Leonard Rockshelter Revisited

Evaluating a 70-Year-Old Claim of a Late Pleistocene Human Occupation in the Western Great Basin

Bibliographic Data

ID2096493
AuthorsGeoffrey M Smith (0009-0003-1358-6231), Sara Sturtz, Anna J Camp, Kenneth D Adams (Desert Research Institute), Elizabeth Kallenbach (0009-0002-8879-381X, University of Oregon), Richard L Rosencrance (0000-0002-9961-0874, University of Nevada, Reno), Richard E Hughes (0000-0003-1668-3638, Geophysical Laboratory)
Year2022
Volume87
Issue4
Pages776-793
Publication date2022-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Antiquity (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0002-7316 • E-ISSN: 2325-5064
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/aaq.2022.40
OpenAlexW4280622798
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited45

Robert Heizer excavated Leonard Rockshelter (26Pe14) in western Nevada more than 70 years ago. He described stratified cultural deposits spanning the Holocene. He also reported obsidian flakes purportedly associated with late Pleistocene sediments, suggesting that human use extended even farther back in time. Because Heizer never produced a final report, Leonard Rockshelter faded into obscurity despite the possibility that it might contain a Clovis Era or older occupation. That possibility prompted our team of researchers from the University of Nevada, Reno and Desert Research Institute to return to the site in 2018 and 2019. We relocated the excavation block from which Heizer both recovered the flakes and obtained a late Pleistocene date on nearby sediments. We minimally excavated undisturbed deposits to rerecord and redate the strata. As an independent means of evaluating Heizer's findings, we also directly dated 12 organic artifacts housed at the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology. Our work demonstrates that people did not visit Leonard Rockshelter during the late Pleistocene. Rather, they first visited the site immediately following the Younger Dryas (12,900-11,700 cal BP) and sporadically used the shelter, mostly to store gear, throughout the Holocene

Archaeology · Excavation · Geography · Holocene · Pleistocene · Rock shelter · Structural basin · Younger Dryas · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies · Geology · Paleontology · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology