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: April 11, 2020.
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; my studies at Bonneville Estates Rockshelter (Nevada), and its implications for understanding long-term trends in large and small game hunting in the Basin, and most recently I will be analyzing the faunal remains from the ca. 14,000 cal BP McDonald Creek site located in the Tanana Valley of Alaska.
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 Nevada and eastern California. 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 (along with Eric Dillingham) are currently writing a monograph on the large-scale traps of Nevada, eastern California, and western Utah. We are putting the finishing touches on the initial draft,and we plan to submit it to Texas A & M University Press for consideration by the end of May, 2020.
Archaeology & Taphonomy Research
Archaeology & Taphonomy Research