The Great Basin

Covering a large swath of the American West, the Great Basin, centered in Nevada and including parts of California, Utah, and Oregon, is named for the unusual fact that none of its rivers or streams flow into the sea. This fascinating illustrated journey through deep time is the definitive environmental and human history of this beautiful and little traveled region, home to Death Valley, the Great Salt Lake, Lake Tahoe, and the Bonneville Salt Flats. Donald K. Grayson synthesizes what we now know about the past 25,000 years in the Great Basin—its climate, lakes, glaciers, plants, animals, and peoples—based on information gleaned from the region’s exquisite natural archives in such repositories as lake cores, packrat middens, tree rings, and archaeological sites. A perfect guide for students, scholars, travelers, and general readers alike, the book weaves together history, archaeology, botany, geology, biogeography, and other disciplines into one compelling panorama across a truly unique American landscape.

Donald K. Grayson is Professor of Anthropology and Adjunct Professor at the Quaternary Research Center, University of Washington. He is the author of The Desert’s Past, the previous edition of his Great Basin prehistory, and The Establishment of Human Antiquity, an American Library Association “Best Book of the Year.”

PREFACE
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

PART ONE The Great Basins

1. Discovering a Great Basin 
Chapter Notes

2. Modern Definitions of the Great Basin 
The Hydrographic Great Basin
The Physiographic Great Basin
The Floristic Great Basin
The Ethnographic Great Basin
Choosing a Great Basin
Chapter Notes 

PART TWO Some Ice Age Background

3. Glaciers, Sea Levels, and the Peopling of the Americas
The Bering Land Bridge and the Human Arrival
Identifying the Earliest American Archaeology
The Earliest American Archaeology 
Chapter Notes

4. The End of the North American Pleistocene: Extinct Mammals and Early Peoples
The Mammals / 67
A Note on Eurasian Extinctions
Back to North America
What Caused the Extinctions?
Chapter Notes

PART THREE The Late Ice Age Great Basin

5. The Late Pleistocene Physical Environment: Lakes and Glaciers
Modern Great Basin Lakes 
Pleistocene Lakes in the Great Basin
Great Basin Glaciers
The Relationship between Pleistocene Glaciers and Lakes in the Great Basin 
Pluvial Lakes, Glaciers, and Late Pleistocene Climates
Chapter Notes

6. Late Pleistocene Vegetation of the Great Basin 
Learning about Ancient Vegetation 
Five Regional Pictures
A General Look at Late Pleistocene Great Basin Vegetation
Great Basin Conifers in Deeper Historical Perspective
Chapter Notes 

7. Late Pleistocene Vertebrates of the Great Basin
The Extinct Late Pleistocene Mammals of the Great Basin
Extinct Late Pleistocene Birds 
Altered Late Pleistocene Distributions of Existing Great Basin Mammals 
Why Are There Fishes in Devils Hole, but None in the Great Salt Lake? 
Other Vertebrates
Chapter Notes 

PART FOUR The Last 10,000 Years

8. The Great Basin during the Holocene / 217
The Early Holocene (10,000 to 7,500 Years Ago)
The Middle Holocene (7,500 to 4,500 Years Ago)
The Late Holocene (The Last 4,500 Years)
Chapter Notes

PART FIVE Great Basin Archaeology

9. The Prehistoric Archaeology of the Great Basin 
Pre-Clovis Sites in the Great Basin
The Latest Pleistocene and Early Holocene
The Middle Holocene
The Late Holocene 
Chapter Notes
PART SIX Conclusions

10. The Great Basin Today and Tomorrow 
Deer, Cougars, Porcupines, and Cattle 
More Lessons from the Past 
The Great Basin Today 
Chapter Notes 

APPENDIX 1: RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN RADIOCARBON AND CALENDAR YEARS FOR THE PAST 25,000 RADIOCARBON YEARS
APPENDIX 2: CONCORDANCE OF COMMON AND SCIENTIFIC PLANT NAMES

REFERENCES
INDEX