B Hockett
Biographic Data
| ID | 7946 |
|---|---|
| NAME | B Hockett |
| GIVEN NAMES | B |
| FAMILY NAME | Hockett |
| SIGNATURE | HOCKETT B |
| AFFILIATIONS | Bureau of Land Management |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1118-6045 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 40 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 487 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 40 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1989 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 11 |
Cave/Rockshelter Burials in the Great Basin
This article addresses the proposition that the lower Lahontan drainage basin (LLDB) is “unique” within the Intermountain West in terms of the use of caves and rockshelters as burial locations, and that such burials are “rare” elsewhere (Thomas et al. 2025). We compare archaeologically known cave burials in the Bonneville basin (BB), ranging in age from approximately 10,700 to approximately 1000 cal BP, to those in the LLDB. There are 18 such sit…
Establishing Contemporaneity through Refit Analysis at a Late Paleoindian Artiodactyl-Drive Complex in Northeastern Nevada
Lithic refitting has proven to be an effective means of establishing contemporaneity within activity areas of archaeological sites, but it has rarely been used to establish a temporal connection between multiple sites. Following Bruce Huckell’s early work at the Murray Springs Clovis site, Arizona, we conducted a refit analysis of 283 point fragments from the three sites of the Silver Zone Pass Complex in the Goshute Valley (northeast Nevada), to…
Burned Wood as a Cultural Marker? Ancient Ligneous Landscapes and Firewood Use at Bonneville Estates Rockshelter, Nevada, USA
Plant resources have been widely relied upon by past hunter-gatherer societies; their remains uncovered at archaeological sites can serve as precious archives of the lives of past humans. However, while faunal remains are generally well preserved, botanical materials are usually charred, and less commonly preserved under conditions of desiccation, imbibition or freezing. Bonneville Estates Rockshelter ( BER ), Nevada, was intermittently occupied …
DNA metabarcoding and macroremains from coprolites reveal insights into Middle and Late Holocene inhabitants of Bonneville Estates Rockshelter, Nevada
The analysis of coprolites provides direct evidence of resources consumed and may be paired with ethnographic data to elucidate the dietary and medicinal use of plants in archaeological communities. This article combines and contrasts the macroscopic analysis and DNA metabarcoding of 10 coprolites from Bonneville Estates Rockshelter, Nevada, USA. While the results from both methods confirm previous understandings of subsistence practices at the s…
Evidence for Pleistocene gene flow through the ice-free corridor from extinct horses and camels from Natural Trap Cave, Wyoming
A Latest-Paleoindian-Aged Pronghorn Trap in the Goshute Valley, Eastern Great Basin, USA
We report the discovery of a large-scale artificial pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) trap located near Silver Zone Pass in the northern Goshute Valley, eastern Elko County, Nevada. Evidence comes from three closely related and closely spaced surface scatters of lithic artifacts called the Silver Zone Pass Complex. Two of the scatters represent a single kill zone, or corral, while the third represents an associated campsite. The assemblage of 282…
A Brief History and Perspective on Spirit Cave, Nevada
In 1940, Sydney and Georgia Wheeler recovered a remarkable assemblage of human remains and associated funerary objects in a small alcove they named Spirit Cave. Located in western Nevada, the significance of Spirit Cave’s human burials would not become known until the 1990s when the Nevada State Museum dated the remains to ca. 10,500 calendar years BP. The 1990s also marked the passage of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act…
Late Pleistocene subsistence in the Great Basin
Preface
Younger Dryas Archaeology and Human Experience at the Paisley Caves in the Northern Great Basin
Taphonomic comparison of bones in mountain lion scats, coyote scats, golden eagle pellets, and great-horned owl pellets
Why celebrate the death of Primitive Economic Man
The zooarchaeology of Bonneville Estates Rockshelter
Identifying Dart and Arrow Points in the Great Basin
Smith et al. (2013) provided important new information concerning the ages of a variety of projectile point types found in the Great Basin. Two of their interpretations, however, deserve further discussion. Smith et al. (2013) concluded that the Nicholarsen (or Nicolarsen) Cache contains both dart and arrow points. However, our application of methods developed by Hildebrandt and King (2012) to distinguish dart and arrow points, indicates that the…
