Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology

The propositions that I have argued for in this paper can be summarized as follows:

1. The material culture complex that Steward (1937) originally termed "Promontory" represents a distinct archaeological culture that can be distinguished from the Fremont/Sevier on the basis of material culture, settlement pattern, and subsistence strategy.

2. The Promontory culture along the Wasatch Front postdates and replaces the Fremont occupation of the region, although the nature and timing of that replacement is uncertain.

3. The prehistoric Promontory culture is ancestral to the ethnographically known Numic groups found in the northern region of the eastern Great Basin at the time of historic contact (cf. Madsen 1975). However, a northern Plains influence cannot be ruled out.