Publication Date

Fall 12-16-2021

Abstract

Human-environment interaction is a long-standing and productive line of inquiry that includes the study of cultural responses to climate change. However, demonstrating a causal relationship between climate change and the consequent culture change is rarely straightforward for numerous reasons. In this dissertation I develop an optimality model to predict how Paleoindians should have responded to changes in precipitation across the Late Pleistocene-Early Holocene. The water supply model (WSM) ranks water supplies much like the diet breadth model ranks food resources. To adjust the WSM for climate change, paleoclimate records from playas in the northern Jornada del Muerto were used in conjunction with regional speleothem records. Archaeological data to test the WSM were derived from 764 Paleoindian projectile points and preforms and high-resolution spatial data from the Robert H. Weber Collection. Results indicate that Paleoindians responded to climate change by adjusting their settlement, mobility, and technological strategies to changes in paleoprecipitation patterns.

Keywords

Paleoindian, geoarchaeology, paleoclimate, lithic technology, New Mexico

Document Type

Dissertation

Language

English

Degree Name

Anthropology

Level of Degree

Doctoral

Department Name

Anthropology

First Committee Member (Chair)

Bruce B. Huckell

Second Committee Member

Keith M. Prufer

Third Committee Member

James L. Boone

Fourth Committee Member

M. Steven Shackley

Fifth Committee Member

Vance T. Holliday

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