Serpentine Hot Springs, Alaska
Identifying Stone Tool Cut Marks and the Pre-Clovis Occupation of the Paisley Caves
Analysis of taphonomic processes observable in undoubtedly cultural Younger Dryas-age faunal collections at the Paisley Caves establishes what cultural bone modification looks like in post-Clovis deposits at the site. Clearly stating the criteria by which these bones have been identified as culturally modified by stone tools, we apply the same criteria to bones found at the noncultural paleontological site of Mineral Hill Cave, Nevada, and find n…
Clovis Age Western Stemmed Projectile Points and Human Coprolites at the Paisley Caves
They Walked Together Paisley Cave in Oregon provides some of the earliest evidence for humans in North America. Jenkins et al. (p. 223 ) provide a wide variety of additional evidence of early human occupation of this site, including a series of radiocarbon ages extending back to nearly 12,500 radiocarbon years ago (about 14,500 calendar years ago). The find includes examples of projectile points representative of the Western Stemmed Tradition dat…
The consequences of Middle Paleolithic diets on pregnant Neanderthal women
Large-scale trapping features from the Great Basin, USA
Climate, environment, and humans in North America’s Great Basin during the Younger Dryas, 12,900–11,600 calendar years ago
Paleonutrition
Review of Paleonutrition. Mark Q. Sutton, Kristin D. Sobolik, and Jill Gardner. 2010. University of Arizona Press, Tucson. Pp. 384, black‐and-white illustrations. $75.00 (hardback). ISBN 9780816527946
Coastal wetlands and the Neanderthal settlement of Portuguese Estremadura
Coastal wetlands are ecotone settings that offer diverse sets of resources for human exploitation, yet evidence for Pleistocene occupation rarely preserves due to recent postglacial sea‐level rise. During an ongoing geoarchaeological survey of Portuguese Estremadura we identified uplifted Pleistocene sediments that record coastal features including raised beaches, tidal channels, muds, peat, and coastal dunes. Stratified concentrations of Middle …
Back to Study Hall
Hall's (this issue) comment to my paper published in American Antiquity five years ago (Hockett 2005) makes the following statements: (1) I calculated 'depositional rates' for a series of Great Basin faunal assemblages; (2) my analysis did not account for atmospheric radiocarbon fluctuations; and (3) my paper argued 'against an increase in hunting artiodactyls from the Middle to Late Holocene.' He further argues that recalculation of the data I p…
Continuity in animal resource diversity in the Late Pleistocene human diet of Central Portugal
Archaeologists studying the human occupation of Late Pleistocene Iberia have identified the Late Upper Palaeolithic, including the Pleistocene-Holocene transition, as a time of resource intensification, diversification and specialisation. The primary drivers for these changes were argued to be the result of population-resource imbalances triggered by the postglacial climatic warming and human population growth. Recent research, however, has pushe…
Antiquity of Communal Pronghorn Hunting in the North-Central Great Basin
Communal hunting of small game such as hares has probably occurred for 10,000 years in the Great Basin. Ethnohistoric accounts of the nineteenth century indicate that indigenous peoples communally hunted large game (e.g., pronghorn, mountain sheep, deer, bison) across much of western North America including the Plains, desert Southwest, California, and Great Basin subregions, during and immediately preceding the contact era. Research in the Plain…
Taphonomic and Methodological Perspectives of Leporid Hunting During the Upper Paleolithic of the Western Mediterranean Basin
The Rabbits of Picareiro Cave
Continuity in animal resource diversity in the Late Pleistocene human diet of Central Portugal
Archaeologists studying the human occupation of Late Pleistocene Iberia have identified the Late Upper Palaeolithic, including the Pleistocene-Holocene transition, as a time of resource intensification, diversification and specialisation. The primary drivers for these changes were argued to be the result of population-resource imbalances triggered by the postglacial climatic warming and human population growth. Recent research, however, has pushe…
Large-scale trapping features from the Great Basin, USA
Toward Distinguishing Human and Raptor Patterning on Leporid Bones
