Subsistence:

Plant & Animal Foods

The plant remains suggest an
extensive and diverse use of the
environment in the vicinity of the
Archaic sites. As can be seen
from this graph, cheno-ams are
the most ubiquitous charred plant
remains in the Archaic flotation
samples. These opportunistic
plants grow in disturbed areas
(such as around camps and
habitations), produce hundreds of
seeds per plant, and were a
staple food throughout human
occupation of the area. The data
suggest that the Archaic people
utilized and minimally cultivated
domestic plants such as corn and
squash as early as the Middle
Archaic period; however, they
never relied very much on these
domesticated crops.

The Archaic people incorporated a wide variety of animal protein into their diet. Large mammals such
as mule deer, elk and mountain sheep were the most common animal in the non-human bone
assemblage. These large mammals were probably relatively abundant in the project area and were a
prized food source. Medium-sized mammals such as jack rabbits and Canis increase in the
assemblage through time, but probably were never a major component of the Archaic diet. Small
mammals such as ground squirrel are represented by a small number of remains in the faunal
assemblage. While this probably reflects their small contribution to the diet, it may also be a result of
poor preservation of small mammal bones.