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Waterfowl and Lunate Crescents in Western North America: The Archaeology of the Pacific Flyway

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Abstract

California and Great Basin archaeologists have long discussed and debated the function of chipped stone crescents found in Terminal Pleistocene and Early Holocene sites in the Far West of North America. Because they are found over a vast area, in sites occupied over a period spanning at least 4,000 years (~12,000–8,000 cal BP), it may be that crescents were used for a variety of purposes. Here we focus on lunate crescents and their strong association with wetland localities (lakes, marshes, estuaries, and islands). We reconsider whether crescents could have been used as transverse projectile points to hunt waterfowl. We also assess the biogeographical legacies of migrating birds to propose that as many as four species of large anatids (tundra swan, greater white-fronted goose, snow goose, Ross’s goose) that now breed in the Canadian High Arctic once bred in the Great Basin and adjacent regions during the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene. We propose that crescents were used primarily in the taking or processing of geese and swans, some of which may have bred and molted in what are now temperate latitudes. After the Laurentide ice sheet retreated, these four species established High Arctic breeding grounds and no longer bred in the Great Basin. In this scenario, the absence of some populations of molting geese and swans helps explain why crescents fell out of the archaeological record after ~8,000 cal. BP. When crescents were used, Native Americans in the Far West may have had access to millions of large waterfowl.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the editor and anonymous reviewers for comments that significantly improved this paper. Fieldwork on California’s Channel Islands was supported by the National Park Service, the National Science Foundation (0917677 to Erlandson and Torben Rick), the University of Oregon, and other sources. We also appreciate the logistical support of Ann Huston, Kelly Minas, Mark Senning, and Ian Williams at Channel Islands National Park. Paul Collins and Dan Guthrie provided valuable information on the history of waterfowl on the Channel Islands and Molly Casperson and Chelsea Buell helped analyze bird remains from early Channel Island sites. Moss would like to thank Julie Bryant and Bill Roach for sponsoring her residency at Playa, Summer Lake, Oregon, where much of the research for this paper was conducted. The expansive and quiet landscape of the northern Great Basin was the perfect venue for this project. She is also grateful to Bruce Gibbons, Barbara Hunter, and Douglas Beauchamp, for their contributions to the residency. We are grateful to Tom Connolly, Dennis Jenkins, and Patrick O’Grady (University of Oregon) and Bryan Hockett (Bureau of Land Management, Elko) for sharing information on Paisley Caves and other Great Basin sites. Andrew Fountain (Portland State University) directed us to sources on the Laurentide ice sheet. Arthur Dyke (Geological Survey of Canada), and Eric Reed and Ray Alisauskas (Canadian Wildlife Service), provided crucial feedback on some of the ideas presented here and directed Moss to valuable sources. Julia Knowles, University of Oregon, came to the rescue at the eleventh hour to prepare the maps and figures used herein. We also thank Tim Taylor for his enthusiastic support and Sarah Wright for her editorial expertise and patience.

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  1. Department of Anthropology, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, 97403-1228, USA

    Madonna L. Moss & Jon M. Erlandson

  2. Museum of Natural and Cultural History, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, 97403-1224, USA

    Madonna L. Moss & Jon M. Erlandson

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Moss, M.L., Erlandson, J.M. Waterfowl and Lunate Crescents in Western North America: The Archaeology of the Pacific Flyway. J World Prehist 26, 173–211 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10963-013-9066-5

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