A Statistical Investigation of Landscape Adaptations across the Walker Lake Basin, Nevada

ABSTRACT

This paper investigates the archaeological record of the Walker Lake basin in western Nevada using a series of statistical tests that compare the distribution of artifacts by age and landscape features. I used the patterns observed to test existing models for mobility, landscape use, and behavioral adaptations for the Great Basin and to place the Walker Lake basin in the context of other regional sub-basins. The results of this study show that the Walker Lake basin generally conforms to broad patterns of landscape use and behavioral adaptations observed in the Great Basin. At the same time, the region shows unique patterns relative to other sub-basins, including upland focused Paleoindian groups, evidence of higher overall mobility, and increased sedentism in the latest period, contra the Carson Sink record. The results provide a model for future work by investigating the entire landscape to broadly define human behavioral adaptations.

KEYWORDS:

• Great Basin
• human behavioral ecology
• lithic technology
• spatial statistics
• mobility

Acknowledgements

I want to thank Dr. Bryan Hockett and Jason Wright with the Nevada BLM for supporting this research, granting permits to the research area, and providing access to existing archaeological records. I appreciate the laboratory support and research space provided by the Texas A&M Anthropology Department and the Florida State University Geoarchaeological Lab. Multiple Texas A&M students provided support to this project, including Adam Burke, Jacob Frisbee, Kristi Hinton, Danielle Lynch, Jordan Pratt, and Dr. Morgan Smith. I also received support from A. J. Van Slyke and Hunter Whitehead from West Florida University and Loren Christian and Trevor Hough from East Carolina University. This research would not have been possible without research support of Texas A&M University, particularly the Department of Anthropology and the Center for the Study of the First Americans. Dr. Kelly Graf supported fieldwork, laboratory research, and final reporting of the work. Drs. Ted Goebel, Mike Waters, and Chris Houser also supported fieldwork, reporting, and analysis. Financial support was provided by Texas A&M Anthropology Department Travel/Research Grants, the Roy J. Shlemon Student Field Geoarchaeology Award, and an NSF Dissertation Improvement Grant (1741038). Finally, Dr. Jessi Halligan was a constant friend and colleague in support of this work, and Dr. Sunshine Thomas ensured its completion from fieldwork to final reporting.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation, grant number 1741038.

Notes on contributors

Neil N. Puckett

Neil N. Puckett earned his PhD in Anthropology at Texas A&M University in 2021, and he currently serves as a Maritime Principal Investigator at SEARCH Inc. in Austin, TX. His research interests include paleolandscape reconstruction across submerged environments, especially the Pacific, Gulf, and Atlantic shelves, as well as using archaeological analysis to research behavioral adaptations.