Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T10:53:25.418Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Human Responses to Middle Holocene (Altithermal) Climates on the North American Great Plains

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

David J. Meltzer
David J. Meltzer*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas, 75275-0336
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The climate of the Great Plains during the middle Holocene varied considerably, but overall it was marked by a north–south gradient of increasingly warmer and drier conditions, with a reduction in effective moisture, surface water, and resource abundance, and an increase in resource patchiness, sediment weathering, erosion, and aeolian activity. Pronounced drought conditions were most evident on the Southern High Plains. Understanding the human responses to middle Holocene climates is complicated by a lack of archaeological data, which is partly a result of geomorphic processes that removed or deeply buried sites of this age, and by the varying adaptive responses of hunter-gatherers during this period. On the Southern High Plains, where drought was most severe, surface and groundwater sources dried and bison populations were diminished, prompting substantial adaptive changes, including local abandonment, well-digging to tap underground water, and a widening of the diet breadth to incorporate higher-cost, lower-return seed and plant resources. Sites of this age on the Central and Northern Plains also show a possible increase in diet breadth (with the incorporation of plant foods in the diet), and perhaps changes in settlement mobility (including possible shift into higher elevation areas, or mapping-on to extant rivers and springs). But linking those changes to middle Holocene drought is less straightforward.

Keywords

Archaic archaeologyAltithermaldrought adaptationsmiddle HolocenePlains, North America
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 52 , Issue 3 , November 1999 , pp. 404 - 416
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Albanese, J., Frison, G. (1995). Cultural and landscape change during the middle Holocene, Rocky Mountain area, Wyoming and Montana. Bettis, E.A. Archaeological Geology of the Archaic Period in North America. 1–19.Google Scholar
Alex, L. (1991). The archaeology of Beaver Creek Shelter (39CU779): A preliminary statement. Division of Cultural Resources. Rocky Mountain Region, National Park Service.Google Scholar
Antevs, E. (1948). The Great Basin, with emphasis on glacial and postglacial times. University of Utah Bulletin. 38, 168–191.Google Scholar
Arbogast, A., Johnson, W. (1994). Climatic implications of the late Quaternary alluvial record of a small drainage basin in the central Great Plains. Quaternary Research. 41, 298–305.Google Scholar
Artz, J. (1995). Geological contexts of the early and middle Holocene archaeological record in North Dakota and adjoining areas of the Northern Plains. Bettis, E.A. Archaeological Geology of the Archaic Period in North America. 67–86.Google Scholar
Artz, J. (1996). Cultural response or geological process? A comment on Sheehan. Plains Anthropologist. 41, 383–393.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bamforth, D. (1985). The technological organization of Paleo-indian small-group bison hunting on the Llano Estacado. Plains Anthropologist. 30, 243–258.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bamforth, D. (1988). Ecology and Human Organization on the Great Plains. Plenum, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barnosky, C., Grimm, E., Wright, H. (1987). Towards a postglacial history of the northern Great Plains: A review of paleoecological problems. Annals of the Carnegie Museum. 56, 259–273.Google Scholar
Basehart, H. W. (1960). Mescalero Apache Subsistence Patterns and Socio-political Organization. Section 1, United States Indian Claims Commission Reports. Garland Publishing Company, New York.Google Scholar
Bender, S.J., Wright, G. (1988). High-altitude occupations, cultural process, and high plains prehistory: Retrospect and prospect. American Anthropologist. 90, 619–639.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benedict, J. (1992). Footprints in the snow: High-altitude cultural ecology of the Colorado Front Range, U.S.A. Arctic and Alpine Research. 24, 1–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benedict, J. (1999). Effects of changing climate on game-animal and human use of the Colorado High Country, U.S.A. since 1000 BC. Arctic and Alpine Research. 31, 1–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benedict, J., Olson, B. (1978). The Mount Albion Complex: A Study of Prehistoric Man and the Altithermal. Center for Mountain Archaeology, Ward.Google Scholar
