Late Holocene Climate Change and the Origin of the “Figurine Complex” In Grand Canyon, Arizona

Hundreds of split-twig figurines have been recovered from caves in Grand Canyon and are associated with a hunting ritual that dates from 4200–3100 14C yrs before present (BP). The caves chosen for this ritual all have Pleistocene remains of big game animals visible in packrat middens or surface deposits at the entrances. Presumably, Archaic hunter-gatherers identified these sites as entrances to the Underworld where the fossil remains represented ancestral animals. We examine the known chronology for these sites in Grand Canyon and postulate that the origin of this ritual is correlated with a period of rapid climate change that occurred on both global and regional scales beginning at ∼4000 BP. Increasingly variable conditions and the onset of modern El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) patterns in the eastern Pacific at that time probably negatively affected productivity of big game species in years with decreased winter precipitation. Thus, the caves became foci for a hunting ritual with figurines serving as a kind of offering. Most dates on the figurines or associated artifacts occur between 4100–3530 BP and many cluster to specific periods that suggest this ritual was not continuous, but may correspond with episodic droughts. Additional radiocarbon dates on figurines can test this hypothesis

Archaeology · Art · Big game · Canyon · Cartography · Cave · Chronology · Climate change · Geography · Holocene · Pleistocene · Radiocarbon dating · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Geology and Paleoclimatology Research · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology · Geology · Oceanography · Paleontology

• Steven A. Weber and the Birth of the Society of Ethnobiology

  Open Access•D Emslie, Steven D Emslie•Journal of Ethnobiology•2018

  Incluir item

• Quaternary International

  Open Access•Christian Hjort•Boreas•1990

  Incluir item

• Climate-Driven Ecosystem Succession in the Sahara

  Open Access•S Kröpelin, Dirk Verschuren et al.•Science•2008

  Incluir item

• The 5.1 ka aridization event, expansion of piñon-juniper woodlands, and the introduction of maize ( Zea mays ) in the American Southwest

  Open Access•Brandon Lee Drake, WH Wills et al.•The Holocene•2012

  Incluir item

• A speleothem record of Holocene paleoclimate from the northern Wasatch Mountains, southeast Idaho, USA

  Open Access•Zachary Lundeen, Andrea Brunelle et al.•Quaternary International•2013

  Incluir item

• Enhanced Late Holocene Enso/PDO expression along the margins of the eastern North Pacific

  Open Access•John A Barron, Lesleigh Anderson•Quaternary International•2011

  Incluir item

• A severe centennial-scale drought in midcontinental North America 4200 years ago and apparent global linkages

  Open Access•Robert K Booth, Stephen T Jackson et al.•The Holocene•2005

  Incluir item

• A dramatic climatic transition at ~4000 cal. yr BP and its cultural responses in Chinese cultural domains

  Open Access•Fenggui Liu, Zhaodong Feng•The Holocene•2012

  Incluir item

• Ecosystem controls and the archaeofaunal record

  Open Access•D A Byers, Craig S Smith et al.•The Holocene•2007

  Incluir item

• Holocene variability in hydrology, vegetation, fire, and eolian activity in the Nebraska Sand Hills, USA

  Open Access•Jens Schmieder, Sherilyn C Fritz et al.•The Holocene•2012

  Incluir item

• Holocene fire-related alluvial-fan deposition and climate in ponderosa pine and mixed-conifer forests, Sacramento Mountains, New Mexico, USA

  Open Access•Jedediah D Frechette, Grant A Meyer•The Holocene•2009

  Incluir item

• Split-Twig Figurines in Grand Canyon, Arizona

  D Emslie, Steven D Emslie et al.•KIVA•1995

  Incluir item

• Late Archaic Totemism in the Greater American Southwest

  Open Access•N J Coulam, A R Schroedl•American Antiquity•2004

  Incluir item

• The Grand Canyon Figurine Complex

  Open Access•A R Schroedl•American Antiquity•1977

  Incluir item

• Geologic-Climatic Dating in the West

  Open Access•Ernst Antevs•American Antiquity•1955

  Incluir item

• Split-Twig Figurines in the Grand Canyon

  Open Access•Douglas W Schwartz, Arthur L Lange et al.•American Antiquity•1958

  Incluir item