Through the High Rock and beyond: placing the Last Supper Cave and Parman Paleoindian lithic assemblages into a regional context

Based on source provenance data derived from Paleoindian artifacts in the Great Basin, most researchers agree that early groups were mobile and far-ranging; however, current explanations of the behavior reflected by those data differ. Some models portray Paleoindians as residentially-mobile foragers while others portray them as wetland-tethered collectors reliant upon logistical forays. We consider the types of hunter-gatherer behavior that could produce trends in the X-ray fluorescence data from three Paleoindian assemblages in northwest Nevada, where abundant high quality obsidian essentially allows us to hold the effects of raw material availability constant between sites. We conclude that while it is difficult to differentiate between residential and logistical mobility using technological and sourcing data alone, we can nevertheless begin to understand the relative time-averaged importance of particular locations on the landscape and why such places attracted Paleoindians.

► We consider Paleoindian mobility using XRF data derived from three sites in Nevada.
► Results suggest both significant differences and some consistencies between sites.
► We cannot determine which settlement strategies were used using XRF data alone.
► The time-averaged importance of sites to early socioeconomic systems is discernable.