Journal article
LINKING BONES AND STONES: REGIONAL VARIATION IN LATE PALEOINDIAN CODY COMPLEX LAND USE AND FORAGING STRATEGIES
American antiquity, Vol.77(1), pp.40-70
01/01/2012
DOI: 10.7183/0002-7316.77.1.40
Abstract
Using lithic and faunal data front 33 Cody complex (10,000-8600 C-14 years B.P.) components from the northern Great Plains, this study explores how Paleoindian land use and foraging strategies varied in relation to resource structure at the regional scale. The analysis of regional-scale faunal and lithic data was undertaken to demonstrate how disparate but related datasets must be considered together to develop a more complete understanding of hunter-gatherer lifeways. Empirical observations from the Cody archaeological record were compared to an optimal foraging theory and temporal resource predictability theory-inspired land-use model. The model predicts, and the data support, a pattern whereby Cody groups in the resource-rich foothill-mountain zone employed a regionally restricted land-use strategy for a protracted portion of the year, made spatially limited movements during which they relied on local toolstone, and expanded diet breadth by hunting a mixture of dispersed bison herds and small-bodied animals. In the comparatively resource-poor plains grasslands and adjacent alluvial valleys, the model predicts and the data indicate that Cody groups employed a nonregionally restricted land-use strategy in which they rapidly moved through regions, relied on nonlocal toolstone sources, made many residential moves over vast areas, and relied on a narrow range of biotic resources (primarily bison).
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- LINKING BONES AND STONES: REGIONAL VARIATION IN LATE PALEOINDIAN CODY COMPLEX LAND USE AND FORAGING STRATEGIES
- Creators
- Edward J. Knell - Department of AnthropologyMatthew E. Hill - Department of Anthropology
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- American antiquity, Vol.77(1), pp.40-70
- Publisher
- Cambridge Univ Press
- DOI
- 10.7183/0002-7316.77.1.40
- ISSN
- 0002-7316
- eISSN
- 2325-5064
- Number of pages
- 31
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 01/01/2012
- Academic Unit
- Anthropology
- Record Identifier
- 9984271554002771
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