A Changing Valley, a Changing People: The Prehistoric Occupation of Northern Warner Valley, Oregon

Abstract

Warner Valley, Oregon was occupied as early as the terminal Pleistocene (~11,000 radiocarbon years ago [14C B.P.). Random and non-random pedestrian survey conducted over three field seasons by the Great Basin Paleoindian Research Unit (GBPRU) in the northern portion of the valley, which has been designated the Northern Warner Valley Study Area (NWVSA), has identified over 100 previously unrecorded sites dating to the Paleoindian and Archaic periods. This study considers all site data (e.g., site size and location, types of tools present, lithic debitage attributes) as well as x-ray fluorescence data for 185 obsidian projectile points and debitage from the NWVSA. Using these data, I test the hypothesis that a pronounced shift occurred in prehistoric lifeways of Paleoindian and Archaic groups there following the Pleistocene-Holocene transition. Results suggest that changes in subsistence strategies, occupation intensity, and lithic technological organization occurred, which are reflected in site and stone tool attributes.