The Paisley Caves: A Paleoethnobotanical Approach to Textiles Studies in the Northern Great Basin, Oregon
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Date
2024-08-07
Authors
Kallenbach, Elizabeth
Journal Title
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Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
Paleoethnobotanical remains from the Paisley Caves offer an opportunity to explore how people engaged with plant communities over time. Fiber identification of textiles, together with radiocarbon dating, contributes new information about landscape use in the Northern Great Basin. Expanded marshlands during the terminal Pleistocene/early Holocene created suitable plant communities ideal for fiber technology, specifically wetland monocots and herbaceous dicots including dogbane and stinging nettle by 11,000 years ago. A change in fine cord technology during the early Holocene supports previous arguments of cultural change around 9000 years ago, but overall, continuity in fiber technology is key to subsistence activities and craft production throughout the Holocene. Despite climatic events during the middle Holocene, in which people transitioned from caves to sites centered around lakeshores and wetlands, the suite of fiber plants and their technological application remains constant. During the late Holocene, bast fiber material diversified with the addition of flax and milkweed. The presence of flax in particular, a high elevation plant, may reflect the increased use of upland root collection areas as populations increased. Cotton cordage and plaiting dating within the last 1000 years, and a more diverse textile assemblage overall, suggests expanded social contacts with groups farther south and east.This study also tests the feasibility of previously established fiber identification methods, including polarized light microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and their suitability for analysis of archaeological cordage from the Paisley Caves in Eastern Oregon. The methods were applied to herbarium reference samples for four key plants: Apocynum (dogbane), Urtica dioica (stinging nettle), Asclepias (milkweed), and Linum lewisii (blue flax). These plants are known historically and archaeologically as the primary sources of fibers used in fine cord-making throughout the Northern Great Basin. Results from the control study were then applied to samples from 180 fine cordage artifacts from the Paisley Caves. This study provides long-term data on culturally significant native plants used in the manufacture of fiber-based textiles over the last 14,000 years. The dissertation includes previously published material, and co-authored material.
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Keywords
Fiber, Oregon Great Basin, Textiles