Fiber Artifacts from the Paisley Caves: 14,000 Years of Plant Selection in the Northern Great Basin

Abstract

Paleoethnobotanical remains from basketry and cordage 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 within the Summer Lake 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. This 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 on 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. This research provides long-term data on culturally significant native plants used in the manufacture of fiber-based textiles over the last 14,000 years.