I.
ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS IN LOVELOCK CAVE, NEVADA
Robert F. Heizer and Lewis K. Napton
It is a remarkable circumstance that one of the most widely cited and
important archaeological sites in western North America--Lovelock Cave, in
west-central Nevada--had until 1969 been visited by only two archaeological
expeditions, consisting of a party of one in 1912 and a party of five in
1924. In the intervening decades the cave's contents and history, as inter-
preted by the 1912 and 1924 excavators, has been the subject of countless
references and inferences. As other archaeological sites in the western
Great Basin have been excavated, we have witnessed the gradual disclosure
of an entire culture that has taken its name from this site, which contained
one of the most detailed and best preserved records of prehistoric life ever
found in western America.
The principal purpose of this report is to assemble and integrate the
salient facts of the archaeology of Lovelock Cave in the light of excavations
recently conducted there by the authors. It is our hope that this report
will at least partially satisfy the need for a synthesis of the early work
in the cave and the recent excavations that have been made there in connec-
tion with the Lovelock Cave Coprolite Research and Analysis Project, which
has been carried on by us since 1965.
Lovelock Cave was the first major Great Basin archaeological site to be
excavated. Unfortunately, from the point of view of procedure, the initial
explorations in the cave were the antithesis of even the relatively unsophis-
ticated archaeological methods practiced at the beginning of the present
century. The first digging in the cave was the wholesale removal, by pick
and shovel, of some 250 tons of bat guano, which was dug from the upper cave
deposits, screened on the hillside outside the cave, and shipped to a
fertilizer company in San Francisco. The extent of the damage to the
archaeological strata and artifacts will never be known, but some idea of
its magnitude may be gained from the fact that after cessation of guano
mining operations, L. L. Loud (1929:29) salvaged from the guano dump in
front of the cave "several thousand specimens,," consisting mainly of human
skeletal material and artifacts made of vegetal material. In 1965 and 1969
we screened portions of the same dump and recovered flaked implements of
stone as well as objects of ground stone, bone and shell, numbering in all
about 200 specimens.
It is probably fair to say that the guano mining activities in 1911
nearly destroyed Lovelock Cave as an archaeological site. Subsequent
excavations, including those conducted by Loud in 1912, Loud and Harrington
in 1924, and by us, have been essentially salvage operations--efforts to
reconstruct, insofar as possible, the remarkably detailed record of prehistoric
- 1 -
occupation that was preserved in the cave. The excavations made by us during
1968 and 1969, nearly six decades after the first exploration of the site, may
prove to be one of the last attempts that can be made to investigate some of
the unanswered problems that have obscured many important aspects of Lovelock
prehistory. Lovelock Cave is situated on lands administered by the Bureau of
Land Management and our work at the site is authorized by a Federal permit.
To our knowledge the site is wholly without protection from vandalism, and
relic collectors have carried out their burrowings (often with great success)
with impunity, another example of the fact that failure to protect archaeolo-
gical sites on Federal lands is the rule and not the exception.
The Site
Lovelock Cave (latitude 39057'42" N. longitude 118033'25" W), located in
Churchill County, Nevada, occurs in the hinge fold of a massive limestone
unit of middle Jurassic age, identified as unit Jal (R.C. Speed, personal
communication, 1970), which is discontinuously exposed along the slopes of
the West Humboldt Range, located in west-central Nevada.1
The outcrop containing the cave is an intricately foliated limestone unit
locally containing quartzite, gypsum, and dolomite breccia. The limestone
unit dips at an angle of 65 degrees to the northeast, and has been subject to
extensive tectonic stress, which contributed to development of the cave in
the north-trending hinge fold. The cave was further modified by wave-action
of Pleistocene Lake Lahontan, as well as by recent seismic activity, the
effects of which may be seen in several locations along the flanks of the
Humboldt Range and nearby Stillwater Mountains. The limestone unit contain-
ing the cave rises some 150 feet above the dissected mountain slopes and
alluvial fans that lie on either side of the outcrop. The cave entrance
(elevation 4240 feet) faces north and commands a panorama of the desolate
Humboldt Sink, the "lower valley area," and the distant Trinity and Eugene
Mountains rising to the north on the far side of the valley. Behind the cave
formation, to the south, is the low summit ridge of the West Humboldt Range
(average elevation 4700 feet), beyond which lies the extensive, nearly barren
desert of the Carson Sink, bordered on the south by the Stillwater Range
(fig. 1). Eight miles northeast of Lovelock Cave is the massive igneous dike
forming Leonar&dRockshelter (NV-Pe-14) (Heizer 1951:89-98), while some ten
miles to the southeast, on the same flank of the Humboldt Range as Lovelock
Cave and at about the same elevation, are Humboldt Cave (NV-Ch-35) (Heizer
and Krieger 1956) and Ocala Cave (NV-Ch-24) (Loud 1929:150-151).-- (See fig. 2).
