Prehistoric Cold Storage on the Snake River Plain: Archaeological Investigations at Bobcat Cave. Lael Suzann Henrikson. Archaeological Survey of Idaho, Monographs in Idaho Archaeology and Ethnology, No. 1, Idaho State Historical Society, 1996, v + 38 pp., 26 figs., 3 tables, $10.00 (paper).

The dating of the Pinto Period has long been a major issue in Mojave Desert prehistory. Competitive chronologies place it within two significantly different time intervals, and lead to quite different interpretations of the ancient desert lifeway. Projectile points from radiocarbon-dated strata at the Rogers Ridge site support the case for an early occupation dating between 6,000 and 6,400 B.P. This paper presents and discusses the implications of the evidence from Rogers Ridge.

The source direction of obsidian artifacts from archaeological contexts in Drews Valley, located on the northwestern Great Basin perimeter, provides evidence for an east-to-west shift in procurement or interaction spheres from Middle to Late Holocene times. For Elko and earlier periods, sources located to the northeast, in Oregon 's Chewaucan Basin, are predominant, and most of the remaining exotic obsidian is from other Great Basin sources, primarily from the Goose Lake basin to the southeast. Within the last ca. 1,300 years, sources on the Modoc Plateau to the southwest predominate, while sources in the Chewaucan and other easterly basins are rare. This shift, precipitated by a combination of factors that may have included environmental stress, conflict, and changing economic opportunities, may mark the initiation of the ethnographic pattern.

In this paper, the age and context of two distinctive shell beads recently found at the DJ Ranch site in south-central Oregon are discussed. These beads, which almost certainly originated on the southern California coast, clearly indicate the existence of extensive trade networks during the Middle Holocene. Such beads have also been identified as evidence of an early cultural interaction sphere linking the southern Channel Islands and adjacent mainland coast with peoples of the western Great Basin. The examples from the DJ Ranch site significantly extend the spatial distribution of such beads. Archaeologists working throughout the Great Basin and California should be aware of these distinctive beads and their potential implications.

This report documents the excavation of the cave, describes the collection, and serves as the final report on the project. The collection and notes are housed at UCLA under accession number 365.