Binford, L.R. (1983). Long-term land use patterns: Some implications for archaeology. Dunnell, R.C., Grayson, D.K. Lulu Linear Punctated: Essays in Honor of George Irving Quimby. 27–53.Google Scholar
Black, K. (1991). Archaic continuity in the Colorado Rockies: The mountain tradition. Plains Anthropologist. 36, 1–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bonnichsen, R., Graham, R.W., Geppert, T., Oliver, J., Oliver, S., Schnurrenberger, D., Stuckenrath, R., Tratebas, A., Young, D. (1986). False cougar and shield trap caves, Pryor Mountains, Montana. National Geographic Research. 2, 276–290.Google Scholar
Borchert, J.R. (1971). The Dust Bowl of the 1970s. Annals of the Association of American Geographers. 61, 1–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Collins, M.B. (1995). Forty year of archaeology in central Texas. Bulletin of the Texas Archeological Society. 66, 361–400.Google Scholar
Cordell, L. (1997). Archaeology of the Southwest. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Cronin, J. G. (1964). A Summary of the Occurrence and Development of Ground Water in the Southern High Plains. United States Geological Survey. Water-Supply Paper 1693.Google Scholar
Davis, L. (1984). Late Pleistocene to mid-Holocene adaptations at Indian Creek, west-central Montana Rockies. Current Research in the Pleistocene. 1, 9–10.Google Scholar
Davis, L., Greiser, S. (1992). Indian Creek paleoindians: Early occupations of the Elkhorn Mountains' southeast flank, west-central Montana. Stanford, D., Day, J. Ice-Age Hunters of the Rockies. Denver Museum of Natural History, Denver., 225–283.Google Scholar
Dean, W., Ahlbrandt, T., Anderson, R., Bradbury, J.P. (1996). Regional aridity in North America during the middle Holocene. The Holocene. 6, 145–155.Google Scholar
Dyson-Hudson, R., Smith, E.A. (1978). Human territoriality: An ecological reassessment. American Anthropologist. 80, 21–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ellis, L., Ellis, G.L., Frederick, C. (1995). Implications of environmental diversity in the central Texas archeological region. Bulletin of the Texas Archeological Society. 66, 401–426.Google Scholar
Evans, G. (1951). Prehistoric wells in eastern New Mexico. American Antiquity. 17, 1–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ferring, C.R. (1995). Middle Holocene environments, geology, and archaeology in the Southern Plains. Bettis, E.A. Archaeological Geology of the Archaic Period in North America. 21–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fredlund, G. (1995). Late Quaternary pollen record from Cheyenne Bottoms, Kansas. Quaternary Research. 43, 67–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fredlund, G., Tieszen, L. (1997). Phytolith and carbon isotope evidence for Late Quaternary vegetation and climate change in the southern Black Hills, South Dakota. Quaternary Research. 47, 206–217.Google Scholar
Frison, G.C. (1975). Man's interaction with Holocene environments on the Plains. Quaternary Research. 5, 289–300.Google Scholar
Frison, G.C. (1991). Prehistoric Hunters of the High Plains. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Frison, G.C. The northwestern and northern Plains Archaic. Wood, W.R. Archaeology on the Great Plains. (1998). University Press of Kansas, Lawrence., 140–172.Google Scholar
Frison, G.C., Schwab, D., Hannus, L.A., Winham, P., Walter, D., Mainfort, R. (1996). Archaeology of the northwestern Plains. Frison, G., Mainfort, R. Archaeological and Bioarchaeological Resources of the Northern Plains. Arkansas Archaeological Survey Research Series No. 47. 8–40.Google Scholar
Frison, G.C., Toom, D., Mainfort, R. (1996). Northern Plains adaptation types. Frison, G., Mainfort, R. Archaeological and Bioarchaeological Resources of the Northern Plains Arkansas Archaeological Survey Research Series No. 47. 150–160.Google Scholar
Frison, G., Wilson, M., Wilson, D. (1976). Fossil bison and artifacts from an early Altithermal period arroyo trap in Wyoming. American Antiquity. 41, 28–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grange, R.T. (1980). Salvage Archaeology in the Red Willow Reservoir, Nebraska. Nebraska State Historical Society, .Google Scholar
Grayson, D.K. (1993). The Desert's Past: A Natural Prehistory of the Great Basin. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington.Google Scholar
Grayson, D. K. in press, Mammalian responses to middle Holocene climatic change in the Great Basin of the western United States. Journal of Biogeography.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grayson, D.K., Delpech, F. (1998). Changing diet breadth in the early upper Paleolithic of Southwestern France. Journal of Archaeological Science. 25, 1119–1129.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Green, F.E. (1962). Additional notes on prehistoric wells at the Clovis site. American Antiquity. 28, 230–234.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gregg, M., Meyer, D., Picha, P., Stanley, D. (1996). Archaeology of the northeastern Plains. Frison, G., Mainfort, R. Archaeological and Bioarchaeological Resources of the Northern Plains. Arkansas Archaeological Survey Research Series No. 47. 77–90.Google Scholar
Greiser, S. (1985). Predictive models of hunter-gatherer subsistence and settlement strategies on the central Great Plains. Plains Anthropologist Memoir. 20, .Google Scholar
Gustavson, T, Finley, R. J and McGillis, K.(1980). Regional Distribution of Permian Salt in the Anadarko, Dalhart, and Palo Duro Basins of the Texas Panhandle. Report of Investigations 106, Bureau of Economic Geology. University of Texas, Austin.Google Scholar
Gutentag, E. D, Heimes, F. J, Krothe, N. C, Luckey, R. R and Weeks, J. B.(1984). Geohydrology of the High Plains Aquifer in Parts of Colorado. Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota. Texas, and Wyoming. United States Geological Survey, Professional Paper 1400-B.Google Scholar
Hammatt, H. (1976). The Gore Pit site: An Archaic occupation in southwestern Oklahoma and a review of the Archaic stage in the Southern Plains. Plains Anthropologist. 21, 245–277.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heath, R.C. (1984). Ground-Water Regions of the United States.Google Scholar
Heath, R.C. (1988). Hydrogeologic settings of regions. Back, W., Rosenshein, J.S., Seaber, P.R. Hydrogeology.. The Geological Society of America, Boulder., 15–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hester, J. (1972). Blackwater Locality No. 1, A Stratified Early Man Site in Eastern New Mexico. Fort Burgwin Research Center, Southern Methodist University, .Google Scholar
Hofman, J. (1996). Early hunter-gatherers of the central Great Plains: Paleoindian and Mesoindian (Archaic) cultures. Hofman, J.L. Archaeology and Paleoecology of the Central Great Plains. Arkansas Archaeological Survey Research Series No. 48. 41–100.Google Scholar
Holliday, V.T. (1989). Middle Holocene drought on the southern High Plains. Quaternary Research. 31, 74–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holliday, V. T. (1995). Stratigraphy and Paleoenvironments of Late Quaternary Valley Fills on the Southern High Plains. Geological Society of America Memoir 186.Google Scholar
Holliday, V.T. (1997). Origin and evolution of lunettes on the High Plains of Texas and New Mexico. Quaternary Research. 47, 54–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holliday, V.T., Gustavson, T.C., Hovorka, S. (1996). Stratigraphy and geochronology of playa fills on the Southern High Plains. Geological Society of America Bulletin. 108, 953–965.Google Scholar
Huckell, B.B. (1996). The Archaic prehistory of the North American southwest. Journal of World Prehistory. 10, 305–373.Google Scholar
Humphrey, J., Ferring, C.R. (1994). Stable isotope evidence for Latest Pleistocene and Holocene climate change in north-central Texas. Quaternary Research. 41, 200–213.Google Scholar
Johnson, E., Holliday, V.T. (1986). The archaic record at Lubbock Lake. Plains Anthropologist. 31, 7–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, E., Holliday, V.T. (1989). Lubbock Lake: Late Quaternary cultural and environmental change on the Southern High Plains, USA. Journal of Quaternary Science. 4, 145–165.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, L., Goode, G. (1994). A new try at dating and characterizing Holocene climates, as well as archaeological periods, on the eastern Edwards Plateau. Bulletin of the Texas Archeological Society. 65, 1–51.Google Scholar
Kelly, R.L. (1995). The Foraging Spectrum: Diversity in Hunter-Gatherer Lifeways. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington.Google Scholar
Kelly, R.L. (1997). Late Holocene Great Basin prehistory. Journal of World Prehistory. 11, 1–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
LaBelle, J.M., Meltzer, D.J. (1996). Reinvestigation of Marks Beach: A possible early/mid-Holocene campsite on Blackwater Draw. Current Research in the Pleistocene. 13, 31–33.Google Scholar
Larson, P. (1977). Deserts of the Southwest. Sierra Club, San Francisco.Google Scholar
Larson, M.L. (1992). Site formation processes in the Cody and Early Plains Archaic levels at the Laddie Creek site, Wyoming. Geoarchaeology. 7, 103–120.Google Scholar
