Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-5nwft Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-03T11:33:14.962Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Rockshelters and Hunter-Gatherer Adaptation to the Pleistocene/Holocene Transition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

John A. Walthall
John A. Walthall*
Affiliation:
Research and Collections Center, Illinois State Museum, Springfield, IL 62706
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A major focus of archaeological field investigations over the past four decades in eastern North America has been the excavation of rockshelters. Many of the Southern highland rockshelters investigated during this period yielded evidence of initial occupations by Dalton horizon (10,500 to 10,000 B.P.) hunter-gatherers. Data concerning the Dalton components from a sample of 45 of these shelters are reviewed and discussed in order to identify variability in site functions and to address the question, Why were Dalton peoples the first North American hunter-gatherers to systematically inhabit rockshelters? Factors such as shifts in hunting patterns and mobility strategies appear to have been central to this development in early Holocene landscape utilization.

Résumé

Résumé

En el este de Norteamérica unfoco mayor de las investigaciones arqueológicas de campo durante las últimas cuatro décodas ha sido la excavación de abrigos rocosos. Durante este tiempo muchos de los abrigos rocosos investigados en el altiplano del sur han producido evidencia de ocupación inicial por cazadores-recolectores del horizonte Dalton (10,500 a 10,000 antes del présente, fechas no-corregidas). Aquí se revisan y discuten los datos sobre los componentes Dalton en una muestra de 45 de estos abrigos a fin de identificar la variabilidad en función de los sitios y responder a la pregunta, ¿por qué fue la gente Dalton los primeras cazadores-recolectores en Norteamérica en habitar abrigos rocosos sistemáticamente? Factures como cambios en patrones de caza y estrategias de mobilidad parecen haber sido céntricos a este desarrollo en la utilización del paisaje en el Holoceno temprano.

Type
Articles
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 63 , Issue 2 , April 1998 , pp. 223 - 238
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1998

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Adams, L. 1941 Rockhouse Cave. The Missouri Archaeologist 7: 18–27.Google Scholar
Adams, L. 1958 Archaeological Investigations of Southwestern Missouri. The Missouri Archaeologist 20: 1–199.Google Scholar
Adams, R. M. 1941 Archaeological Investigations in Jefferson County, Missouri. Transactions of the Academy of Science of St. Louis 30(5): 151–221.Google Scholar
Adams, R. M. 1949 Archaeological Investigations in Jefferson County, Missouri. The Missouri Archaeologist 11(3-4);1–72.Google Scholar
Ahler, S. R. 1984 Archaic Settlement Strategies in the Modoc Locality, Southwest Illinois. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.Google Scholar
Ahler, S. R. 1993 Stratigraphy and Radiocarbon Chronology of Modoc Rock Shelter, Illinois. American Antiquity 58: 462–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, D. G. 1995 Recent Advances in Paleoindian and Archaic Period Research in the Southeastern United States. Archaeology of Eastern North America 23: 145–176.Google Scholar
Anderson, D. G., and Hanson, G. T. 1988 Early Archaic Settlement in the Southeastern United States: A Case Study from the Savannah River Valley. American Antiquity 53: 262–286.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, D. G., and Sassaman, K. E. 1996 The Paleoindian and Early Archaic Southeast. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.Google Scholar
Bartlett, C. S. 1963 The Toms Brook Site—3Jol: A Preliminary Report. In Arkansas Archeology, 1962, edited by McGimsey, C. R., pp. 15–65. Arkansas Archeological Survey, Fayetteville.Google Scholar
