Household space and archaeological sites in the Pinyon-Juniper Woodland of the White and Inyo Mountains: Chronology, characteristics, and classification

This study outlines how patterns of land use and household space may bee manifested in the archaeological record in the western Great Basin and focuses on a sample of sites located in the Pinyon-Juniper Woodland of the White and Inyo mountains, which are east of California's Owens Valley. This thesis discusses land use practices and dwellings of the people of the western Great Basin during the post-contact period and examines how these phenomena reflect the subsistence patterns of the western Great Basins hunter-gatherer societies.;The archaeological record provides clues to prehistoric subsistence patterns. A focus on Pinus monophylla (singleleaf pinyon) seed ("pinyon nut") gathering and the characteristics of possible "harvesting sites" allude to land use patterns and central place foraging. Features found at harvesting sites include rock rings, some that may have served as dwellings/shelters and some that may represent pinyon nut caches. This thesis identifies characteristics of these features including size, artifact association, associated artifact type and site location and distribution through a sample of 44 previously recorded rock ring sites in the Pinyon-Juniper Woodland near Westgard Pass, between the southern White Mountains and northern Inyo Mountains and proposes methods of identifying rock rings in the Pinyon-Juniper Woodland as dwellings or pinyon nut caches, using size as a criterion when surface artifacts or other features may be absent.