Prehistoric human response to climate change in the Bonneville basin, western north America: The Bonneville Estates Rockshelter radiocarbon chronology

Abstract

The extent to which long-term climate change has influenced cultural evolution among hunter-gatherers has long been debated. In the Great Salt Lake desert (USA), a detailed record of paleoenvironmental change has been developed for the last 15,000 years, but a similarly complete chronicle of human occupation and adaptation is less secure. Here, we report and analyze one of the largest datasets (n = 247) of radiocarbon ages yet amassed from a single archaeological site in the Americas — Bonneville Estates Rockshelter, Nevada — to investigate human-environment interaction in this desert setting since 13,000 years ago. Results show a striking consistency in human-occupation intensity and oscillations between cool, mesic and warm, arid climate, specifically high occupation intensity during relatively cool times, and low intensity — even abandonment — during extended periods of drought. The ultimate outcome is a clear case of how long-term oscillations in climate can repeatedly motivate change in foraging societies in a marginal environmental setting.