Paleoecology and Diet at Clydes Cavern

Abstract

Dietary and paleoecological data from the Clydes Cavern site has provided information concerning man's adaptations in a desert environment. Moreover, this information reveals certain of the processes involved in the Archaic-Fremont transition in Utah, especially as this transition relates to the utilization of wild grass seeds and the introduction and development of maize horticulture. Although horticulture and wild plant collecting were practiced during the Archaic inhabitation of the site, the coprolite sequence and the alluvial chronology suggest that a greater dependence upon these subsystems developed in a Fremont context, possibly in association with a period of improving alluvial conditions. During the Fremont occupation, the site seems to have functioned as a farming and collecting station within a larger system of regional adaptation.

A Reassessment of Northeastern Great Basin Prehistory

“…On the Colorado Plateau the Archaic/Fremont hiatus is evidenced at only three sites. Occupational breaks of 2000 years or more are indicated at both Clyde's Cavern (Winter and Wylie 1974) and Joe's Valley Alcove (E. DeBloois, personal communication). However, radiocarbon dates from Deluge Shelter Level 5 (Archaic) of 1625±95 radiocarbon years: A.D. 325, and Level 4 (Fremont) of 1215±85 radiocarbon years: A.D. 735 indicate a discontinuity of only 200 to 600 years (Leach 1967).…”

The Processes of Farming Diffusion in the Southwest and Great Basin

“…The fecal and macrofloral samples at Clydes Cavern reflect a similar situation (Winter and Wylie 1974). Wild grasses are absent from the pre-farming levels, but appear and continuously increase after the arrival of maize.…”

“…The causes of this change are not known, but they may have occurred as a result of increases in effective moisture and alterations in the local stream system. The macro floral contents of the cave, for example, as well as the character of the layerings and the nature of the stream terrace which intruded into the cave indicate modifications of the depositional processes in the cave and of the downcutting pattern in the nearby arroyo (Winter and Wylie 1974). Data from both sites are therefore suggestive of shifting environmental conditions, and while the causes are uncertain, there is the repeated association of the appearance of maize and grass collecting with an altered climate.…”

“…This pattern may have been repeated in many areas as expanding farming groups moved west and north from over-populated centers, eventually influencing central Utah. Evidence for contact between central Utah foragers and Basketmaker groups includes Archaic and Basketmaker II materials from Cowboy Caves (Jennings 1975), Anasazi basketry in Clydes Cavern (Winter and Wylie 1974), possible Basketmaker occupation sites in the Waterhold Flat area (Gunnerson 1969), the Rasmussen Basketmaker burial cave in Nine Mile Canyon (Gunnerson 1969), and Fremont-like maize in southern Utah Basketmaker caves (Winter 1973). Large-scale Basketmaker "migrations" probably did not occur, but small parties of farmers from the south may have moved northward into areas which had previously supported only a limited population of foragers.…”