Linking Bones and Stones: Regional Variation in Late Paleoindian Cody Complex Land Use and Foraging Strategies

Abstract

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>Using lithic and faunal data from 33 Cody complex (10,000–8600<jats:sup>14</jats:sup>C 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 ofbiotic resources (primarily bison).</jats:p>

Intensification Mechanisms Driving Dietary Change among the Great Plains Big Game Hunters of North America

“…As discussed previously (Hill and Knell 2013;Knell and Hill 2012), foragers and farmers would have found habitats to be quite different in terms of resource availability, abundance, and seasonal and spatial predictability. Mountains and foothills and alluvial valleys were likely calorie-rich areas with highly predictable and abundant biotic resources, and good sources of valuable abiotic resources (i.e., water, wood, and tool stone).…”

“…In this study, we evaluated this hypothesis using a large dataset, finding no support for such a unidirectional intensification over time. and habitat differences in prey availability (e.g., Hill 2008;Knell and Hill 2012;Otárola-Castillo 2016). This study also sought to compare the Great Plains Paleoindian prey choice patterns we observed in our earlier work to evidence later in time.…”

“…Recent research has inferred that early hunters in North America were indeed big-game hunting specialists (e.g., Waguespack 2008, 2009); however, the hunting specialization hypothesis might be too simplistic to capture the variability of these foragers' hunting behaviors (e.g., Cannon and Meltzer 2008; DeAngelis and Lyman 2018;Haynes and Hutson 2014;Hill 2007aHill , 2008. In addition, in studies of Paleoindian foraging and prey use in the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains, Hill (2007aHill ( , 2007bHill ( , 2008Hill and Knell 2013;Knell and Hill 2012) and Otárola-Castillo (2016) have found statistically meaningful differences in prey use across habitats, potentially by the same hunting groups. For example, in the High Plains grasslands, there was low temporal and spatial predictability of important game and other biotic and non-biotic resources.…”

“…We examine the hunting and gathering economies of the Paleoindian period through to the farming societies of the Late Prehistoric period to compare how populations approached the intensification of a nearly identical suite of faunal resources. We focus on the long-term use of intensification mechanisms within major habitat settings of the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains, including alluvial valleys, foothills and mountains, and plains and rolling hills (Hill 2008;Knell and Hill 2012).…”

Siltstone from Southern Patagonia: Its Source and Archaeological Artifact Distribution in Santa Cruz Province, Argentina

“…As mentioned earlier, obsidian was the most commonly used raw material for manufacturing projectile points in all of the regions studied. Given the importance of projectiles points for the survival of hunter‐ gatherer populations, the provisioning of obsidian must have been planned, if not scheduled (Knell & Hill, ). Because these plateaus are inaccessible during winter, the concomitant circulation of this rock would have been mainly during spring and summer.…”