Great Basin

by Fowler, Catherine S.; Fowler, Don D.

• ISBN13: 9781930618961
• ISBN10: 1930618964
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-10-15
• Publisher: School for Advanced Research/Sar pr

Summary

This book is about a place, the Great Basin of western North America, and about the lifeways of Native American people who lived there during the past 13,000 years. The authors highlight the ingenious solutions people devised to sustain themselves in a difficult environment. The Great Basin is a semiarid and often harsh land, but one with life-giving oases. As the weather fluctuated from year to year, and the climate from decade to decade or even from one millennium to the next, the availability of water, plants, and animals also fluctuated. Only people who learned the land intimately and could read the many signs of its changing moods were successful. The evidence of their success is often subtle and difficult to interpret from the few and fragile remains left behind for archaeologists to discover. These ancient fragments of food and baskets, hats and hunting decoys, traps and rock art and the lifeways they reflect are the subject of this well-illustrated book.

Table of Contents

Maps
Chronology of the Great Basin
Stories of a Place and Its Peoples	p. 1
Great Basin Natural History	p. 7
Building an Environmental History of the Great Basin	p. 19
Great Basin Cave Archaeology and Archaeologists	p. 27
The Early Peopling of the Great Basin	p. 35
Archaic Times	p. 45
Tosawihi Quarries and Sacred Sites	p. 55
The Great Basin's Oldest Textiles	p. 61
Great Basin Sandals	p. 69
Hats, Baskets, and Trays from Charlie Brown Cave	p. 75
The "Good Sweet Water" of Great Basin Marshes	p. 79
High Altitude Sites in the Great Basin	p. 87
Making a Living in the Desert West	p. 95
The Enigmatic Fremont	p. 105
Range Creek Canyon	p. 117
Fremont Basketry	p. 125
Who Lived on the Southern Edge of the Great Basin?	p. 129
Rock Art in the Western Great Basin	p. 137
Shamans, Shields, and Stories on Stone	p. 145
Rediscovering and Appreciating Ancient Knowledge	p. 153
Suggested Reading	p. 157
Picture Credits	p. 159
Index	p. 161
Color plates follow page 50
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.