Idaho National Laboratory Cultural Resource Management Plan

Data Requirements: Especially important to answering this question would be sites that are covered
by volcanic flows. Since the presence of these features would not be detectable during survey, this kind of
site would only be encountered during construction activities. Most post-eruption sites are recorded
during survey, and those with subsurface deposits can tell us much about the human use of the area.
Problem Domain: Environment
The reconstruction of the environment is critical for interpreting human behavior. Humans usually
respond adequately to climatic changes by adjusting their subsistence organization and/or technology to
suit their changing needs. We know much about global climatic patterns, but little about the local effects
of the constantly changing moisture and temperature cycles. Research concerning environmental
reconstruction can be conducted at both archaeological sites and other sites where the proper data are
preserved. Cave sites (e.g., lava tubes) with long depositional sequences are especially important because
they often contain the remains of rodents and other small animals that are sensitive to climatic change.
Caves also often trap pollen grains from plants growing in the area and from those brought to the site by
prehistoric inhabitants. A climatic sequence based on a 2000-year cycle has been proposed (Butler 1978)
based on cycles of small mammals recovered during the excavation of Owl Cave at the Wasden Site
located just south of INL. In many ways, it correlates well with interpreted world climatic cycles (Denton
and Karlen 1973).
Of particular interest is that projectile point styles always change during interstadials and persist
through the following stadial. Theoretically, the carrying capacity of a desert area like INL should
decrease during the interstadials, which were generally warmer and dryer, thus stressing the human
populations who rely on the natural resources. However, our present understanding of the climatic cycle
is poor at best, and if we are to make interpretations about the meaning of artifact style changes, as well as
subsistence and demographic changes, we must pursue environmental data as it applies to the local
situation. INL sites have a tremendous potential for contributing to this understanding.
Research Topic: Pleistocene Environments. We know that numerous species of animals became
extinct near the end of the Pleistocene. The changing environment must have had a dramatic effect on the
lifeway of people inhabiting the upper Snake River Basin. It is not known whether the adjustments that
people had to make were slow, involving very slight changes over multiple generations, or dramatic,
necessitating a single generation of inhabitants to make significant shifts in the lifeway.
Research Question—How quickly did the Pleistocene megafauna become extinct?
Data Requirements: Pleistocene sites with buried cultural deposits.
Research Topic: Holocene Environments. Since the end of the Pleistocene the Snake River Plain
has probably been much like it is now. There were wetter and dryer periods, resulting in the increase and
decrease of pluvial lakes that temporarily supported animal and human populations. The history of the
pluvial lakes at INL would provide a scale by which to interpret much of the habitation there. Occupation
when water was not available is likely to be of a very different kind than when water was plentiful.
Research Question—What is the sequence of pluvial lake increase and decrease?
Some information is already known about this history, but much of the detail has not been studied. If
we are to understand the human occupation of the area, we must know more about this sequence.
Data Requirements: Playa-edge sites, with or without cultural material, which contain datable
deposits due to flooding and desiccation.
Problem Domain: Technology and Material Culture
Aboriginal technology evolved over the 12,000+ years of occupation of the upper Snake River Basin.
This is best recorded in stone tool manufacturing because stone is not perishable and the remains of all
194