3:30-4:30 PM, Yosemite Valley Auditorium
Speaker: Dr. Kathleen Hull
Title: "3,000 Years of Native Activity in Northern Yosemite National Park"
Abstract: Recent archaeological excavations undertaken at two sites in northern Yosemite subject to ongoing wilderness stock impacts provide data for the developing picture of native use of the high country of the central Sierra Nevada. Radiocarbon assays, temporally diagnostic artifacts, and obsidian hydration data reveal that much of this activity largely dates to use over the last 3,000 years, while x-ray fluorescence obsidian provenance studies and protein residue analysis offer clues to obsidian acquisition and land use as part of larger patterns of seasonal occupation. Comparison of results with sites in lower elevation areas to the east and west provides a broader context for interpreting the data.