Larson, M.L. (1997). Housepits and mobile hunter-gatherers: A consideration of the Wyoming evidence. Plains Anthropologist. 42, 353–369.Google Scholar
Larson, M. L, Kornfeld, M and Rapson, D.(1995). High Altitude Hunter-Gatherer Adaptations in the Middle Rocky Mountains. 1988–1994 Investigations, Department of Anthropology. University of Wyoming, Technical Report 4.Google Scholar
McDonald, J. (1981). North American Bison: Their Classification and Evolution. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Madole, R. (1995). Spatial and temporal patterns of late Quaternary eolian deposition, eastern Colorado, U.S.A. Quaternary Science Reviews. 14, 155–177.Google Scholar
Mandel, R. (1992). Soils and Holocene landscape evolution in central and southwestern Kansas: Implications for archaeological research. Holliday, V.T. Soils in Archaeology: Landscape Evolution and Human Occupation. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington., 41–100.Google Scholar
Mandel, R. (1995). Geomorphic controls of the Archaic record in the central Plains of the United States. Bettis, E.A. Archaeological Geology of the Archaic Period in North America. 37–66.Google Scholar
Meltzer, D.J. (1991). Altithermal archaeology and paleoecology at Mustang Springs, on the southern High Plains of Texas. American Antiquity. 56, 236–267.Google Scholar
Meltzer, D.J. (1995). Modelling the prehistoric response to Altithermal climates on the Southern High Plains. Johnson, E. Ancient Peoples and Landscapes. Texas Tech University Press, Lubbock., 349–368.Google Scholar
Meltzer, D.J., Collins, M.B. (1987). Prehistoric water wells on the southern High Plains: Clues to Altithermal climates. Journal of Field Archaeology. 14, 9–28.Google Scholar
Mock, C. (1991). Drought and precipitation fluctuations in the Great Plains during the late Nineteenth Century. Great Plains Research. 1, 26–57.Google Scholar
Muhs, D., Holliday, V.T. (1995). Evidence of active dune sand on the Great Plains in the 19th century from accounts of early explorers. Quaternary Research. 43, 198–208.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Muhs, D., Maat, P. (1993). The potential response of eolian sands to greenhouse warming and precipitation reduction on the Great Plains of the U.S.A. Journal of Arid Environments. 25, 351–361.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Muhs, D., Stafford, T.W., Swinehart, J., Cowherd, S., Mahan, S., Bush, C., Madole, R., Maat, P. (1997). Late Holocene eolian activity in the mineralogically mature Nebraska Sand Hills. Quaternary Research. 48, 162–176.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nance, C.R. (1972). Cultural evidence for the Altithermal in Texas and Mexico. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology. 28, 169–192.Google Scholar
Nativ, R., Riggio, R. (1990). Meteorologic and isotopic characteristics of precipitation events with implications for ground-water recharge, Southern High Plains. Gustavson, T. Geological Framework and Regional Hydrology: Upper Cenozoic Blackwater Draw and Ogallala Formations, Great Plains. University of TexasBureau of Economic Geology, Austin., 152–179.Google Scholar
Newcomb, W. (1961). The Indians of Texas. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Nordt, L., Boutton, T., Hallmark, C., Waters, M. (1994). Late Quaternary vegetation and climate changes in central Texas based on isotopic composition of organic carbon. Quaternary Research. 41, 109–120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olson, C.G., Nettleton, W., Porter, D.A., Brasher, B. (1997). Middle Holocene aeolian activity on the High Plains of west-central Kansas. The Holocene. 7, 255–261.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pianka, E. (1978). Evolutionary Ecology. 2nd ed, Harper & Row, New York.Google Scholar
Quigg, J. M, Frederick, C. D and Lintz, C.(1994). Sulphur Springs Draw: Geoarchaeological and Archaeological Investigations at Sulphur Draw Reservoir Martin County, Texas. Mariah Technical Report, 776, August 1994.Google Scholar
Reeves, B.O. (1978). Head-Smashed-In: 5500 year of bison jumping on the Alberta Plains. Davis, L., Wilson, M. Bison Procurement and Utilization: A Symposium. 151–174.Google Scholar
Reeves, B.O. (1990). Communal bison hunters of the northern Plains. Davis, L., Reeves, B. Hunters of the Recent Past. Unwin Hyman, London., 168–194.Google Scholar
Rogers, J.D., Armbruster, J.T. (1990). Low flows and hydrological droughts. Wolman, M., Riggs, H. Surface Water Hydrology. Geological Society of America, Boulder., 121–131.Google Scholar
Root, M., Ahler, S. (1987). Middle Holocene occupation and technological change in the Knife River flint primary source area. McKinnon, N., Stuart, G. Man and the Mid-Holocene Climatic Optimum. The University of Calgary Archaeology Association, Calgary., 85–109.Google Scholar
