Dennis L Jenkins
Biographic Data
| ID | 129332 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Dennis L Jenkins |
| GIVEN NAMES | Dennis L |
| FAMILY NAME | Jenkins |
| SIGNATURE | JENKINS D L |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Oregon |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-0332-3238 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 22 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 123 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 22 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2008 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Tobacco Use and Its Early Consumption with Smoking Pipes
The presence of tobacco ( Nicotiana spp.) seeds in a terminal Pleistocene cultural feature confirms human use of tobacco in the Americas for more than 12,000 years. Throughout the Americas, the practice of smoking tobacco came to be a central element in prayer and purification rituals and medical treatments, as well as part of a solemnizing ritual in diplomatic settings. However, the nature of its earliest use—whether smoked, chewed, steeped, or …
An early Holocene crescent and associated technologies at Connley Cave 6, Oregon
Crescents are flaked stone tools found throughout western North America that are often associated with waterbodies and projectile points diagnostic of the late Pleistocene and early Holocene, such as the Western Stemmed Tradition. Archaeologists continue to debate the function of crescents and they remain poorly dated outside of the Channel Islands. Here we report a crescent from recent excavations at Connley Cave 6 in central Oregon and provide …
Bayesian Analysis of Haskett Projectile Point Radiocarbon Dates in the Intermountain West Demonstrates Contemporaneity with Clovis and Folsom Points
We evaluate existing radiocarbon dates at sites containing Haskett stemmed projectile points, present 12 new dates from 5 components at 4 sites, and model the age of Haskett points in a multiphase Bayesian framework with trapezium boundaries. We present multiple models with variable prior information to explore the impacts of different interpretations of the archaeological record, and ultimately favor a model where Haskett points appeared between…
Late glacial through Early Holocene environments inferred using pollen from coprolites and sediments recovered from Paisley Caves, Oregon
The Paisley Cave archeological site in the Northern Great Basin has provided a rich archaeological record from 13,000 to 6000 cal yr BP, including abundant mammalian coprolites preserved in a well-dated stratigraphy. Here we analyze and contrast pollen from within coprolites and pollen in associated sediments to examine vegetation history and assess whether coprolite pollen provides unique information with respect to the coprolite producer, such …
Frost Action during the Younger Dryas Inferred from Soil Micromorphology at Connley Cave 5, Oregon
The Younger Dryas chronozone is an abrupt climate event terminating the last glacial period ∼12,900–11,700 calendar years ago marked by rapid changes in regional human, floral, and faunal population dynamics across the globe. Working at Connley Cave 5 in the Fort Rock Basin, Oregon, we demonstrate that this cold event generated microscopic cryogenic features (frost action) which can be used to identify the presence of the Younger Dryas in the nor…
Dating and Analysis of Western Stemmed Toolkits from the Legacy Collection of Connley Cave 4, Oregon
Stephen Bedwell excavated the Connley Caves in 1967 and 1968, uncovering dense Western Stemmed Tradition assemblages in the lowest deposits. Reporting a series of radiocarbon dates between 11,200 ± 200 14C yr BP and 9150 ± 150 14C yr BP, he suggested the earliest human occupation of Cave 4 dated to ∼11,000 14C yr BP. Subsequent researchers have questioned the veracity of his claim and the reliability of his data. We revisit Bedwell’s investigatio…
Expanding Paleoindian Diet Breadth
Paleoethnobotanical perspectives are essential for understanding past lifeways yet continue to be underrepresented in Paleoindian research. We present new archaeobotanical and radiocarbon data from combustion features within stratified cultural components at Connley Caves, Oregon, that reaffirm the inclusion of plants in the diet of Paleoindian groups. Botanical remains from three features in Connley Cave 5 show that people foraged for diverse dr…
Looking back, looking forward
Earliest record of the spinose ear tick, Otobius megnini (Dugès) (Ixodida
Younger Dryas and early Holocene subsistence in the northern Great Basin
Younger Dryas and early Holocene Western Stemmed Tradition occupants of the northern Great Basin appear to have practiced a broad-based subsistence strategy including the consumption of a wide variety of small animal and plant resources. However, much of our evidence for human diet and land use during this period comes from dry cave and rockshelter sites where it can be challenging to distinguish plant and small animal remains deposited as a resu…
The Western Stemmed Tradition
We review some of the current problems and prospects in ongoing Western Stemmed Tradition (WST) studies and highlight recent discoveries at important sites in the Intermountain West. While the region has traditionally not been the focus of peopling of the Americas studies, it has received considerable attention in recent years due to the discovery of WST points and other artifacts in Clovis-aged deposits. Fieldwork at sites in Oregon, Idaho, Neva…
