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LATE
PREHISTORIC (1500 - 150 BP)
The camps of
Late Prehistoric people are found throughout the Eastern
Sierra. They are more numerous and widespread than those of
earlier periods. The average climate during this interval
was much like today, but there were many short-term shifts
in temperature and rainfall. Among the most important of
these is the “Medieval Climatic Anomaly” (MCA), a span of
extended drought that lasted, off and on, from about A.D.
800 to 1350. This warming event was experienced across much
of the world. Lakes in the Sierra Nevada shrank in size,
treelines moved, and some of the major rivers slowed to only
a trickle.
Some
archaeologists believe that the MCA had profound effects on
indigenous peoples of western North America. Food resources
became scarce, health declined, and levels of intergroup
conflict increased. It is not clear that peoples of the
Eastern Sierra suffered the same impacts. This is perhaps
because their lifeway was already prepared to deal with
variation in the amount and location of food resources.
  Late
Prehistoric settlements appear for the first time in places
that earlier people made little use of, like the barren
shore of Owens Lake and the high mountains. Other camps and settlements
are found in the same places as before, often near reliable
sources of food and water. Archaeological sites that have
offered much information on lifeways of the later
prehistoric era include the
Lubkin Creek and
Shepherd Creek
residential camps. Investigations at these and other Late
Prehistoric sites indicate many changes in how people lived.
LATE PREHISTORIC HOUSES:
  The earliest
Late Prehistoric houses look much like those of the Middle
Prehistoric period. They are large, well built structures
with excavated foundations. But the size,
construction, and contents of houses changed dramatically
around 1000 years ago. Houses get smaller, they have no
excavated foundation, and they lack the tool caches found in
earlier structures. Smaller timbers were needed to support
structures of this kind and roof/wall coverings were often
very light and flimsy. Many probably provided little more
protection than shade from the sun and strong winds.
 The lighter
construction and disappearance of tool
caches indicates that
houses were built and used
only once, with no intention of
returning the following year. Numerous activities were
conducted outside the houses. Cooking pits and refuse areas
are frequently located just beyond the entryway or door. The change in size further
suggests that households were getting smaller. Most Late
Prehistoric houses were occupied by only several people from
a single nuclear family – parents and their kids. All of
this reflects a major shift in the organization of society
and the way that people interacted and exploited the land.
 Rock ring
houses have also been identified in some places. These were
constructed where soils were harder, rock rubble was easily
acquired, and roof/wall materials was more scarce. Such
structures also offered more protection from the elements
and may have been used during colder times of the year.
Examples from the high White Mountains are especially well
built.
LATE
PREHISTORIC ARTIFACTS:
 Most Late
Prehistoric artifacts
are similar to those of earlier times. Some, however, change
in important ways and others get added or disappear from the
technology. This reflects important adjustments in how
people organized their lives, technology, and use of the
environment. Living in smaller territories meant that people
could predict the tools they needed instead of carrying
everything along. Many tools became simpler or more
specialized as a result, like the difference in what we pack
in our cars for a day at work or a family vacation.
Many Late
Prehistoric flaked
stone artifacts are simpler and smaller. For example,
projectile points
or arrow heads are smaller. This reflects the
introduction of the bow and arrow around 1300 years ago and
meant that less stone was needed to make them. Stone knives
or bifaces are less
common, smaller, and more simply made than before. They no
longer had to be carried and used for weeks at a time. In
fact, many cutting and scraping jobs were done with nothing
but a sharp stone flake. These were easy to make and
could be thrown away when the job was done. Like a lot
 of
today’s products, Late Prehistoric technology was designed
to be easily made, used, and disposable. Some of these flake
tools were used so little that they are difficult to identify.
 Late
Prehistoric grinding tools show a similar change to simpler,
more specialized artifacts. Deep basin-shaped and other
fancy grinding tools common at Middle Prehistoric sites are
no longer made. They are replaced mostly by unshaped milling
tools that were used and discarded as needed . An exception to this is a specialized,
portable grinding stone that could be carried with straps
like a shoulder bag (on the right). These allowed women to process seeds
wherever they went, instead of waiting to return home.
 Another
important change in milling technology was a much increased
use of bedrock grinding surfaces and
mortars.
Thousands of these are found throughout the Eastern Sierra,
where people gathered and processed seeds and nuts. They
were located where suitable stone outcrops were present near
rich resource areas. A final change was the development of
large threshing
floors and roasting pits to mass process seeds and pine
nuts. This increased the size of the harvest and
number of people who could be fed off the land.
 Other tools
and ornaments were also made and used by Late Prehistoric
people. Shell beads
from southern California are more abundant than ever. They
are one of the more common artifacts found on house floors. Local stone and bone beads are
also found, indicating a change in the way that
local and surrounding groups interacted. Some archaeologists
have suggested that the abundant beads of this era served as
currency. They could be used to purchase food or other
important resources from neighboring groups if local sources
failed.
 Another
important change in technology was the introduction of
pottery around 500 years ago.
Because it is heavy and easily broken, pottery is more
common among sedentary than migratory people. This may help
explain its late arrival in the Eastern Sierra, when people
moved around less and over shorter distances. Although
breakable, pottery has many advantages. It is fast and easy
to make, cooks seeds and other food more efficiently, and
saves on the amount of firewood. These are important things
in desert environments, where food and fuel are limited.
