Archaeology & Taphonomy Research

Bryan Hockett's Webpage

Welcome to my Home Page    Updated May 20, 2017


Many of my publications are available below for download as .pdf's. I am also uploading information about my current research projects. These include ancient antelope traps and other large game traps in the Great Basin; the correlation between large scale artiodactyl traps and rock art sites, and what that might mean for understanding ethnic identities in the prehistoric Great Basin; nutritional ecology; and my studies at Bonneville Estates Rockshelter (Nevada), and its implications for understanding long-term trends in large and small game hunting in the Basin.


Two articles recently published in American Antiquity and one in Quaternary International describe my research on antelope, deer, and mountain sheep traps in the Great Basin. I am currently researching additional large-scale traps in western Nevada, and I have been busy visiting a number of traps that have come to my attention since the publication of the 2013 Quaternary International article. My latest applications of the large-scale trap feature data include (1) the role they played in the switch from residential to logistical hunting patterns between 5,000 and 6,000 years ago; and (2) the correlation of large-scale traps with some of the largest and most spectacular rock art sites known in the western Great Basin (see the Traps & Rock Art tab above for more information).


I am currently writing a monograph on the large-scale traps of Nevada, eastern California, and western Utah.  I hope to see it published in 2018.


.pdf's OF PUBLISHED ARTICLES










2015  The Zooarchaeology of Bonneville Estates Rockshelter: 13,000 Years of Great Basin Hunting Strategies


2014  Identifying Dart and Arrow Points in the Great Basin

2013  Identifying Stone Tool Cut Marks and the Pre-Clovis Occupation of the Paisley Caves
2013  Identifying Stone Tool Cut Marks and the Pre-Clovis Occupation of the Paisley Caves, Supplemental Information
2013  Large-Scale Trapping Features from the Great Basin, USA: The Significance of Leadership and Communal Gatherings in Ancient Foraging Societies
2013  Serpentine Hot Springs, Alaska: Results of Excavations and Implications for the Age and Significance of Northern Fluted Points
2012  Optimizing Energy: The Epistemology of Primitive Economic Man.  (See also the "Nutritional Ecology" tab above)
2012  The Consequences of Middle Paleolithic Diets on Pregnant Neanderthal Women
2011  Climate, Environment, and Humans in North America's Great Basin During the Younger Dryas, 12,900 - 11,600 Calendar Years Ago
2011  Book Review: "Paleonutrition"
2010  Back to Study Hall: Further Reflections on Large Game Hunting During the Middle Holocene in the Great Basin
2009  13,000 Years of Large Game Hunting in the Great Basin
2009  Antiquity of Communal Pronghorn Hunting in the North-Central Great Basin
2009  Continuity in Animal Resource Diversity in the Late Pleistocene Human Diet of Central Portugal
2009  Beyond the Study of Lithic Assemblages: The Case of Picareiro Cave, Portugal
2008  The Early Peopling of the Great Basin
2007  Nutritional Ecology of Late Pleistocene to Middle Holocene Subsistence in the Great Basin:  Zooarchaeological Evidence from Bonneville Estates Rockshelter
2007  The Paleoindian Occupations at Bonneville Estates Rockshelter, Danger Cave, and Smith Creek Cave (Eastern Great Basin, U.S.A.): Interpreting Their Radiocarbon Chronologies
2007  Small Faunal Use During the Middle and Late Pleistocene of Portugal: A Nutritional Ecology Perspective
2006  Climate, Dietary Choice, and the Paleolithic Hunting of Rabbits in Portugal
2006  Paleolithic Subsistence and the Taphonomy of Small Mammal Accumulations in the Iberian Peninsula
2006  Two Sides of the Same Coin - Rocks, Bones, and Site Function of Picareiro Cave, Central Portugal
2005  Nutritional Ecology and the Human Demography of Neanderthal Extinction
2005  Middle and Late Holocene Hunting in the Great Basin: A Critical Review of the Debate and Future Prospects
2005  Latest-Pleistocene-Early Holocene Human Occupation and Paleoenvironmental Change in the Bonneville Basin, Utah-Nevada
2004  Paleontological Investigations at Mineral Hill Cave
2004  Theoretical Perspectives on the Dietary Role of Small Animals in Human Evolution
2003  Nutritional Ecology and Diachronic Trends in Paleolithic Diet and Health
2003  Ceramic Production, Fremont Foragers, and the Late Archaic Prehistory of the North-Central Great Basin
2002  Taphonomic and Methodological Perspectives of Leporid Hunting During the Upper Paleolithic of the Western Mediterranean Basin
2002  Oranjeboom Cave: A Single Component Eastgate Site in Northeastern Nevada
2002  Excavations at the Middle Pleistocene Cave Site of Galeria Pesada, Portuguese Estremadura: 1997-1999
2000  The Rabbits of Picareiro Cave: Small Mammal Hunting During the Late Upper Paleolithic of the Portuguese Estremadura
2000  Paleobiogeographic Changes at the Pleistocene-Holocene Boundary near Pintwater Cave, Southern Nevada
2000  Hunter-Gatherer Subsistence at the End of the Pleistocene: Preliminary Results from Picareiro Cave, Central Portugal
1999  Taphonomy of a Carnivore-Accumulated Rabbit Bone Assemblage from Picareiro Cave, Central Portugal
1998  Sociopolitical Meaning of Faunal Remains from Baker Village
1997  The Spring Creek Mastodon from Discovery to Exhibit
1996  Corroded, Thinned, and Polished Bones Created by Golden Eagles (Aquila chrysaetos): Taphonomic Implications for Archaeological Interpretations
1995  Comparison of Leporid Bones in Raptor Pellets, Raptor Nests, and Archaeological Sites in the Great Basin
1995  Chronology of Elko Series and Split Stemmed Points from Northeastern Nevada
1994  A Descriptive Reanalysis of the Leporid Bones from Hogup Cave, Utah
1993  Bone Accumulations in Open Air Sites: A Case Study from the Northern Great Basin
1992  "Faunal Remains", in A Gabled Wooden Lodge in an Archaeological Context: Archaeological Investigations at Sample Unit U19adPL, Nevada Test Site, Nye County, Nevada
1991  Toward Distinguishing Human and Raptor Patterning on Leporid Bones
1990  Arachnid Taphonomy: Note on Scorpion Remains in Archeological Context
1989  The Concept of Carrying Range: A Method for Determining the Role Played by Woodrats in Contributing Bones to Archeological Sites


More articles to come...

Prehistoric large-scale traps are more common across the Great Basin and Nevada than once believed, suggesting that large game hunting was an important activity throughout much of the occupation of the Great Basin. Antelope traps were built with a variety of raw materials and took a variety of shapes across the Great Basin. Antelope traps were built at least 3,500 to 5,000 years ago, perhaps earlier. See the Antelope Traps tab above for more information. Deer and mountain sheep traps are more common in central and western Nevada than in eastern Nevada, although they are found throughout the state. See the Deer and Sheep Traps tab above for more information. As with antelope traps, deer and mountain sheep traps were first constructed by about 5,000 years ago.


Updated: May 20, 2017.

Bryan Hockett's

Archaeology & Taphonomy Research