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University of California Press

The Great Basin

A Natural Prehistory
by Donald Grayson (Author)
Hardcover eBook
Price: $85.00 / £71.00
Publication Date: Apr 2011
Edition: 1st Edition
Title Details:
Rights: World
Pages: 432
ISBN: 9780520948716
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About the Book

Covering a large swath of the American West, the Great Basin, centered in Nevada and including parts of California, Utah, and Oregon, is named for the unusual fact that none of its rivers or streams flow into the sea. This fascinating illustrated journey through deep time is the definitive environmental and human history of this beautiful and little traveled region, home to Death Valley, the Great Salt Lake, Lake Tahoe, and the Bonneville Salt Flats. Donald K. Grayson synthesizes what we now know about the past 25,000 years in the Great Basin—its climate, lakes, glaciers, plants, animals, and peoples—based on information gleaned from the region’s exquisite natural archives in such repositories as lake cores, packrat middens, tree rings, and archaeological sites. A perfect guide for students, scholars, travelers, and general readers alike, the book weaves together history, archaeology, botany, geology, biogeography, and other disciplines into one compelling panorama across a truly unique American landscape.

About the Author

Donald K. Grayson is Professor of Anthropology and Adjunct Professor at the Quaternary Research Center, University of Washington. He is the author of The Desert’s Past, the previous edition of his Great Basin prehistory, and The Establishment of Human Antiquity, an American Library Association “Best Book of the Year.”

Table of Contents

PREFACE
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

PART ONE The Great Basins

1. Discovering a Great Basin 
Chapter Notes

2. Modern Definitions of the Great Basin 
The Hydrographic Great Basin
The Physiographic Great Basin
The Floristic Great Basin
The Ethnographic Great Basin
Choosing a Great Basin
Chapter Notes 

PART TWO Some Ice Age Background

3. Glaciers, Sea Levels, and the Peopling of the Americas
The Bering Land Bridge and the Human Arrival
Identifying the Earliest American Archaeology
The Earliest American Archaeology 
Chapter Notes

4. The End of the North American Pleistocene: Extinct Mammals and Early Peoples
The Mammals / 67
A Note on Eurasian Extinctions
Back to North America
What Caused the Extinctions?
Chapter Notes

PART THREE The Late Ice Age Great Basin

5. The Late Pleistocene Physical Environment: Lakes and Glaciers
Modern Great Basin Lakes 
Pleistocene Lakes in the Great Basin
Great Basin Glaciers
The Relationship between Pleistocene Glaciers and Lakes in the Great Basin 
Pluvial Lakes, Glaciers, and Late Pleistocene Climates
Chapter Notes

6. Late Pleistocene Vegetation of the Great Basin 
Learning about Ancient Vegetation 
Five Regional Pictures
A General Look at Late Pleistocene Great Basin Vegetation
Great Basin Conifers in Deeper Historical Perspective
Chapter Notes 

7. Late Pleistocene Vertebrates of the Great Basin
The Extinct Late Pleistocene Mammals of the Great Basin
Extinct Late Pleistocene Birds 
Altered Late Pleistocene Distributions of Existing Great Basin Mammals 
Why Are There Fishes in Devils Hole, but None in the Great Salt Lake? 
Other Vertebrates
Chapter Notes 

PART FOUR The Last 10,000 Years

8. The Great Basin during the Holocene / 217
The Early Holocene (10,000 to 7,500 Years Ago)
The Middle Holocene (7,500 to 4,500 Years Ago)
The Late Holocene (The Last 4,500 Years)
Chapter Notes

PART FIVE Great Basin Archaeology

9. The Prehistoric Archaeology of the Great Basin 
Pre-Clovis Sites in the Great Basin
The Latest Pleistocene and Early Holocene
The Middle Holocene
The Late Holocene 
Chapter Notes
PART SIX Conclusions

10. The Great Basin Today and Tomorrow 
Deer, Cougars, Porcupines, and Cattle 
More Lessons from the Past 
The Great Basin Today 
Chapter Notes 

APPENDIX 1: RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN RADIOCARBON AND CALENDAR YEARS FOR THE PAST 25,000 RADIOCARBON YEARS
APPENDIX 2: CONCORDANCE OF COMMON AND SCIENTIFIC PLANT NAMES

REFERENCES
INDEX

Reviews

“A perfect guide for students, scholars, travelers, and general readers alike, the book weaves together history, archaeology, botany, geology, biogeography, and other disciplines into one compelling panorama across a truly unique American landscape.”
— The Birdbooker Report
“Well supported by photographs, maps, and tables, along with detailed chapter notes and extensive references.”
— Choice
“It is logically organized and well-written, easy to read . . . an excellent resource for scholars and professionals working in the Great Basin and, in my opinion, is essential for beginning archaeologists.”
— Journal Of Anthropological Research
“Extensive revisions have thoroughly updated an already astoundingly informative book that continues to be the authoritative text on the Great Basin.”
— The Holocene
“This fascinating illustrated journey through deep time is the definitive environmental and human history of this beautiful and little traveled region, home to Death Valley, the Great Salt Lake, Lake Tahoe, and the Bonneville Salt Flats.”
— Scienceblogs.com/The Guardian
"All paleoscientists working in the region will want this book because it brings in so much new material and includes so many new interpretations. This is a grand synthesis and it represents a major revision written in an engaging style that teaches on every level."—Steven R. Simms, author of Ancient Peoples of the Great Basin and the Colorado Plateau.



Praise for the previous edition, The Desert’s Past:

“Grayson clearly has a great love for and deep understanding of his subject, and throughout the book he manages to convey a sense of excitement. The informality and readability of the main text will satisfy the needs of a general audience.”—Science

“This is a complete guide to the environmental and archaeological history of the Great Basin. . . .It addresses virtually every major research issue that has engaged Great Basin prehistorians over the past several decades.”—American Anthropologist

"Sure to become a standard regional reference in the geological, biological, and anthropological sciences. [Grayson’s] enthusiasm for the subject matter is obvious and contagious. There are many reasons to recommend this volume.”—American Antiquity

"A classic volume on the environmental human history of the Great Basin.”—Quaternary Research

"As complete and vivid a rendering of the changing past across a major American geographic province as any book I know.”—Stephen Trimble, Western Historical Quarterly

“No other book brings together such a deep insight into the history of the inter-mountain West.”—Choice