Prehistoric Native Americans hunted leporids (cottontails and hares) for food, clothing, and to obtain raw material for the manufacture of bone tools such as awls. Leporids are also favorite prey of various carnivores and raptors, hence many archaeological sites may contain leporid bones that were deposited by both human and nonhuman activities. This paper provides data to distinguish specific agents and processes that affected leporid bones in a…
Serpentine Hot Springs, Alaska
Antiquity of Communal Pronghorn Hunting in the North-Central Great Basin
Communal hunting of small game such as hares has probably occurred for 10,000 years in the Great Basin. Ethnohistoric accounts of the nineteenth century indicate that indigenous peoples communally hunted large game (e.g., pronghorn, mountain sheep, deer, bison) across much of western North America including the Plains, desert Southwest, California, and Great Basin subregions, during and immediately preceding the contact era. Research in the Plain…
Identifying Stone Tool Cut Marks and the Pre-Clovis Occupation of the Paisley Caves
Analysis of taphonomic processes observable in undoubtedly cultural Younger Dryas-age faunal collections at the Paisley Caves establishes what cultural bone modification looks like in post-Clovis deposits at the site. Clearly stating the criteria by which these bones have been identified as culturally modified by stone tools, we apply the same criteria to bones found at the noncultural paleontological site of Mineral Hill Cave, Nevada, and find n…
Hunter-gatherer subsistence at the end of the Pleistocene
Excavation at the site of Picareiro Cave in Portugal provides an important and rare sample of animal remains. Preliminary study shows that late Pleistocene hunter-gatherers hunted rabbits, deer and a wide variety of fauna, perhaps during seasonal occupation of the cave
Middle and Late Holocene Hunting in the Great Basin
Recent papers published in American Antiquity and elsewhere have debated whether there were more artiodactyls available to human foragers during the relatively cool and moist Late Holocene compared to the relatively warm and dry Middle Holocene in the Great Basin. If so, how did human foragers respond to changes in artiodactyl abundance, and what explanations may be offered to account for any changes in human behavior across the Middle Holocene-L…
Sociopolitical Meaning of Faunal Remains from Baker Village
Baker Village was a Fremont horticultural community occupied between about A.D. 1030 and 1250. The residents of Baker Village built at least five pithouses and seven aboveground storage structures arranged around a much larger, centrally located building. The spatial patterning of faunal remains indicates that more ungulate and leporid bones were recovered from floors, hearths, and middens in the Central Structure than in the pithouses and surfac…
Late Pleistocene subsistence in the Great Basin
The zooarchaeology of Bonneville Estates Rockshelter
Comparison of Leporid Bones in Raptor Pellets, Raptor Nests, and Archaeological Sites in the Great Basin
Leporid (cottontail and hare) bones deposited on the landscape in raptor pellets may exhibit more forelimb than hindlimb bones, few complete bones, more subadult than adult bones, and abundant vertebrae. In contrast, raptor nest assemblages may exhibit more tibiae than forelimb bones, few incomplete bones, more adult than subadult bones, and few vertebrae. Approximately 1 to 2 percent of leporid bones deposited in either raptor nests or raptor pe…
Identifying Dart and Arrow Points in the Great Basin
Smith et al. (2013) provided important new information concerning the ages of a variety of projectile point types found in the Great Basin. Two of their interpretations, however, deserve further discussion. Smith et al. (2013) concluded that the Nicholarsen (or Nicolarsen) Cache contains both dart and arrow points. However, our application of methods developed by Hildebrandt and King (2012) to distinguish dart and arrow points, indicates that the…
Archaeological Significance of Rabbit-Raptor Interactions in Southern California
Taphonomy of small fauna is not as well known as actualistic studies performed with large faunal remains. Yet small fauna like rabbit may dominate an archaeological assemblage. Small fauna was a primary meat source for many prehistoric groups in North America. Raptors also damage and disperse rabbit bones. Taphonomic research with rabbit-raptor interactions was undertaken in a lacustrine environment in southern California to determine the role pl…
Coastal wetlands and the Neanderthal settlement of Portuguese Estremadura