Reinvestigating Cougar Mountain Cave
Cougar Mountain Cave is located in Oregon's Fort Rock Basin. In 1958, avocationalist John Cowles excavated most of the cave's deposits and recovered abundant fiber, lithic, wood, and osseous artifacts. A crew from the University of California, Davis returned to the site in 1966 to evaluate the potential for further research, collecting additional lithic and fiber artifacts from disturbed deposits and in situ charcoal from apparently undisturbed d…
New Research at Paisley Caves
Paisley Caves in Oregon has become well known due to early dates, and human presence in the form of coprolites, found to contain ancient human DNA. Questions remain over whether the coprolites themselves are human, or whether the DNA is mobile in the sediments. This brief introduces new research applying an integrated analytical approach combining sediment micromorphology and lipid biomarker analysis, which aims to resolve these problems
Current Research at the Connley Caves (35LK50)
The Connley Caves in the Fort Rock Basin of Oregon contain stratified deposits dating to the late Pleistocene/early Holocene transition and a stone tool assemblage characteristic of the Western Stemmed Tradition. This research brief details preliminary results including stratigraphic, geochronological, and cultural information yielded from Cave 4. Ongoing research at the site stands to shed light on WST technological activities, intra- and inter-…
Late Pleistocene subsistence in the Great Basin
Return to Fort Rock Cave
Oregon's Fort Rock Cave is iconic in respect to both the archaeology of the northern Great Basin and the history of debate about when the Great Basin was colonized. In 1938, Luther Cressman recovered dozens of sagebrush bark sandals from beneath Mt. Mazama ash that were later radiocarbon dated to between 10,500 and 9350 cal B.P. In 1970, Stephen Bedwell reported finding lithic tools associated with a date of more than 15,000 cal B.P., a date dism…
Younger Dryas Archaeology and Human Experience at the Paisley Caves in the Northern Great Basin
Getting Beyond the Point
Although the Great Basin of North America has produced some of the most robust and ancient fiber artifact assemblages in the world, many were recovered with poor chronological controls. Consequently, this class of artifacts has seldom been effectively incorporated into general discussions of early chronological and cultural patterns. In recent years, the Great Basin Textile Dating Project has accumulated direct AMS dates on textiles (bags, sandal…
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…
Species-specific responses of Late Quaternary megafauna to climate and humans
DNA from Pre-Clovis Human Coprolites in Oregon, North America
The timing of the first human migration into the Americas and its relation to the appearance of the Clovis technological complex in North America at about 11,000 to 10,800 radiocarbon years before the present ( 14 C years B.P.) remains contentious. We establish that humans were present at Paisley 5 Mile Point Caves, in south-central Oregon, by 12,300 14 C years B.P., through the recovery of human mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from coprolites, directl…
The Western Stemmed Tradition
We review some of the current problems and prospects in ongoing Western Stemmed Tradition (WST) studies and highlight recent discoveries at important sites in the Intermountain West. While the region has traditionally not been the focus of peopling of the Americas studies, it has received considerable attention in recent years due to the discovery of WST points and other artifacts in Clovis-aged deposits. Fieldwork at sites in Oregon, Idaho, Neva…
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…
Getting Beyond the Point
Although the Great Basin of North America has produced some of the most robust and ancient fiber artifact assemblages in the world, many were recovered with poor chronological controls. Consequently, this class of artifacts has seldom been effectively incorporated into general discussions of early chronological and cultural patterns. In recent years, the Great Basin Textile Dating Project has accumulated direct AMS dates on textiles (bags, sandal…
Younger Dryas and early Holocene subsistence in the northern Great Basin
Younger Dryas and early Holocene Western Stemmed Tradition occupants of the northern Great Basin appear to have practiced a broad-based subsistence strategy including the consumption of a wide variety of small animal and plant resources. However, much of our evidence for human diet and land use during this period comes from dry cave and rockshelter sites where it can be challenging to distinguish plant and small animal remains deposited as a resu…
Expanding Paleoindian Diet Breadth
Paleoethnobotanical perspectives are essential for understanding past lifeways yet continue to be underrepresented in Paleoindian research. We present new archaeobotanical and radiocarbon data from combustion features within stratified cultural components at Connley Caves, Oregon, that reaffirm the inclusion of plants in the diet of Paleoindian groups. Botanical remains from three features in Connley Cave 5 show that people foraged for diverse dr…