Binford, L. R. 1978a Nunamiut Ethnoarchaeology. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Binford, L. R. 1978b Dimensional Analysis of Behavior and Site Structure: Learning from an Eskimo Hunting Stand. American Antiquity 43: 330–361.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Binford, L. R. 1980 Willow Smoke and Dogs’ Tails: Hunter-Gatherer Settlement Systems and Archaeological Site Formation. American Antiquity 45: 4–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bray, R. T. 1956 The Culture Complexes and Sequence at the Rice Site (23SN 200), Stone County, Missouri. The Missouri Archaeologist 18: 46–134.Google Scholar
Bray, R. T. 1959 Standlee Shelter I, 23BY386. In Table Rock Reservoir, Part III: Rock Shelter and Cave Investigations, edited by Chapman, C. H., Bray, R. T., and Keller, C. M., pp. 485–532. National Park Service, Omaha, Nebraska.Google Scholar
Brown, J. A., and Vierra, R. K. 1983 What Happened in the Middle Archaic? Introduction to an Ecological Approach to Koster Site Archaeology. In Archaic Hunters and Gatherers in the American Midwest, edited by Phillips, J. L. and Brown, J.A. pp. 156–195. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Broyles, B. J. 1958 Russell Cave in Northern Alabama. Miscellaneous Paper No. 4. Tennessee Archaeological Society, Knoxville.Google Scholar
Cambron, J. W, and Waters, S. A. 1959 Flint Creek Rock Shelter (Part 1). Tennessee Archaeologist 15: 72–87.Google Scholar
Cambron, J. W, and Waters, S. A. 1961 Flint Creek Rock Shelter (Part 2). Journal of Alabama Archaeology 7: 1–46.Google Scholar
Cashdan, E. 1992 Spatial Organization and Habitat Use. In Evolutionary Ecology and Human Behavior, edited by Smith, E. and Winterhalder, B., pp. 237–266. Aldine de Gruyter, New York.Google Scholar
Chapman, C. H. 1952 Recent Excavations in Graham Cave. Missouri Archaeological Society Memoir 2: 87–101.Google Scholar
Chapman, C. H. 1975 The Archaeology of Missouri, I. University of Missouri Press, Columbia.Google Scholar
Chapman, J. 1975 The Rose Island Site and the Bifurcate Tradition. Reports of Investigations 14. Department of Anthropology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville.Google Scholar
Clayton, M. V. 1965 Bluff Shelter Excavations on Sand Mountain. Journal of Alabama Archaeology 11: 1–98.Google Scholar
Clayton, M. V. 1967 Boydston Creek Bluff Shelter Excavations. Journal of Alabama Archaeology 13: 1–41.Google Scholar
Collins, M. B. 1991 Rockshelters and the Early Archaeological Record in the Americas. In The First Americans: Search and Research, edited by Dillehay, T. D. and Meltzer, D.J. pp. 157–182. CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida.Google Scholar
DeJarnette, D. L., Kurjack, E. B., and Cambron, J. W. 1962 Stanfield-Worley Bluff Shelter Excavations. Journal of Alabama Archaeology 8: 1–124.Google Scholar
DeJarnette, D. L., and Knight, V. J. 1976 LaGrange. Journal of Alabama Archaeology 22: 1–60.Google Scholar
Dickson, D. R. 1991 The Albertson Site: A Deeply and Clearly Stratified Ozark Bluff Shelter. Research Series 41. Arkansas Archeological Survey, Fayetteville.Google Scholar
Ensor, H. B. 1979 Archaeological Investigations in the Upper Cahaba River Drainage—North Central Alabama. Journal of Alabama Archaeology 25: 1–60.Google Scholar
Fowler, M. L. 1959 Summary Report of Modoc Rock Shelter. Reports of Investigations 8. Illinois State Museum, Springfield.Google Scholar
Furer-Haimendorf, C. von 1943 The Chenchus: Jungle Folk of the Deccan. Macmillan, London.Google Scholar
Futato, E. M. 1996 A Synopsis of Paleoindian and Early Archaic Research in Alabama. In The Paleoindian and Early Archaic Southeast, edited by Anderson, D. G. and Sassaman, K.E. pp. 298–314. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.Google Scholar
Gardner, P. M. 1972 The Paliyans. In Hunters and Gatherers Today, edited by Bicchieri, M. G., pp. 404–447. Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, New York.Google Scholar
Gillihan, J. E. 1959 Excavation of the Duran Rock Shelter, Union County, Illinois. Southern Illinois University Museum, Carbondale.Google Scholar
