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From Sand and Sea: Marine Shell Artifacts from Archaeological Sites in the Fort Rock Basin, Northern Great Basin
Abstract
Shell speciation and bead typology can be used to trace origin and trade routes. This documents bead typology and marine shell species from sites in the Northern Great Basin. Provides the methodology and process that can be followed to determine species and origin of shell from archaeological sites.
... Conversely, Vellanoweth (2001:946) suggested that Olivella beads (in particular , Olivella Grooved Rectangle [OGR] beads) were conveyed from southern California to the Fort Rock Basin during the Middle Holocene. Finally , based on the bead types found in the region, Largaespada (2006) suggested that northern Great Basin populations obtained beads from the Oregon, Washington, and California coasts. Reconstructions of how and when shell beads were conveyed into the Great Basin are based on: (1) the fact that some taxa occupy discrete ranges along the Pacific Coast; (2) the distribution of those taxa at interior sites; (3) age estimates of particular bead types based on stratigraphic associations with dated features; and (4) the use of morphologically distinct bead types as index fossils at other undated sites. ...
Beads manufactured from marine shells originating along the Pacific Coast have been found at numerous sites in the western United States. Because they were conveyed across substantial distances and widely exchanged during ethnographic times, researchers generally assume that shell beads were also traded prehistorically. By examining the spatial and temporal distribution of beads, researchers have reconstructed prehistoric exchange networks. In this report, we present stable isotope data and accelerator mass spectrometer (AMS) radiocarbon dates for six Callianax (previously Olivella) biplicata beads from the LSP-1 rockshelter in southcentral Oregon. Most of the beads were deposited during the early Holocene during a series of short-term occupations and the shells used to manufacture them were procured along the northern California, Oregon, or Washington coasts.
Spanish
Cuentas manufacturadas a partir de valvas de moluscos marinos han sido halladas en numerosos sitios del oeste de los Estados Unidos de América. Debido a que han sido transportados a distancias significativas y ampliamente intercambiados durante tiempos etnográficos, los investigadores han asumido que las cuentas de valvas han sido también intercambiado en momentos prehistóricos. Examinando la distribución espacial y temporal de las cuentas, algunos investigadores han reconstruido las redes de intercambio. En este trabajo presentamos datos de isótopos estables y fechados radiocarbónicos (AMS) para seis cuentas realizadas en valvas de Callianax biplicata (anteriormente denominadas Olivella) procedentes del abrigo rocoso LSP-1 en el centro-sur de Oregon. Los resultados indican que las cuentas fueron depositadas durante el Holoceno temprano, cuando LSP-1 fue utilizado durante una serie de ocupaciones de corto plazo. Por lo tanto, son las cuentas de concha marina más antiguas de la Gran Cuenca y probablemente fueron hechos de concha adquiridas en las costas de California, Oregon o Washington.
... Obsidian, in fact, may have been one of the primary materials for which early Olivella beads were traded to interior tribes. Inland sites that have produced spire-removed Olivella beads in probable Early Holocene contexts include sites as distant as Marmes Rockshelter in Washington state, Locality III in the Fort Rock Basin of Oregon [19], and Leonard Rockshelter in Pershing County, Nevada (see [2]), the latter in close proximity to several major obsidian sources. For Mojave Desert sites located 250–365 km from the coast in southeast California, Fitzgerald et al. [10] reported a suite of AMS dates for spire-removed Olivella beads that range in age between about 11,000 and 8000 cal BP. ...
Investigations in the 1960s and 1970s showed the Irvine site (CA-ORA-64) to be among the oldest shell middens known from the Pacific Coast of North America. The site chronology, based on conventional analysis of mixed shell samples collected from heavily bioturbated soils, extended back to ca. 8440RYBP. Recent work at the site provided an opportunity to refine the CA-ORA-64 chronology via AMS 14C dating of single shell fragments, including 14 Olivella beads. Long considered to be one of the earliest ornament types made by Pacific Coast peoples, such spire-removed Olivella beads were used through much of the Holocene and generally are not good chronological indicators. AMS analysis of the CA-ORA-64 specimens, however, produced a consistent series of Early Holocene dates that includes some of the oldest securely dated shell beads in North America. Along with obsidian from interior sources, Olivella beads played an important role in early exchange networks between coastal and interior peoples. Methodologically, our research demonstrates the utility of AMS 14C dating in determining the age of key artifact types found in multicomponent sites with assemblages affected by stratigraphic mixing.
Dentalium shell beads were widely used by Native American peoples along the Pacific Coast of North America, but were never more than a minor ornament type along the southern California coast. Limited test excavations at a small rockshelter located on San Miguel Island produced 40 Dentalium pretiosum artifacts from a thin occupational stratum radiocarbon dated to approximately 6600 years ago. The density of the bead-making refuse in this Otter Cave stratum is roughly 2.8 fragments per liter (2800 per cubic meter) a very high value for shell bead-making refuse during the Middle Holocene or for Dentalium artifacts during any time period in the Santa Barbara Channel sequence. In this paper, we describe the context, chronology, nature, and implications of the Dentalium shell assemblage from Otter Cave.
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