The prehistory of Deep Springs Valley, eastern California: Adaptive variation in the western Great Basin

Great Basin anthropologists disagree on the significance of variations in aboriginal behavior, despite generally similar materialist and evolutionary theoretical perspectives. One view holds that adaptations are similar over the entire region and have remained unchanged in response to uniformly harsh conditions. In contrast, a second position argues that adaptations vary, in time and space, in accord with differences in material or other conditions affecting life. Lacking adequate comparative data neither view has prevailed. Archaeological data from Deep Springs Valley, eastern California suggest that significant variations in Great Basin adaptations occur both through time and across space.; A random stratified surface survey of 151 500 x 500 meter tracts reveals evidence for three millennia of occupation in Deep Springs Valley. The size, natural setting, and assemblages of sites suggest the presence of seven functionally or seasonally distinct settlement categories. This taxonomy is supported by a scalogram analysis of assemblages composition. Two fundamentally different adaptations are recognized. The first adaptation (1200 B.C.-A.D. 600) is characterized by limited residential but high logistical mobility among large groups exploiting a narrow range of primarily lowland resources.; The second adaptation (A.D. 600-historic) is distinguished by: (1) less use of specialized logistical hunting camps followed by their abandonment; (2) intensive exploitation of pinyon, and (3) the occupation of alpine village sites. Together, these changes imply greater residential mobility, use of a wider range of often inferior, previously ignored resources, and a significant shift in adaptation.; The settlement subsistence pattern in Deep Springs Valley is compared to those in Owens, Reese River, Fish Lake Valleys, and the Coso region of the west-central Great Basin. These comparisons indicate that regional adaptations differ markedly in residential mobility from migratory to residentially tethered groups. Historical and material factors are evaluated to account for this variation. Differences in seasonal precipitation affecting the productivity of lowland seeds, the distribution of Pinyon-Juniper woodlands, and the size and density of regional populations in response to geographic and other natural and social factors seem the most likely explanations for the observed variability.