Dating and Analysis of Western Stemmed Toolkits from the Legacy Collection of Connley Cave 4, Oregon

ABSTRACT

Stephen Bedwell excavated the Connley Caves in 1967 and 1968, uncovering dense Western Stemmed Tradition assemblages in the lowest deposits. Reporting a series of radiocarbon dates between 11,200 ± 200 ¹⁴C yr BP and 9150 ± 150 ¹⁴C yr BP, he suggested the earliest human occupation of Cave 4 dated to ∼11,000 ¹⁴C yr BP. Subsequent researchers have questioned the veracity of his claim and the reliability of his data. We revisit Bedwell’s investigations to provide a detailed narrative of the excavations and more thoroughly report the Western Stemmed materials. We identify and date two Early Holocene and late Pleistocene cultural features and recharacterize the lithic assemblage. Our results suggest that Bedwell’s oldest date is aberrant and current evidence for the earliest occupations spans the Younger Dryas. This study provides new information, resolves long-standing questions about Bedwell’s assumptions and methodologies, and facilitates the incorporation of the collection into on-going Western Stemmed research in the northern Great Basin.

KEYWORDS:

• Western Stemmed Tradition
• collections-based research
• Great Basin
• Pleistocene

Acknowledgements

We sincerely thank the Klamath Tribes–Klamath, Modoc, and Yahooskin and Burns Paiute Tribe whose traditional lands the Connley Caves are located on for the opportunity to conduct this research. We would also like to thank our colleagues at the Museum of Natural and Cultural History, including Elizabeth Kallenbach for her help accessing the Connley Caves collection, Andrew Boehm for the identification of the incised porcupine tooth, and Jamie Kennedy for the charcoal identifications. Lastly, we want to thank PLAYA, which provided the senior two authors with a tranquil two weeks in the Summer Lake Basin where much of the research for this paper was first undertaken.

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Funding

Funding for the radiocarbon dates was provided by the University of Oregon Museum of Natural and Cultural History Paleoindian Research Fund.

Notes on contributors

Richard L. Rosencrance

Richard L. Rosencrance (MA, University of Nevada, Reno) is currently a PhD student at the University of Nevada, Reno and an instructor at the University of Oregon archaeological field school. His research interests include the peopling of the Americas, the Western Stemmed Tradition, chronology building, lithic technology, and organization of labor – especially in the Great Basin and southern Columbia Plateau.

Katelyn N. McDonough

Katelyn McDonough (PhD Texas A&M University) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology and Director of the Northern Basin Archaeology Field School in the Museum of Natural and Cultural History at the University of Oregon. She is an environmental archaeologist who studies relationships between people, foodways, disease, and ecosystems, with an emphasis on the Pleistocene-Holocene transition in western North America.

Justin A. Holcomb

Justin A. Holcomb (PhD, Boston University) is an anthropological archaeologist with a focus on the geoarchaeology of human-environment interaction. He examines human migration, movement, and mobility, especially in the context of the peopling of new landscapes (Americas, Aegean Basin). He is currently a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Kansas Geological Survey (University of Kansas).

Pamela E. Endzweig

Pamela E. Endzweig (PhD, University of Oregon) is a Senior Research Associate and Director of Anthropological Collections at the University of Oregon (UO) Museum of Natural and Cultural History. She obtained her PhD from the University of Oregon in 1994. Her research interests include archaeology of the Columbia Plateau and Great Basin, early Americans, trade, and the impacts of culture contact.

Dennis L. Jenkins

Dennis L. Jenkins (PhD, University of Oregon) is a Senior Research Archaeologist II and Director of the Northern Great Basin archaeological field school at the University of Oregon Museum of Natural and Cultural History. His research interests include the first settlement of North America, Northern Great Basin archaeology, obsidian sourcing and hydration, and Great Basin settlement-subsistence patterns.