DISCUSSION

Traditions at LoDaisKa

Willey and Phillips (1958) have stated that traditions are culture elements extending over long periods of time and often transgressing various culture boundaries present in an area. Traditions are not horizon-markers but may serve to unify a given series of occupations in a locality (e.g. painted pottery is a tradition in the Southwest.)

At LoDaisKa there are few such distinctive elements that transgress cultural periods other than rather common functional tools such as scrapers, but these few may be worth noting. One of these concerns a special type of handstone with four working planes as described above. These are present from complex A through D. Another tradition concerns the use of local stone. In general finer flinty types were used for knives, gravers and some types of scrapers, while grainy quartzite was most often used for projectile points. Distance from sources probably influenced the use of flinty types. The nearest quarry area appears to be about fifteen miles away; beds of quartzite are found somewhat closer. It is probable that access to both supplies led the people to use flinty type where a good cutting edge was important, but grainy varieties for tipping weapons. The grainy structure of quartzite makes it break less cleanly on the edges but renders it less likely to snap on sudden impact.

Another tradition lies in the use of small points. Many of the projectile point forms may be identical in general characteristics with points from other areas which are apparently culturally connected, but they are consistently a little smaller. Perhaps such a phenomenon was a by-product of the scarcity of material. In this connection one should note that in all the cultures common native rock quartz was almost invariably employed for large chopping tools. Another point of interest is the almost total absence of cores. Raw material when found was usually in the form of large flat flakes. The initial roughing out must have taken place at the source.

Another tradition is the use of mica for “ornaments” extending from Complex B through D. A tradition for the area was the cultivation from early times of a certain amount of corn, as revealed by pollen analysis and a few specimens of seeds or cobs. However, the type of corn used was not the same throughout. Three major varieties were present.

There are two explanations for these local traditions: either a tradition was handed down from one cultural group to another through long periods of time, or the peculiar ecological position of the Morrison biome dictated such a course. Probably the answer lies in the combination of these; certainly for stone use the environment was an important factor, but for the handstone type, the environmental explanation does not seem entirely adequate.

The Site in a Larger Context

Placed in a larger context, the sequence at LoDaisKa seems to reflect the interaction of geographical, cultural and environmental factors. Their relation poses a series of interesting questions.

The region is located geographically on the fringe between two well-known culture areas, the Great Basin and the Plains. At the same time, it is environmentally distinct from either, combining some characteristics of each, while preserving its own sub-montane biome. These factors determine the essentially marginal character of the area. For the same reasons, it should be especially sensitive to the forces of cultural dynamics and to changes in environment.

The sequence at the LoDaisKa Site reflects this situation. The shifting orientation of the cultures represented alternates between the Plains and Basin. This shifting may be an essentially cultural phenomenon, possibly reflecting events in the nuclear culture areas. Alternatively, there may be evidence of climatic fluctuation at the site, and environmental change could have been an important factor.

It remains a question whether this was, at least briefly, a contact area for Plains and Basin cultures. From the available material it is not possible to determine whether groups of divergent affiliation ever inhabited the area synchronously. The considerable overlapping of the culture units seems to point in this direction; but, as indicated above, this phenomenon may be partially due to the telescoping of the stratigraphy. This plus certain traditional continuums provide possible evidence of the influence of these groups on each other.

Further research may provide answers for some of these questions. Accurate dating by Carbon 14 will of course be invaluable in setting the LoDaisKa sequence in proper relation to known Recent developments in the West. Continued paleobotanical and geological study will help clarify the chronological and environmental situation. Investigation of single component sites in the area should provide a concrete regional sequence and supply more data on the kind of cultural phenomena represented here.

This suggests a few of the problems to be solved and indicates the great amount of research which remains to be done.