Bryan Hockett's

Archaeology & Taphonomy Research

Archaeology & Taphonomy Research

Bryan Hockett's Webpage


2021  Prehistoric Human Response to Climate Change in the Bonneville Basin, Western North

America: The Bonneville Estates Rockshelter Radiocarbon Chronology. Quaternary Science Reviews 260 (2021):106930.


2022  Lions and Brown Bears Colonized North America in Multiple Synchronous Waves of

Dispersal Across the Bering Land Bridge. Molecular Ecology 2021(00):1-15.


2019  The Projectile Points from Bonneville Estates Rockshelter: Description of Two New Point Types and Implications for the Long and Short Chronology Debate in the Great Basin. Nevada Archaeologist 31: 9-50.

2023  A Latest-Paleoindian-Aged Pronghorn Trap in the Goshute Valley, Eastern Great Basin, USA. PaleoAmerica 9(1):25-47.

2024 DNA Metabarcoding and Macroremains From Coprolites Reveal Insights into Middle and Late Holocene Inhabitants of Bonneville Estates Rockshelter, Nevada. Antiquity 2024:1-18.

2023  Large-Scale Traps of the Great Basin.  Texas A&M University Press. {Available for purchase at amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, tamupress.com}.

2022  Early and Middle Archaic Projectile Point Typology and Chronology Across the Great Basin. Technical Report 19. Bureau of Land Management, Reno.

Welcome to my Home Page    Updated June 11, 2025


I visited the University of Oregon/University of Nevada, Reno Field School at the Connley Caves July 2024 at the invitation of Katelyn McDonough and Richie Rosencrance. I will be analysing the fauna from Connley Cave 6, focusing on the pre-Mazama occupations.


I completed my second fieldwork season at the ca. 13,900 cal BP Sheg Xdaltthi (McDonald Creek) site located in central Alaska during the summer of 2023.  I am in the process of identifying the fauna via morphometrics while collaborating with the Max Planck Institute in Germany who is identifying faunal specimens via ZooMS.


Together with my co-author Eric Dillingham, "Large Scale Traps of the Great Basin" was published by Texas A&M Press in April, 2023.  It is available for purchase on amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com and tamupress.com.


Together with my colleagues Ted Goebel, Kelly Graf, and Ed Stoner, we finished a manuscript on a remarkable set of three open-air Paleoindian sites from northeastern Nevada that appear to represent two kill zones and an associated campsite related to a large scale trapping event that occurred ca. 8,500 years ago during the waning phase of the Paleoindian Period in the Great Basin.  The paper was recently published by the journal PaleoAmerica. A follow-up paper that focuses on a refitting analysis of the broken Windust points is in the works and will be submiited to PaleoAmerica soon.


Together with my co-author Jason Spidell, we just completed a monograph on the typology and chronology of Early and Middle Archaic projectile points across the Great Basin.  It is available for download in the list below and blm.gov.


I completed field work at the paleontological site of Mining Canyon Cave in September, 2022.  Located in central Nevada, this site contains well preserved bones up to 30,000 years old, and appears similar in character to Mineral Hill Cave (publication below).  Identification and analysis has begun.



PUBLISHED ARTICLES, MONOGRAPHS, AND BOOKS










     2025 Faunal Extirpations, Range Shifts, and Extinctions in the Western Bonneville Basin, 17,500 - 5500 Cal Yr BP:

     Paleobiogeography of Bonneville Estates Rockshelter and Sisters East Shelter.

































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. Pronghorn, mountain sheep, and deer traps were built with a variety of raw materials and took a variety of shapes across the Great Basin. Pronghorn traps were built at least 8,500 to 7,500 years ago.  Our book on the subject was recently published by Texas A&M University Press.


Updated: June 11, 2025.