Coastal wetlands are ecotone settings that offer diverse sets of resources for human exploitation, yet evidence for Pleistocene occupation rarely preserves due to recent postglacial sea‐level rise. During an ongoing geoarchaeological survey of Portuguese Estremadura we identified uplifted Pleistocene sediments that record coastal features including raised beaches, tidal channels, muds, peat, and coastal dunes. Stratified concentrations of Middle …
A Latest-Paleoindian-Aged Pronghorn Trap in the Goshute Valley, Eastern Great Basin, USA
We report the discovery of a large-scale artificial pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) trap located near Silver Zone Pass in the northern Goshute Valley, eastern Elko County, Nevada. Evidence comes from three closely related and closely spaced surface scatters of lithic artifacts called the Silver Zone Pass Complex. Two of the scatters represent a single kill zone, or corral, while the third represents an associated campsite. The assemblage of 282…
Taphonomic comparison of bones in mountain lion scats, coyote scats, golden eagle pellets, and great-horned owl pellets
Advances in Paleolithic Zooarchaeology
Archaeological Significance of Rabbit-Raptor Interactions in Southern California
Taphonomy of small fauna is not as well known as actualistic studies performed with large faunal remains. Yet small fauna like rabbit may dominate an archaeological assemblage. Small fauna was a primary meat source for many prehistoric groups in North America. Raptors also damage and disperse rabbit bones. Taphonomic research with rabbit-raptor interactions was undertaken in a lacustrine environment in southern California to determine the role pl…
Toward Distinguishing Human and Raptor Patterning on Leporid Bones
Prehistoric Native Americans hunted leporids (cottontails and hares) for food, clothing, and to obtain raw material for the manufacture of bone tools such as awls. Leporids are also favorite prey of various carnivores and raptors, hence many archaeological sites may contain leporid bones that were deposited by both human and nonhuman activities. This paper provides data to distinguish specific agents and processes that affected leporid bones in a…
Comparison of Leporid Bones in Raptor Pellets, Raptor Nests, and Archaeological Sites in the Great Basin
Leporid (cottontail and hare) bones deposited on the landscape in raptor pellets may exhibit more forelimb than hindlimb bones, few complete bones, more subadult than adult bones, and abundant vertebrae. In contrast, raptor nest assemblages may exhibit more tibiae than forelimb bones, few incomplete bones, more adult than subadult bones, and few vertebrae. Approximately 1 to 2 percent of leporid bones deposited in either raptor nests or raptor pe…
Corroded, Thinned and Polished Bones Created by Golden Eagles ( )
Sociopolitical Meaning of Faunal Remains from Baker Village
Baker Village was a Fremont horticultural community occupied between about A.D. 1030 and 1250. The residents of Baker Village built at least five pithouses and seven aboveground storage structures arranged around a much larger, centrally located building. The spatial patterning of faunal remains indicates that more ungulate and leporid bones were recovered from floors, hearths, and middens in the Central Structure than in the pithouses and surfac…
Paleobiogeographic Changes at the Pleistocene–Holocene Boundary near Pintwater Cave, Southern Nevada
In 1996, approximately 70,000 mammal and lizard bones were recovered from Pintwater Cave in the northern Mojave Desert of southern Nevada. These bones date between 32,000 and 7350 14 C yr B.P. Between 32,000 and 10,100 14 C yr B.P. the local fauna consisted of a mix of xeric- and cool/mesic-adapted species. Ochotona princeps and Thomomys talpoides then occupied the region, although these animals were extirpated by the onset of the middle Holocene…
The Rabbits of Picareiro Cave
Hunter-gatherer subsistence at the end of the Pleistocene
Excavation at the site of Picareiro Cave in Portugal provides an important and rare sample of animal remains. Preliminary study shows that late Pleistocene hunter-gatherers hunted rabbits, deer and a wide variety of fauna, perhaps during seasonal occupation of the cave
Le gisement pléistocène moyen de Galeria Pesada (Estrémadure, Portugal)
Les fouilles de la grotte de Galeria Pesada (complexe karstique d’Almonda, Torres Novas) livrent de riches assemblages lithiques et osseux datés du Pléistocène moyen final (fouilles 1997-1999). Les ensembles lithiques sont caractérisés par une combinaison d’outils classiques de l’Acheuléen, d’une abondante série d’outils bifaciaux (foliacés, petits bifaces asymétriques, Keilmesser, etc.) et de nombreux racloirs, souvent en quartz. Cette industrie…
Advances in Paleolithic Zooarchaeology