Goldman-Finn, N. S., and Driskell, B. N. 1994 Preliminary Archaeological Papers on Dust Cave, Northwest Alabama. Journal of Alabama Archaeology 40: 1–255.Google Scholar
Goodyear, A. C. 1974 The Brand Site: A Techno-Functional Study of a Dalton Site in Northeast Arkansas. Research Series 7. Arkansas Archeological Survey, Fayetteville.Google Scholar
Goodyear, A. C. 1982 The Chronological Position of the Dalton Horizon in the Southeastern United States. American Antiquity 47: 383–395.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gorecki, P. P. 1991 Horticulturalists as Hunter-Gatherers: Rock Shelter Usage in Papua New Guinea. In Ethnoarchaeological Approaches to Mobile Campsites, edited by Gamble, C. S. and Broismier, W.A. pp. 237–262. International Monographs in Prehistory, Ann Arbor, Michigan.Google Scholar
Gould, R. A. 1971 The Archaeologist as Ethnographer: A Case Study from the Western Desert of Australia. World Archaeology 3: 143–177.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Griffin, J. W. 1974 Investigations in Russell Cave. Publications in Archaeology No. 1. National Park Service, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Hall, C. L., and Klippel, W. E. 1988 A Polythetic-Satisficer Approach to Prehistoric Natural Shelter Selection in Middle Tennessee. Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology 13: 159–186.Google Scholar
Harrington, M. R. 1960 The Ozark Bluff-Dwellers. Indian Notes and Monographs 12. Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, New York.Google Scholar
Hay den, B. 1979 Paleolithic Reflections: Lithic Technology and Ethnological Excavations among Australian Aborigines. Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, Canberra.Google Scholar
Heffley, S. 1981 The Relationship between Northern Athapaskan Settlement Patterns and Resource Distribution: An Application of Horn's Model. In Hunter-Gatherer Foraging Strategies, edited by Winterhalder, B. and Smith, E.A. pp. 126–147. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Helm, J. (editor) 1981 Subarctic. Handbook of North American Indians, vol. 6, Sturtevant, W. C., general editor. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Hollingsworth, C. Y. 1991 The Archaeology of Sheeps Bluff Shelter (1FR324), Franklin County, Alabama. Journal of Alabama Archaeology 37: 1–155.Google Scholar
Jacobson, G. L., Webb, T., and Grimm, E. C. 1987 Patterns and Rates of Vegetation Change during the Deglaciation of Eastern North America. In North America and Adjacent Oceans during the Last Deglaciation, edited by Ruddiman, W. F. and Wright, H.E. pp. 277–288. Geological Society of America, Boulder, Colorado.Google Scholar
Jolly, F. 1974 The Buzzard Roost Creek Bluff Shelter: A Late Woodland-Mississippian Hunting Station in NW Alabama. Tennessee Archaeologist 30: 1–67.Google Scholar
Kay, M. 1982 Holocene Adaptations within the Lower Pomme de Terre River Valley. Illinois State Museum Society, Springfield.Google Scholar
Kelly, R. L. 1983 Hunter-Gatherer Mobility Strategies. Journal of Anthropological Research 39: 277–306.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kelly, R. L., and Todd, L. C. 1988 Coming into the Country: Early Paleoindian Hunting and Mobility. American Antiquity 53: 231–244.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klippel, W. E. 1971 Graham Cave Revisited. Memoir No. 9. Missouri Archaeological Society, Columbia.Google Scholar
Koldehoff, B. 1992 Lithic Analysis. In The Little Muddy Rock Shelter, compiled by Moffat, C. R., pp. 279–374. Cultural Resource Management Report No. 186. American Resources Group, Carbondale, Illinois.Google Scholar