Late Pleistocene subsistence in the Great Basin
Reinvestigating Cougar Mountain Cave
Cougar Mountain Cave is located in Oregon's Fort Rock Basin. In 1958, avocationalist John Cowles excavated most of the cave's deposits and recovered abundant fiber, lithic, wood, and osseous artifacts. A crew from the University of California, Davis returned to the site in 1966 to evaluate the potential for further research, collecting additional lithic and fiber artifacts from disturbed deposits and in situ charcoal from apparently undisturbed d…
New Research at Paisley Caves
Paisley Caves in Oregon has become well known due to early dates, and human presence in the form of coprolites, found to contain ancient human DNA. Questions remain over whether the coprolites themselves are human, or whether the DNA is mobile in the sediments. This brief introduces new research applying an integrated analytical approach combining sediment micromorphology and lipid biomarker analysis, which aims to resolve these problems
Dating and Analysis of Western Stemmed Toolkits from the Legacy Collection of Connley Cave 4, Oregon
Stephen Bedwell excavated the Connley Caves in 1967 and 1968, uncovering dense Western Stemmed Tradition assemblages in the lowest deposits. Reporting a series of radiocarbon dates between 11,200 ± 200 14C yr BP and 9150 ± 150 14C yr BP, he suggested the earliest human occupation of Cave 4 dated to ∼11,000 14C yr BP. Subsequent researchers have questioned the veracity of his claim and the reliability of his data. We revisit Bedwell’s investigatio…
Return to Fort Rock Cave
Oregon's Fort Rock Cave is iconic in respect to both the archaeology of the northern Great Basin and the history of debate about when the Great Basin was colonized. In 1938, Luther Cressman recovered dozens of sagebrush bark sandals from beneath Mt. Mazama ash that were later radiocarbon dated to between 10,500 and 9350 cal B.P. In 1970, Stephen Bedwell reported finding lithic tools associated with a date of more than 15,000 cal B.P., a date dism…
Looking back, looking forward
Earliest record of the spinose ear tick, Otobius megnini (Dugès) (Ixodida
DNA from Pre-Clovis Human Coprolites in Oregon, North America
The timing of the first human migration into the Americas and its relation to the appearance of the Clovis technological complex in North America at about 11,000 to 10,800 radiocarbon years before the present ( 14 C years B.P.) remains contentious. We establish that humans were present at Paisley 5 Mile Point Caves, in south-central Oregon, by 12,300 14 C years B.P., through the recovery of human mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from coprolites, directl…
Species-specific responses of Late Quaternary megafauna to climate and humans
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…
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…
Younger Dryas Archaeology and Human Experience at the Paisley Caves in the Northern Great Basin
Getting Beyond the Point
Although the Great Basin of North America has produced some of the most robust and ancient fiber artifact assemblages in the world, many were recovered with poor chronological controls. Consequently, this class of artifacts has seldom been effectively incorporated into general discussions of early chronological and cultural patterns. In recent years, the Great Basin Textile Dating Project has accumulated direct AMS dates on textiles (bags, sandal…
Current Research at the Connley Caves (35LK50)
The Connley Caves in the Fort Rock Basin of Oregon contain stratified deposits dating to the late Pleistocene/early Holocene transition and a stone tool assemblage characteristic of the Western Stemmed Tradition. This research brief details preliminary results including stratigraphic, geochronological, and cultural information yielded from Cave 4. Ongoing research at the site stands to shed light on WST technological activities, intra- and inter-…
Late Pleistocene subsistence in the Great Basin
Return to Fort Rock Cave
Oregon's Fort Rock Cave is iconic in respect to both the archaeology of the northern Great Basin and the history of debate about when the Great Basin was colonized. In 1938, Luther Cressman recovered dozens of sagebrush bark sandals from beneath Mt. Mazama ash that were later radiocarbon dated to between 10,500 and 9350 cal B.P. In 1970, Stephen Bedwell reported finding lithic tools associated with a date of more than 15,000 cal B.P., a date dism…
New Research at Paisley Caves
Paisley Caves in Oregon has become well known due to early dates, and human presence in the form of coprolites, found to contain ancient human DNA. Questions remain over whether the coprolites themselves are human, or whether the DNA is mobile in the sediments. This brief introduces new research applying an integrated analytical approach combining sediment micromorphology and lipid biomarker analysis, which aims to resolve these problems
The Western Stemmed Tradition
We review some of the current problems and prospects in ongoing Western Stemmed Tradition (WST) studies and highlight recent discoveries at important sites in the Intermountain West. While the region has traditionally not been the focus of peopling of the Americas studies, it has received considerable attention in recent years due to the discovery of WST points and other artifacts in Clovis-aged deposits. Fieldwork at sites in Oregon, Idaho, Neva…