Taphonomic and Methodological Perspectives of Leporid Hunting During the Upper Paleolithic of the Western Mediterranean Basin
Nutritional ecology and diachronic trends in Paleolithic diet and health
Modern nutritional studies have found that diverse diets are linked to lower infant mortality rates and longer life expectancies in humans. This is primarily because humans require more than fifty essential nutrients for growth and cell maintenance and repair; most of these essential nutrients must come from outside food sources rather than being manufactured by the body itself; and a diversity of food types is required to consume the full suite …
Nutritional ecology and the human demography of Neandertal extinction
Middle and Late Holocene Hunting in the Great Basin
Recent papers published in American Antiquity and elsewhere have debated whether there were more artiodactyls available to human foragers during the relatively cool and moist Late Holocene compared to the relatively warm and dry Middle Holocene in the Great Basin. If so, how did human foragers respond to changes in artiodactyl abundance, and what explanations may be offered to account for any changes in human behavior across the Middle Holocene-L…
Two sides of the same coin—rocks, bones and site function of Picareiro Cave, central Portugal
Continuity in animal resource diversity in the Late Pleistocene human diet of Central Portugal
Archaeologists studying the human occupation of Late Pleistocene Iberia have identified the Late Upper Palaeolithic, including the Pleistocene-Holocene transition, as a time of resource intensification, diversification and specialisation. The primary drivers for these changes were argued to be the result of population-resource imbalances triggered by the postglacial climatic warming and human population growth. Recent research, however, has pushe…
Antiquity of Communal Pronghorn Hunting in the North-Central Great Basin
Communal hunting of small game such as hares has probably occurred for 10,000 years in the Great Basin. Ethnohistoric accounts of the nineteenth century indicate that indigenous peoples communally hunted large game (e.g., pronghorn, mountain sheep, deer, bison) across much of western North America including the Plains, desert Southwest, California, and Great Basin subregions, during and immediately preceding the contact era. Research in the Plain…
Coastal wetlands and the Neanderthal settlement of Portuguese Estremadura
Coastal wetlands are ecotone settings that offer diverse sets of resources for human exploitation, yet evidence for Pleistocene occupation rarely preserves due to recent postglacial sea‐level rise. During an ongoing geoarchaeological survey of Portuguese Estremadura we identified uplifted Pleistocene sediments that record coastal features including raised beaches, tidal channels, muds, peat, and coastal dunes. Stratified concentrations of Middle …
Back to Study Hall
Hall's (this issue) comment to my paper published in American Antiquity five years ago (Hockett 2005) makes the following statements: (1) I calculated 'depositional rates' for a series of Great Basin faunal assemblages; (2) my analysis did not account for atmospheric radiocarbon fluctuations; and (3) my paper argued 'against an increase in hunting artiodactyls from the Middle to Late Holocene.' He further argues that recalculation of the data I p…
Climate, environment, and humans in North America’s Great Basin during the Younger Dryas, 12,900–11,600 calendar years ago
Paleonutrition
Review of Paleonutrition. Mark Q. Sutton, Kristin D. Sobolik, and Jill Gardner. 2010. University of Arizona Press, Tucson. Pp. 384, black‐and-white illustrations. $75.00 (hardback). ISBN 9780816527946
Clovis Age Western Stemmed Projectile Points and Human Coprolites at the Paisley Caves
They Walked Together Paisley Cave in Oregon provides some of the earliest evidence for humans in North America. Jenkins et al. (p. 223 ) provide a wide variety of additional evidence of early human occupation of this site, including a series of radiocarbon ages extending back to nearly 12,500 radiocarbon years ago (about 14,500 calendar years ago). The find includes examples of projectile points representative of the Western Stemmed Tradition dat…
The consequences of Middle Paleolithic diets on pregnant Neanderthal women
Large-scale trapping features from the Great Basin, USA
Serpentine Hot Springs, Alaska
Geography (33 works) · Archaeology (31 works) · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology (31 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (28 works) · Biology (24 works) · Geology (18 works) · Ecology (17 works) · Paleontology (16 works) · Cave (14 works) · Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies (12 works)