Paleoindian technological provisioning in the western Great Basin

North American archaeologists researching Paleoindian adaptations have suggested that Paleoindians, represented by Clovis, Folsom, and Plano traditions, were highly mobile foragers. By contrast, "Paleoarchaic" hunter-gatherers of the Great Basin are thought to have become increasingly sedentary through time, specially adapted and tethered to diverse lacustrine/marsh resources; My research project aims to understand human adaptation during the early Holocene through characterization of the lithic assemblages from two stemmed point sites in western Nevada, the Sadmat and Coleman sites. These sites are located in the Lahontan basin and possess data sets unique and compelling in addressing the research objectives proposed in this study; Further, this thesis examines the technological organization and provisioning strategies represented at these sites in order to address the relative degrees of mobility of early Holocene peoples in the western Great Basin.