Reevaluating Diet and Technology in the Archaic Great Basin Using Starch Grain Assemblages from Hogup Cave UTAH

Abstract

Identifying the relationships between prehistoric technologies and their role in food processing is important in understanding the timing, constraints, and motivations for dietary shifts in the past. However, direct evidence linking tools to specific plant foods is often lacking. This is especially true for archaeological assemblages dating to the early Holocene in the Great Basin. During this period, the appearance of milling stones and coiled basketry has often been assumed to represent a dietary transition marked by an increased reliance on lower-return plant foods, specifically small seeds. Here we evaluate the role of milling stones and basketry in the processing of low-return seeds by analyzing starch granules recovered from artifacts dating to the early and mid-Holocene from Hogup Cave, Utah. Results suggest that basketry and milling stones were used to process different resource types. Starch granules on milling stones primarily represent geophytes, while those from baskets are limited to small-seeded plant taxa mainly within the amaranth family. Results lead us to reevaluate the hypothesis that the appearance of these tools signals dietary broadening and prompt an array of new questions about early Holocene diets, the role and costs of processing technology, and the relative value of seed resources.