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Rockshelters and Hunter-Gatherer Adaptation to the Pleistocene/Holocene Transition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

John A. Walthall
John A. Walthall*
Affiliation:
Research and Collections Center, Illinois State Museum, Springfield, IL 62706
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Abstract

A major focus of archaeological field investigations over the past four decades in eastern North America has been the excavation of rockshelters. Many of the Southern highland rockshelters investigated during this period yielded evidence of initial occupations by Dalton horizon (10,500 to 10,000 B.P.) hunter-gatherers. Data concerning the Dalton components from a sample of 45 of these shelters are reviewed and discussed in order to identify variability in site functions and to address the question, Why were Dalton peoples the first North American hunter-gatherers to systematically inhabit rockshelters? Factors such as shifts in hunting patterns and mobility strategies appear to have been central to this development in early Holocene landscape utilization.

Résumé

Résumé

En el este de Norteamérica unfoco mayor de las investigaciones arqueológicas de campo durante las últimas cuatro décodas ha sido la excavación de abrigos rocosos. Durante este tiempo muchos de los abrigos rocosos investigados en el altiplano del sur han producido evidencia de ocupación inicial por cazadores-recolectores del horizonte Dalton (10,500 a 10,000 antes del présente, fechas no-corregidas). Aquí se revisan y discuten los datos sobre los componentes Dalton en una muestra de 45 de estos abrigos a fin de identificar la variabilidad en función de los sitios y responder a la pregunta, ¿por qué fue la gente Dalton los primeras cazadores-recolectores en Norteamérica en habitar abrigos rocosos sistemáticamente? Factures como cambios en patrones de caza y estrategias de mobilidad parecen haber sido céntricos a este desarrollo en la utilización del paisaje en el Holoceno temprano.

Type
Articles
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 63 , Issue 2 , April 1998 , pp. 223 - 238
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1998

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