FOOD
REMAINS:
Most of the
food remains from late Prehistoric sites and houses are
similar to earlier periods. But some food that was rarely
eaten before became extremely important. This is especially
true for certain plant foods that are nutritious, but
require a lot of work to use. Despite the effort required,
as human populations grew and more food was needed the extra
work to gather and prepare it became necessary.
"Blazing
Star"
"Rice Grass"
  Both the
number and kinds of charred seeds show that plant foods were
more important over time. This includes the seeds of wild
grasses and flowering plants that were collected and stored
for winter use . Even more important were pine nuts and
acorns. These were gathered in the late
 summer and fall from
special camps in the mountains. Up to 600-800 pounds of pine nuts
could be harvested in a good year. Pine nuts were so
important that when local crops failed, families traveled
sometimes 50 miles to collect them. While both pine nuts and
acorns are nutritious, they were a lot of work to collect,
process, and store. This is why earlier people didn’t eat
them as much, preferring foods that were less costly to use.
Another group of plants that became more important in the
Late Prehistoric period were wild root crops. These included
nut grass, cattail, bitterroot, and probably others.
Nut
grass is a common weed in many people’s lawns and gardens,
but its tubers have been eaten by people in many parts of
the world. In the Eastern Sierra , it was gathered from wild
stands in wetter parts of the valleys and eventually
irrigated to increase its abundance. Other crops like
bitterroot (on the left) were gathered at high elevation camps
in the mountains, where earlier people spent little time.
As before,
mountain sheep, antelope, and rabbits were favorite targets
of Late Prehistoric hunters. But other small game and fish
were of growing importance. These included larger rodents,
like ground squirrels, packrats, and marmots that were
caught in traps (on the right). The use of these “passive” or
wait-and-see techniques allowed people to conduct other
activities at the same time.
More ducks and
other birds were also eaten, although they took a lot of
work to hunt. Another important change was an increased use
of fish and other aquatic animals. Large fish were eaten
from Early Prehistoric times onward. In the Late Prehistoric
period, however, mostly small, sardine-size fish were eaten.
The reason for this change probably relates to the fact that
more meat was produced by catching
 lots
of
small fish than only a few bigger fish. Another addition to
the Late Prehistoric diet were freshwater mussels. Hundreds
of these were collected and eaten like shellfish today. Without butter, tartar sauce, or
deep frying, however, they had little nutritional value. The
eating of brine fly and pandora moth larvae may have also
started at this time, when more kinds of food were eaten
than ever before.
SOCIAL
ORGANIZATION:
 One of the
biggest changes in Late Prehistoric life was the way that
people organized themselves and related to one another.
Earlier people were organized as communal groups, living in
large houses. By contrast, Late Prehistoric people were
organized more like today’s households, with mom, dad, and
the kids living as an independent family. Houses were
smaller and simpler as a result, with many daily activities
occurring outside. Many of these Late Prehistoric houses
were also located far from other structure or households. This indicates that families
supported themselves, producing all of the tools, food, and
other necessities of life. If a family was in trouble, they
could certainly count on relatives and friends for help, but
household
 independence replaced the daily sharing of earlier
communal life. This meant that families could travel wherever they liked and live in places that were difficult
for large communal groups who needed more food. In fact,
thousands of small, Late Prehistoric camps dot the Eastern Sierran
landscape, from the mountain tops across the valley bottoms.
RAW
MATERIALS / MOBILITY:
As in earlier times, the kinds of obsidian and other raw
materials at sites indicate how people moved across the
landscape. Most Late Prehistoric tool stone comes from
sources nearest to the sites. This indicates that people
moved frequently, but over generally small areas. Other
materials like shell beads, pottery, and finished tools show
that local people also had ties to distant areas. Some of
these exotic artifacts may have arrived through trade, some
with people from distant places, and others were brought by
local people returning from trips. Most of us do the same
thing today -- spend most of our lives near home, but depend
on food and other things shipped or brought from distant
places. Evidence from Shepherd Creek and other sites
suggests that much of this trade and travel related to pine
nuts. Once these became a critical part of the diet, people
from the Eastern Sierra and elsewhere had to often travel in
search of nuts when local crops failed.
OTHER
SITES:
 In addition to
substantial winter settlements like
Lubkin Creek and
Shepherd Creek
there were many seasonal camps. These were places where
families stopped to collect food before moving to a new
location. Identified by the presence of grinding
stones and a handful of other artifacts,
Temporary Camps
were scattered throughout the valleys. Most were visited
for only a few days when local food was available before
families moved to the next food patch.
 After spring
seed crops were harvested in the valleys, some families
moved high into the mountains. These Alpine Settlements
were located in places where root crops, marmots, and
mountain sheep were available, visited when there was little
to eat in the arid valleys below. They were probably occupied
only during the summer months when weather conditions were
at their best.
When pine nuts
ripened in the late summer, families moved to the pinyon
woodland on the lower mountain slopes. Pine Nut Camps
served as places where everyone worked to gather and store
nuts for the coming winter. If the harvest was good,
families might spend the winter in the woodlands, or return
to valley settlements and retrieve their nuts as needed.
Such sites are often marked by small rock rings that served
as storage areas (on the left) for nuts left in the uplands.
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