Dating North America's oldest petroglyphs, Winnemucca Lake subbasin, Nevada
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- 作者：L.V. Benson ; E.M. Hattori ; J. Southon ; B. Aleck
- 关键词：Petroglyphs ; Rock art ; Great Basin ; Winnemucca Lake ; Pyramid Lake
- 刊名：Journal of Archaeological Science
- 出版年：December, 2013
- 年：2013
- 卷：40
- 期：12
- 页码：4466-4476
- 全文大小：8796 K
文摘
On the west side of the Winnemucca Lake subbasin, Nevada, distinctive deeply carved meter-scale petroglyphs are closely spaced, forming panels on boulder-sized surfaces of a partially collapsed tufa mound. The large, complex motifs at this side are formed by deeply carved lines and cupules. A carbonate crust deposited between 10聽200 and 9800 calibrated years B.P. (ka) coats petroglyphs at the base of the mound between elevations of 1202 and 1206聽m. Petroglyphs above the carbonate crust are carved into a branching form of carbonate that dates to 14.8聽ka. Radiocarbon dates on a multiple-layered algal tufa on the east side of the basin, which formed at an elevation of 1205聽m, as well as a sediment-core-based total inorganic carbon record for the period 17.0-9.5聽ka indicate that water level in the Winnemucca Lake subbasin was constrained by spill over the Emerson Pass Sill (1207聽m) for most of the time between 12.9聽卤聽0.3 and 鈮?.2聽ka. These and other data indicate that the lake in the Winnemucca Lake subbasin fell beneath its spill point between 14.8 and 13.2聽ka and also between 11.3 and 10.5聽ka (or between 11.5 and 11.1聽ka), exposing the base of the collapsed tufa mound to petroglyph carving. The tufa-based 14C record supports decreased lake levels between 14.8-13.2聽ka and 11.3-10.5聽ka. Native American artifacts found in the Lahontan Basin date to the latter time interval. This does not rule out the possibility that petroglyph carving occurred between 14.8 and 13.2聽ka when Pyramid Lake was relatively shallow and Winnemucca Lake had desiccated.