the Pleitocene megafnuna and the spread ofthe modern deciduous {ores produced such sgnicane environmental changes that Archaic people were required to adopt rather diferent Lfexyles from thet Paleoindian prefeceson, “As Archaic people spread ut they lemed olive of he land, and they prospered. Some Archaic groups, gartculaly chow living in high Tartan, depended lei on hunting for thet Uvelihoed- Othe, sch asthe Northwest Coate groups, Beeame experts a fshing. Some, like the Deter: Archaic people dscused below, relied on seasonal harvest of wild plans, while Native Americans in the easter Wood- land would evenrualy discard thee Archaic lfeway in favor of fam ing. Each tadition ofthe Archaic was adapted tots particular commer fof America and the rest ofthis chapter explores some ofthis divers. ‘The Hidden Past at Hidden Cave ‘Sihoueted a the mouth of the black, endless cave he stood alone. Far down the desert hile, his family packed up camp. ‘Where wet ping, he thought, we won't nee this sher fishing ‘et made lst alo the picler abalone ornamens given us by ‘ur fiends from the wertem seashore. “And why bocher lugging those obsidian dat points! While not as cay to work the cher steam cobble re everywhere inthe ‘ountane we're headed for. We'e lucky, he grinned, having our ‘own cave In which to hide our many possessions "is wif, nearly breathless from climbing up the steep rocky lope, interupted his though. Weary she handed him a deer ‘kin pouch containing the dose shiny black spar points, the fh ‘net Bound with 8 wired tule rope, ad the serg of her sell ‘Beads and abalone ornaments, rhe ooped and crawled is way into the cool darness, he whispered goodbye, then caefilly Placed the precious pouch in a greelined pit, covered ic with & layer of freh ue, then laid down the fh nec andthe omamens ‘As e smoothed the cool, almost igi dust over is cache, he fund hime niling, savoring the day when he would reura to ‘cove hie valuables “They would be like old friends, familar yet novel lke is acquaintances fom the faraway ocean. He oul sil fel the col ‘harps ofthe dart points he bad knapped only lst week. With that fh net, he could feed five flies for an esr winter land the beads, che mnamenty, how they made his wie fee. "He wondeted too wat would happen before he rerumedArch Gena Whe avn Hiden Cave, Neva, ring te ser 71940. (Coury of be Nova Sate Meu.) ‘Would his daughters gow so tll chat they, t00, would have to ‘Hoop to eoter this hidden cave! Perhaps, he shuddered, none of hem would ever feta The dart points and the fsh net might teat tere forever Who could know? Tastnetvey, he dled fom fate co present. How glad he was not t be hauling his valuables wih ther as they headed ino the ‘A sen mote or ls ike eit may actully have taken place 4000, year ago ata place called Hidden Cave (ust ext of Fallon, Nevada) [Asfate would have the dian man never di retun 0 ‘ecover is drt point, bis fh net, andthe shell amen. “Wedo not know precbely what happened at Hiden Cave Perhaps Speding Out es Amerin 58 ‘nestarved because an earl fot ile he pine nuts Petapshis amily Kepe moving eastward, where che steep mountains provided frewood, more secure shelter, and protection. Pethaps he wa killed hunting Fighorn sheep high in the ranges co che north. Maybe he jst never pase this way again. ‘Rarely doe archaeology tell ut much about indviuas. But we do lenow for certain that he never retrieved his tools fom this stone “te” because we found them ther, thousands of yer le, The cave dst stil covered the pit, and the tools were sl wrapred in bulrashes ‘The gas lining had nor even been dred by pack rat. THdlen Cave sill ameses Although you muse crawl and squm hough the tiny opening, the cave’ ineriot opens up into a huge fever the sae ofa moder gymnasium, Archacologits ated digging fre in 1940. That summer, ocaionally helped out by men from the local Civil Conservation Corps, archaeologists SM, and Georgetta Wheeler worked alone inside the pltch-black cave, bedeviled by the Choking dat, They tried breathing ehvough a variety of masks and ‘moistened tandanas. They licup the place with carbide and electial Tights but nothing really beat dhe dust and the dark. “Ten years ter, Gordon Groseyp and Norman Linnaeus Rost, #0 salen fom the Univery of Caorna at Berkeley, resumed