LaviUe, H., Rigaud, J.-P., and Sackett, J. 1980 Rock Shelters of the Perigord. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Lim, I. 1985 Rock-Shelter Use Today: An Indicator of Usandawe Prehistory. In Recent Advances in Indo-Pacijic Prehistory, edited by Misra, V. N. and Bellwood, P., pp. 105–110. Oxford and IBH Publishing, New Delhi, India.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lim, I. 1989 Time Perspective: A Look at Contemporary Use of Rockshelters in Usandawe, Tanzania. In Households and Communities, edited by Machern, S., Archer, D. J. W., and Garvin, Richard D., pp. 505–516. Proceedings of the 21st Annual Chacmool Conference, Calgary, Alberta.Google Scholar
Logan, W. D. 1952 Graham Cave: An Archaic Site in Montgomery County, Missouri. Memoir No. 2. Missouri Archaeological Society, Columbia.Google Scholar
McGimsey, C. R. 1963 Two Open Sites and a Shelter in Beaver Reservoir. The Arkansas Archeologist 4: 9–11.Google Scholar
McMillan, R. B. 1965 Gasconade Prehistory: A Survey and Evaluation of the Archaeological Resources. The Missouri Archaeologist 27(3-1).Google Scholar
McMillan, R. B. 1971 Biophysical Change and Cultural Adaptation at Rogers Shelter. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Colorado, Boulder.Google Scholar
Metcalfe, D., and Barlow, K. R. 1992 A Model for Exploring the Optimal Trade-off between Field Processing and Transport. American Anthropologist 94: 340–356.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, C. F. 1956 Life 8,000 Years Ago Uncovered in an Alabama Cave. National Geographic Magazine 110: 542–558.Google Scholar
Moebes, T. F. 1974 Caves Spring Site (Mg 65). Journal of Alabama Archaeology 20: 63–84.Google Scholar
Moffat, C. R. (compiler) 1992 Little Muddy Rock Shelter: A Deeply Stratified Prehistoric Site in the Southern Till Plains of Illinois. Cultural Resources Management Report No. 186. American Resources Group, Carbondale.Google Scholar
Morse, D. F. 1975 Paleo-Indian in the Land of Opportunity: Preliminary Report on the Excavations at the Sloan Site. In The Cache River Archaeological Project: An Experiment in Contract Archeology, edited by Schiffer, M. B. and House, J.H. pp. 35–143. Arkansas Archeological Survey, Fayetteville.Google Scholar
Nicholson, A., and Crane, S. 1991 Desert Camps: Analysis of Australian Aboriginal Proto-historic Campsites. In Ethnoarchaeological Approaches to Mobile Campsites, edited by Gamble, C. S. and Boismier, W.A. pp. 263–354. International Monographs in Prehistory, Ann Arbor, Michigan.Google Scholar
Parkington, J., and Mills, G. 1991 From Space to Place: The Architecture and Social Organization of Southern African Mobile Communities. In Ethnoarchaeological Approaches to Mobile Campsites, edited by Gamble, C. S. and Boismier, W.A. pp. 355–370. International Monographs in Prehistory, Ann Arbor, Michigan.Google Scholar
Penny, J. S. 1987 Archaeological Investigations for the Hard Times Timber Sale, Union County, Illinois. Research Paper No. 56. Center for Archaeological Investigations, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale.Google Scholar
Perlman, S. M. 1985 Group Size and Mobility Costs. In The Archaeology of Frontiers and Boundaries, edited by Green, S. W. and Perlman, S.M. pp. 33–50. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Pookajorn, S. 1985 Ethnoarchaeology with the Phi Tong Luang (Mlabrai): Forest Hunters of Northern Thailand. World Archaeology 17: 206–221.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Raju, D. R. 1985 The Upper Palaeolithic Industries of Cuddapah District, Andhra Pradesh. In Recent Advances in Indo- Pacific Prehistory, edited by Misra, V. N. and Bellwood, P., pp. 147–156. Oxford and IBH Publishing, New Delhi, India.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ritzenthaler, R. E. 1978 Southwestern Chippewa. In Northeast, edited by Trigger, B. G., pp. 743–759. Handbook of North American Indians, vol. 15, Sturtevant, W. C., general editor. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Roberts, R. G. 1965 Tick Creek Cave, An Archaic Site in the Gasconade River Valley of Missouri. The Missouri Archaeologist 27(2).Google Scholar
Rogers, E. S., and Leacock, E. 1981 Montagnais—Naskapi. In Subarctic, edited by Helm, J., pp. 169–189. Handbook of North American Indians, vol. 6, Sturtevant, W. C., general editor. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Scholtz, J. A. 1962 The Honey Creek Shelter—3CR34. The Arkansas Archeologist 3: 1–13.Google Scholar