Reinvestigating Cougar Mountain Cave
Cougar Mountain Cave is located in Oregon's Fort Rock Basin. In 1958, avocationalist John Cowles excavated most of the cave's deposits and recovered abundant fiber, lithic, wood, and osseous artifacts. A crew from the University of California, Davis returned to the site in 1966 to evaluate the potential for further research, collecting additional lithic and fiber artifacts from disturbed deposits and in situ charcoal from apparently undisturbed d…
Earliest record of the spinose ear tick, Otobius megnini (Dugès) (Ixodida
Younger Dryas and early Holocene subsistence in the northern Great Basin
Younger Dryas and early Holocene Western Stemmed Tradition occupants of the northern Great Basin appear to have practiced a broad-based subsistence strategy including the consumption of a wide variety of small animal and plant resources. However, much of our evidence for human diet and land use during this period comes from dry cave and rockshelter sites where it can be challenging to distinguish plant and small animal remains deposited as a resu…
Dating and Analysis of Western Stemmed Toolkits from the Legacy Collection of Connley Cave 4, Oregon
Stephen Bedwell excavated the Connley Caves in 1967 and 1968, uncovering dense Western Stemmed Tradition assemblages in the lowest deposits. Reporting a series of radiocarbon dates between 11,200 ± 200 14C yr BP and 9150 ± 150 14C yr BP, he suggested the earliest human occupation of Cave 4 dated to ∼11,000 14C yr BP. Subsequent researchers have questioned the veracity of his claim and the reliability of his data. We revisit Bedwell’s investigatio…
Expanding Paleoindian Diet Breadth
Paleoethnobotanical perspectives are essential for understanding past lifeways yet continue to be underrepresented in Paleoindian research. We present new archaeobotanical and radiocarbon data from combustion features within stratified cultural components at Connley Caves, Oregon, that reaffirm the inclusion of plants in the diet of Paleoindian groups. Botanical remains from three features in Connley Cave 5 show that people foraged for diverse dr…
Looking back, looking forward
Late glacial through Early Holocene environments inferred using pollen from coprolites and sediments recovered from Paisley Caves, Oregon
The Paisley Cave archeological site in the Northern Great Basin has provided a rich archaeological record from 13,000 to 6000 cal yr BP, including abundant mammalian coprolites preserved in a well-dated stratigraphy. Here we analyze and contrast pollen from within coprolites and pollen in associated sediments to examine vegetation history and assess whether coprolite pollen provides unique information with respect to the coprolite producer, such …
Frost Action during the Younger Dryas Inferred from Soil Micromorphology at Connley Cave 5, Oregon
The Younger Dryas chronozone is an abrupt climate event terminating the last glacial period ∼12,900–11,700 calendar years ago marked by rapid changes in regional human, floral, and faunal population dynamics across the globe. Working at Connley Cave 5 in the Fort Rock Basin, Oregon, we demonstrate that this cold event generated microscopic cryogenic features (frost action) which can be used to identify the presence of the Younger Dryas in the nor…
Bayesian Analysis of Haskett Projectile Point Radiocarbon Dates in the Intermountain West Demonstrates Contemporaneity with Clovis and Folsom Points
We evaluate existing radiocarbon dates at sites containing Haskett stemmed projectile points, present 12 new dates from 5 components at 4 sites, and model the age of Haskett points in a multiphase Bayesian framework with trapezium boundaries. We present multiple models with variable prior information to explore the impacts of different interpretations of the archaeological record, and ultimately favor a model where Haskett points appeared between…
Tobacco Use and Its Early Consumption with Smoking Pipes
The presence of tobacco ( Nicotiana spp.) seeds in a terminal Pleistocene cultural feature confirms human use of tobacco in the Americas for more than 12,000 years. Throughout the Americas, the practice of smoking tobacco came to be a central element in prayer and purification rituals and medical treatments, as well as part of a solemnizing ritual in diplomatic settings. However, the nature of its earliest use—whether smoked, chewed, steeped, or …
An early Holocene crescent and associated technologies at Connley Cave 6, Oregon
Crescents are flaked stone tools found throughout western North America that are often associated with waterbodies and projectile points diagnostic of the late Pleistocene and early Holocene, such as the Western Stemmed Tradition. Archaeologists continue to debate the function of crescents and they remain poorly dated outside of the Channel Islands. Here we report a crescent from recent excavations at Connley Cave 6 in central Oregon and provide …
Archaeology (19 works) · Geography (19 works) · Cave (17 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (16 works) · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology (16 works) · Geology (12 works) · Holocene (12 works) · Pleistocene (11 works) · Geology and Paleoclimatology Research (10 works) · Radiocarbon dating (10 works)