exca- ‘ations at Hidden Cave. Again working virually alone, they toiled Inside Hidden Cave for ewo month, recovering hundreds of arises tid exellent srples of animal and vegeta remains. ‘Dancand darknes aio hampered Rous and Groscap. Knowing that dhs om bat guano pved a health Razr, they wor a sucesion of ‘dst mass, it filter, and mossened cloths. Their 1951 Geld notes {ecotd that “none ofthese proved sasfactory and until ome more ‘Capable experimenters produce the anawer, the problem will ein annoyingly unsolved” “Asie eumed out, ied to become that experimen Having taken my sents to Hidden Cave throughout the 1960s and 1970s, 1 was ficou to ee what, if anything, remained unexcavate. Exploring tvth a weak flight, could see that despice decales of vandalism {nd legal relic eallectin, large potions of deposits will remained teouched. decided to take another crack at Hiden Cave, "We spent the summer of 1978 and 1979 digging there, with ny crew from the American Meseum of Natural History. Much of ou ime wat tent olvng lopsical difialties, After ingallng generators, we © Devimented with several lighting schemes, settling ona combination of Ftorescent and qutrt-halogen seat landing ight. Finally xcavar tor could workin atcal daylight everywhere ini the cave{4 EXPLORING ANGIENT NATIVE AMERICA cian the pth lack ha ou predacnor complained shout ‘s0 much, it was, "Sn floating ane —— shes we cd Lad of sural ta al to Ba ht sy eam ‘ade cans chs of dt And, once sed up, the pariles Saye in sspenson fr hous owe otk bck Intaling a wis of wooden ramp ine dhe cave, Lepng bay feat af the fe-gnned il. We ato dle {hroad de eave Eee 0 postion a nck oe ower cat ‘Grated es a ugha Hiden Cave Aldough everwatchi ‘leas ied me suri condoning” or te che eel epee cave clay das fice during worn hour laden Cave (Fallon, NV; 12 mi-E. on US 50) istoday par ofthe ‘Grimes Point Archacoogicl Ares. The Churchill Counry Mu eum and the Bureau of Land Management cosponsor guided expeditions inside Hidden Cave. By the way, nobody has to caw hwy nie smo Ths ore Brn of and Management engineer, you barely have to bend over to get Insider Visitors can alo take a self-guided hike along pewoelyph trail outde Hidden Cave. Phone (702) 4233677. ‘Working inside Hidden Cave was no penic—as thre generations of archaeologists an atest to, But the hassles of digging eaught ws some ‘aluable lessons about how Hidden Cave must ave functioned in the prehistri past. Forone thing, whatever elie Naive American people iin Hidden Cave 4000 years ag, iva cinch they never ive there. People wl five incaeflly selected places chosen to satisfy minimal conditions of Tnuman ife—aeceaibe food, water, and firewood, relatively level ‘pound, adequate shelter, and sccepeable levels of heat and light. Hidden Cave comes up shor onal counts, and the excavations confirmed this: ne habitation debi Instead, we found the ‘Echacological deport to be sdaled with dosen of ancient storage pits, most of them empded of dtr contents millennia before we po there: Once ina while, we would luck out and find an unopened pit ‘iene rheology becomes ile more than he yo her ence of te hl cen ch bake ra, Thlong-cold camp, But because people dd not actualy Hive inside Spring Out eas Ameren 55 Hidden Cave, the archaeological deposi did not contin habitation fgutbage; instead, we fund Hundreds of stlaerviceable areca in femporary stone. iden Cave was alo like grandma’ pantry, a place to seockpile ‘canned goods and preserves Suh storage was parcofan overall ecolog- {cal sratey in which ancient desere people ied thelr movements 2 encounter food in sequence: fh spawn in the spring, har-shelled cede ripen in he warmer, acorns apd pion nuts are abundant in the fal, ands fer ‘But noe every ecosystem cooperates readily. What happens, for instance; when all the best eesoutces mature at che same time, say during the springtime, with ile avallable during summer and fall ‘One obvious way t cope with this feast-orfamine problem ir to ‘xpoite whit you can in times of abundance, and store (cache) what ‘you dont need immediately for use later on ln this sense, the food ‘Cache is something like a tool cache—itrelegates temporarily expend- | ble food sup int a "pssve” state une Hidden Cave showed show ths suagy worked 4,000 yeas ago ‘Werecovered