Seligman, C. G., and Seligman, B. Z. 1911 The Veddas. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Shippee, J. M. 1966 The Archaeology of Arnold Research Cave, Callaway County, Missouri. The Missouri Archaeologist 28.Google Scholar
Simmons, W. S. 1978 Narragansett. In Northeast, edited by Trigger, B. G., pp. 190–197. Handbook of North American Indians, vol. 15, W. C. Sturtevant, general editor. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Smith, B. D. 1986 The Archaeology of the Southeastern United States: From Dalton to DeSoto, 10,500 to 500 B.P. Advances in World Archaeology 5: 1–92.Google Scholar
Stafford, C. R. 1994 Structural Changes in Archaic Landscape Use in the Dissected Uplands of Southwestern Indiana. American Antiquity 59: 219–237.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stowe, N. R. 1970 Prehistoric Cultural Ecology in Northwest Alabama. Unpublished Master's thesis, Department of Anthropology, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa.Google Scholar
Straus, L. G. 1979 Caves: A Paleoanthropological Resource. World Archaeology 10: 331–339.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Straus, L. G., Eriksen, B. V., Eriandson, J. M., and Yesner, D. R. 1996 Humans at the End of the Ice Age: The Archaeology of the Pleistocene-Holocene Transition. Plenum, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Styles, B. W., and Klippel, W. E. 1996 Mid-Holocene Faunal Exploitation in the Southeastern United States. In Archaeology of the Mid- Holocene Southeast, edited by Sassaman, K. E. and Anderson, D.G. pp. 115–133. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.Google Scholar
Swanton, J. R. 1946 The Indians of the Southeastern United States. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin No. 137. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Thomas, R. A. 1969 Breckenridge: A Stratified Shelter in Northwest Arkansas. Unpublished Master's thesis, Department of Anthropology, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville.Google Scholar
Thomas, R. A., and Davis, H. A. 1966 Excavations in Prall Shelter (3BE187) in Beaver Reservoir, Northwest Arkansas. The Arkansas Archeologist 7: 62–79.Google Scholar
Torrence, R. 1983 Time Budgeting and Hunter-Gatherer Technology. In Hunter- Gatherer Economy in Prehistory, edited by Bailey, G., pp. 11–22. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Trigger, B. G. (editor) 1978 Northeast. Handbook of North American Indians, vol. 15, W. C. Sturtevant, general editor. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Varney, M. 1982 Excavations at 23PH22, A Cave Shelter in the Missouri Ozarks. Central States Archaeological Journal 29: 186–188.Google Scholar
Walthall, J. A. 1980 Prehistoric Indians of the Southeast. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.Google Scholar
Walthall, J. A. 1998 Overwinter Strategy and Early Holocene Hunter- Gatherer Mobility in Temperate Forests. Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology, in press.Google Scholar
Walthall, J. A., and Holley, G. R. 1997 Mobility and Hunter-Gatherer Toolkit Design: Analysis of a Dalton Lithic Cache. Southeastern Archaeology 16: 152–162.Google Scholar
Winters, H. D. 1959 Excavations at Dillow Rock Shelter (24D2-142). Department of Anthropology, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale.Google Scholar
Wood, W. R. 1963 Breckenridge Shelter—3CR2: An Archeological Chronicle in the Beaver Reservoir Area. In Arkansas Archeology-1962, edited by McGimsey, C. R., pp. 67–96. Arkansas Archeological Survey, Fayetteville.Google Scholar
Wood, W. R., and McMillan, R. B. 1976 Prehistoric Man and His Environment: A Case Study in the Ozark Highland. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Wright, C. M. 1994 Fountain Bluff Archaeology. Central States Archaeological Journal 41: 72–75.Google Scholar