A01_06

North American Pleistocene Fiber, Hide, and Wood Technologies from the Paisley and Cougar Mountain Caves, Oregon, USA

Rosencrance R¹, Kallenbach E², Connolly T², Jazwa C¹, Jenkins D², McDonough K², Smith G¹, Culleton B³, Davis M³

¹University of Nevada, Reno, Reno, United States, ²University of Oregon, Eugene, United States, ³Penn State University, State College, United states

Archaeologists consider the development of structurally and functionally complex organic technologies during the Pleistocene as one of the catalysts that allowed Homo sapiens to disperse into new areas of the globe. The earliest people to settle in the Americas undoubtedly used fiber, wood, and hide-based tools, but preservation skews current discourse toward stone and bone technologies, limiting our understanding of early lifeways. In this paper, we present radiocarbon dates and technological analyses of nearly 40 organic artifacts from the Paisley and Cougar Mountain Caves in Oregon’s (USA) northern Great Basin region. All specimens are directly dated to the late Pleistocene and constitute the majority of directly dated non-osseous organic tools of this age in the Americas. The fiber assemblage is dominated by 3-strand braided cordage and variously gauged rope, but also includes a basket weft, twined mat, and raw material bundle. Other directly dated items include wooden tools, hide strips, and a piece of hide stitched with fiber cordage. The raw materials and some of the construction techniques of these items continue to be used by local Indigenous peoples today, reaffirming the deep ties to their homelands. Though the materials from the Paisley and Cougar Mountain caves do not represent the earliest development of complex organic technologies such as sewn hide and fiber cordage, they are some of the oldest directly dated examples of such tools from the Western Hemisphere and thus offer new perspectives on Pleistocene lifeways.