Rosenzweig, M.L., Abramsky, Z. (1993). How are diversity and productivity related?. Ricklefs, R., Schluter, D. Species Diversity in Ecological Communities. University of Chicago Press, Chicago., 52–65.Google Scholar
Running, G.L. (1995). Archaeological geology of the Rustad Quarry site (32RI775): An early Archaic site in southeastern South Dakota. Geoarchaeology. 10, 183–204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sabin, T.J., Holliday, V.T. (1995). Playas and lunettes on the Southern High Plains: Morphometric and spatial relationships. Annals of the Association of American Geographers. 85, 286–305.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schmidt-Neilsen, K. (1964). Desert Animals: Physiological Problems of Heat and Water. Clarendon, Oxford.Google Scholar
Schmitts, L.J. (1978). The Coffey site: Environment and cultural adaptation at a Prairie Plains Archaic site. Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology. 3, 69–185.Google Scholar
Semken, H., Falk, C.R. (1987). Late Pleistocene/Holocene mammalian faunas and environmental changes on the Northern Plains of the United States. Graham, R.W., Semken, H.A., Graham, M.A. Late Quaternary Mammalian Biogeography and Environments of the Great Plains and Prairies. 176–313.Google Scholar
Sheehan, M. (1994). Cultural responses to the Altithermal: The role of aquifer-related water resources. Geoarchaeology. 9, 113–137.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Silberbauer, G. (1981). Hunter and Habitat in the Central Kalahari desert. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Smith, C., Runyon, J., Agogino, G. (1966). A progress report on a pre-ceramic site at Rattlesnake Draw, eastern New Mexico. Plains Anthropologist. 11, 302–313.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomas, H.E and others, (1963). Effects of Drought in Central and South Texas. United States Geological Survey, Professional Paper 372-C.Google Scholar
Tomanek, G.W., Hulett, G.K.(1970). Effects of historical droughts on grassland vegetation in the Central Great Plains. Dort, W., Jones, J.(1970). Pleistocene and Recent Environments of the Central Great Plains. (1970). University of Kansas Press, Lawrence., 203–210.Google Scholar
Toomey, R.S., Blum, M.D., Valastro, S.(1993). Late Quaterary climates and environments of the Edwards Plateau, Texas. Global and Planetary Change. 7, (1993). 299–320.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Valero-Garcés, B., Laird, K., Fritz, S., Kelts, K., Ito, E., Grimm, E.(1997). Holocene climate in the northern Great Plains inferred from sediment stratigraphy, stable isotopes, carbonate geochemistry, diatoms, and pollen, at Moon Lake, North Dakota. Quaternary Research. 48, (1997). 359–369.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vance, R.E., Mathewes, R.W., Clague, J.J.(1992). 7000 year record of lake-level change on the northern Great Plains: A high-resolution proxy of past climate. Geology. 20, (1992). 879–882.2.3.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walker, E.G. Mercury Series. (1992).Google Scholar
Wandsnider, L.(1997). The roasted and the boiled: Food composition and heat treatment with special emphasis on pit-hearth cooking. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology. (1997). p. 1–48.Google Scholar
Weaver, J., Albertson, F.(1956). Grasslands of the Great Plains. (1956). Johnsen, Lincoln.Google Scholar
Wedel, W.(1986). Central Plains Prehistory. (1986). University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln.Google Scholar
Weeks, J.B., Gutentag, E.D.(1988). Region 17, High Plains. Back, W., Rosenshein, J.S., Seaber, P.R. Hydrogeology. (1988). The Geological Society of America, Boulder., 157–164.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wendland, W., Benn, A., Semken, H.(1987). Evaluation of climate changes on the North American Great Plains determined from faunal evidence. Graham, R.W., Semken, H.A., Graham, M.A. Late Quaternary Mammalian Biogeography and Environments of the Great Plains and Prairies. (1987). 460–472.Google Scholar
Whitlock, C., Bartlein, P.(1993). Spatial variations of Holocene climate change in the Yellowstone region. Quaternary Research. 39, (1993). 231–238.Google Scholar
Whitlock, C., Bartlein, P., Van Norman, K.(1995). Stability of Holocene climate regimes in the Yellowstone region. Quaternary Research. 43, (1995). 433–436.Google Scholar
Woodhouse, C.A., Overpeck, J.(1998). 2000 year of drought variability in the central United States. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. 79, (1998). 2693–2714.Google Scholar