Speaker: Elizabeth (Libby) Goldberg, PhD Student at the Institute of Indigenous and Prairie Archaeology
Renewed interest in the Promontory Caves assemblages and their connection to Apachean ancestors has resulted in new analyses of existing collections. Textiles and related perishable manufactures can be very revealing when it comes to past social boundaries and interactions, as they require a high degree of skill acquired through culturally constrained social learning processes. My research looks at the technological stylistic patterns in perishable artifact construction to better contextualize the Promontory Caves perishable assemblage within the Great Basin archaeological record, and to identify possible connections to Dene language-speaking communities in the ethnographic present. The results of these analyses reveal how perishable artifacts from the Promontory Caves reflect technological stylistic connections with distant woven traditions to the north and west, as well as local continuities suggesting social interaction among diverse peoples in the eastern Great Basin during the Promontory Phase. The overall distinctiveness of the Promontory perishable industries further points to the Promontory Archaeological Culture as more than just a temporally late adaptive expression of the Fremont.