Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology

The Humboldt Lakebed site, designated as 26-CH-15 by the University of California Archaeological Survey in its work in the Humboldt Sink in the 1950s and 1960s, includes three sites first investigated by L. L. Loud in 1912 and designated sites 13, 14, and 15 (Loud and Harrington 1929:132). This large site, the object of several subsequent field investigations, is the type site for Humboldt series projectile points (Heizer and Clewlow 1968; Bettinger 1978), and, in conjunction with Lovelock Cave, plays a major role in the controversy regarding prehistoric lacustrine adaptations in the western Great Basin. However, until now there has been no published report describing the salient features of the site. Here I review the work conducted at the Humboldt Lakebed site and describe the results of those investigations.