hundreds of himan coprolites desecaed human ees. ‘One particule coprolite contained bth eatail pollen and charred ‘alruth sed. Thi combination Is nsgug because cata pollen is sralable only in midrummer, nd the mature bush fut can be ‘Ravested only sc weeks later Clary, one or both reoutces musthave ‘ben stored In eflec, the Desert Archaic people using Hidden Cave Thad Tengchened the availablity of key resources by storing them. "Another cprolite contained pieces of pion nul bulrwh eds, {Sch bone, and some unidentified sed pa. We know tha itn and blush hot ripen in che fall—but nc inthe same place. Bulrshes ire n the mary lowlands ouside Hidden Cave, bt the pion pine ‘woodland bas alwaye been a least twenty alles away (and probably ‘much farther chan that). This unlovely litle coprolte from Hiden Cave thus conclusively demonstates how long-distance transport of food helped people survive in the haste desert habit. DESERT ARCHAIC ADAPTATIONS Hidden Cave tells us how anclentdesre dwellers urvived in a dy- ‘namic, if sometimes malevolent, envionment Four thousand years ‘go, this wellknown locale was used variously as prehistoric ati ‘where people hid tole to be retrieved later, and a panty where Temporarily abundane food items were stashed for frre need. ButEXPLORING ANCIENT NATIVE AMERICA Spreading ut Aer ria Aaa HOW TO READ ANCIENT ROCK ART [Nobody knows how many rock art sites exist in North America "The count forthe American Wes aloe approaches 25,000 ind vidal sites: by contrast, only afew hundred rock art sites are own fom east ofthe Miatsipp. Numerous sites have ben prorected and interpreted forthe public, and several of these are {ited in the Appendix ofthis volume. "The mest basic technical dincton is between a petrogyph (an ‘engraving on stone) and a pctogaph (a paiting on stone), Pet ‘Salypha, the most common form of Native American tock art, ‘cour by the thousands, parccaarly inthe West. They are pro- ‘ced by pecking incising, carving, catching, or abrading:and- ‘tone, welded tf nd granite are particularly common substrate rrfces. ‘By contest, pictogaphs are painted, most commonly with ed ‘cher pigment, usualy hematce (an oxide of iron). In afew Seas—prtcaaly neat Santa Barbar, near the Four Comers, hd in western Teaar--true polychrome paintings have been ‘produced, with blues, green, yellows and Black added In sme [Beals ie clear thax petroglphs have also been painted. TRock art specialists define "syle" with varying degrss of succes, The most general descipive scheme distinguishes be- {oven rate and abstract ses. Naturalistic (or "represents. onal) rock ar usually depicting slmplifed human or animal bem, widespread sere North Americ, with several clearly regional yriants, Abotact rock art, wth litle recognisable refer ‘ari lngely rested to the American Southwest, California, tnd the Great Basin ‘Dating rock ars notoriously dificnl. The most obvious dating technique i speporon, in which elements of one style clearly ‘Overlap an eri ele in the Great Bain, for Instance, vome ‘Schacologiss believe thatthe ermtched echnique usualy over lis pecking, sugeting that scratched styles are later, ochers Aliagee. ‘Often, the mineral pigments wed in pictographs are mixed swith am organe inde such at grease, fat or even Blod: when ppl dickly enough feck ofthis ancient pine can be cl zy edd hey hey docaon math Pry ard Went Kd of der ah ecules cn pevoglyph Stine, ming heel domets mach ran te ‘ld later This called dating by ato, and esearch Rezo tha te dee of patna al mig be daabl wing ten highech metho in partial orate cae, dab rcacolgel deposi coverage rock ar sue thin, when the archaeological de fost dated (by adicahon or ome comparable method), one what ne, ei cae, ite ofthe paler cling have silo and become incorpo! Fed in archeolglea at, once spin proving “nina fg etimat fo the rock ar Tally, caches can sometines dae nual rock at sor by content. A several western locals, hunter ae shown ‘Singbove and arows Since we know that the bow’ eltvly recent introduction to native Noh America, an rock arse Abs(6b EXPLOMING ANCIENT NATIVE AMERICA CGeomeric en elie represoaional prog, ltl long @ rock (Seapine behind Palo San Ciba, New Mev. (Cone of te Srercan Maca of Nasal Hisry: pots by N-C. Neko) fechna face masks a Peo Son Gf, New Mens (Cay (be ern Masa of Nal ison paapaah by N.C. Neon) “Th peck ena, probely ea, one of dees een the Tandon bole he Peed Foe Nana ark, tna (Contry ‘Fike Ameren iceum of Nosed sory Butopegh NC. Nebo.) Incorporating bow hunting must ako be "ae." Conversely, rock te depicting atlace (or speathrowes) is chought to be “ary.” Bucall sch dating atemps ae dcouragingly general and eror Drone; the failure to establish fre tlie eronclogies has se ‘eel bampered inepresiv analysis ‘So baw do you read rook ae The simples answer to this ques tion is "you don't” For decades the question has beeviled rock fav roeaichers Explanations of spect panels and styles vary ‘onuierbly che images were aid fo memory (receding maps ot ‘ryt, accounts of portant evens (suchas astronomical oc ‘Sutencor or bale) simple doodling, aneent decoration childs ‘ly or that great archaeological eatchall—works of ceremonial Significance "Ther eno simple explanation for most Native American rock ast because i served so many purposes. Moreover once in place, tock ee pence take ona life of thelr own and sometimes acquire ‘ow end entity difezent explanations though the age, each ‘ccesive cleure incorporating the petrolyrs and pictographs feta new image for tel on purpoves. Aaa‘One final word isin order here. Rock arty by its natu, i ‘exzenely vulnerable to desrucion and defacement. Peogyphs ‘fen cecur on small boulders, which may be cared off by the thoughres visor Sometimes, even huge rock art panes are "Collected" the vandals blaring or Jackcharamering away the mati, Often rocket panels occur on fa, woftstone surfaces and tuccesive generations of vitor often fel compelled vo deface the eae eymbols with modem graffi. "When visting rock arts, yourbest move ito keep hands of ‘Do not make rubbings. Do not eahance the rock ar with chalk futlines Do not eallece any artfct that might be scattered ‘hour, Alo ep in mind that many ancien rock ar sites are Considered to be sazed ses by some modern Native American ‘People, Please respec thei customs and beliefs when you vit the [es oftheic ancestors. Pare lore serpents and Kahane mast Pucl Sm Citta ‘New Nera Galen Ban. Thechhebow clon hha we [pen eh ty om. (Cours of the Areca Mice of [Nana Hisar: logy NC: Neon.) Aaa Speoting Ot Ams meron 78 blades, wooden clas for dispatching seals and fi, fe tools for ‘woodearving, pendant, hats, basket, cys, and wenving equipment, Ted an extraordinary ifeszed wooden efigy ofthe dol fin and back ofa killer whale, sudded with more than 700 sa otter teeth, Because the depois contin sll-gree alder leaves and coda bark, excavators iow thatthe ste was destroyed in June "Thus, insted of pesing wgether the past fom indiscriminate ds- cards chacologice working st Ozer had before them the entire ange of Makah household items. Some archaeologist think that (Guete is he most significant archaeological find in North Ameria— fn American Pompei. Washington Stace Univenity excavated there fee eleven fld seasons uni they shutdown operations in 198 ‘Maka Cultural and Research Center (Neah Bay, WA on SR. 112) exhibits the heritage and echacology af the Maka people ‘Many ems on dapay were recovered during archacologial ex- vations atthe village of Ozete, which contained the largest precontact Northwest Cost Indian calleton inthe country. [Reconstruction ofthe Orerte cedar longhouse andthe oceango- ing canoes ae diplayed. Phone (206) 645-271 Unfortunately, the Ont ses inaccesibe today. Bu the publics welcome at the Maka Ceara and Research Center, located about Fcen miles from Ose, on present-day Neah Bay, Washington. ‘Owned and operated by the Makah Indian Nation, this i the sole repodtoy for archaeological materials discovered atthe important ‘seal village of Ort [BISON HUNTERS OF THE NORTHERN PLAINS “The Great North American Plains—a lat land of cold winter and hot summer, of spare and unprediciable preciitation—cover cree quarters of million square miles Here Paleoindans hunted mam fhotts and other now-extinct Ice Age gune. Then a the end ofthe Pletocene, the primeval northem conifer forest was graually r- laced by deciduous fore. Sometime berween 8000 BC. and 6000 BG, these forests were in turn replaced by postglacial vegetation over of perennial gists. Tres occur today only in team valley, sea lands and lly locales.