At one or more times in the geologic past Lovelock Cave was inundated by
the waters of Pleistocene Lake Lahontan, and the wave-action of the receding
lake was one of the principal factors contributing to the development of the
cave.  It is probable, however, that the cave is not entirely wave-cut, but
was developed by fracturing and shearing of the folded limestone unit (fig. 3).
3
An extensive deposit of tufa accumulated on the rock surfaces outside the
cave (pls. 3, 5) and on the walls inside the cave (pls. 9, 10), unmistakable
evidence of the fact that the cave portal was open during the periods when
the outcrop was inundated by Lake Lahontan.2 Wave cuts and depositional
features created by the receding stages of Lake Lahontan may be seen at
locations that are at least 100 feet higher than the cave entrance. In
this vicinity the highest shoreline of Lake Lahontan was 4380 feet above
sea level (Tatlock, personal communication, 1969); hence, at lake maximum,
the cave may have been covered by as much as 140 feet of water. Following
the final withdrawal of Lake Lahontan, as Harrington (1929:1) has pointed out,
the cave was probably a long, shed-like rockshelter which was easy of access
along almost its entire length, forming, one would suppose, an inviting abode
for man (fig. 5, event I).
Harrington (1929:120) believed that the earliest human occupation of
Lovelock Cave occurred circa 1000 B.C. This estimate, made on the basis of
his excavations in the cave in 1924, seemed to be verified in 1956 by a
radiocarbon date obtained from fragments of basketry found in level 5 of
lot 15, a test unit that had been dug by Harrington in the west end of the
cave. The radiocarbon age of the basketry is 1218 B.C.+260 (C-735, Libby,
1954:733-742), and this date has long been accepted as marking the approxi-
mate beginning of human occupation of the cave. However, the date is much
later than the probable date of the earliest known human occupation of nearby
Leonard Rockshelter (9249 B.C.+570; Heizer, 1951:89-98), and is considerably
short of the date of 5088 B.C.+350 (C-298, Arnold and Libby, 1950:111-120),
which was obtained by radiocarbon analysis of three atlatl dart shafts found
in the middle levels of the same site. It is difficult to understand why
Leonard Rockshelter (4175 feet) was apparently occupied as early as 9249 B.C.,
while Lovelock Cave, located eight miles west, at an elevation of 4240 feet,
seems not to have been occupied prior to circa 3000 B.C. Some of the rami-
fications of this problem will be discussed in the following synopsis of the
excavations made in the cave between 1911 and 1967.
SUMMARY OF PREVIOUS INVESTIGATIONS ON LOVELOCK CAVE
1911-1912; Hart and Pugh, Guano Mining
James Hart and David Pugh of Lovelock, Nevada, filed a mineral location
on Lovelock Cave (then known as "Horseshoe Cave" or "Sunset Guano Cave") and
mined the guano deposits from the fall of 1911 to the spring of 1912 (Loud
and Harrington 1929:168).   In order to facilitate removal of the guano, the
miners used explosives to open a tunnel through the rubble left by a large
rockfall at the northeast end of the cave (fig. 7, event VI) and laid a
track for mine cars which were used to haul the guano to a tipple built on
the hillside in front of the cave (see Clewlow and Napton, this volume).
The guano and assorted cave debris was dumped onto a large screen, and the
materials held by the 3/4-inch mesh, including sticks, rushes, stones,
Indian artifacts, pieced of mummies, and bone fragments, were discarded on
the hillside, forming what has been termed the "miners' dump."
Harrington (1929:2) states: "It was during removal of this guano that
the first Indian objects were found in the cave..."; whereas, according to
Hart (Loud and Harrington 1921:168): "All the Indian objects began to appear
about four feet below the surface of the guano." The guano layer apparently
thinned out near the original cave entrance, a narrow, slanted crevice at the
southwest end of the cave (fig. 6, event IV; see pi. 5).
Hart and Pugh may have dug in some places to a depth of as much as 20
feet.  Baskets, nets, sandals, 13 mummies (Loud 1929:31), and numerous
other specimens were found. Hart and Pugh, probably acting on the suggestion
of John T. Reid of Lovelock, reported their finds to the Nevada Historical
Society, to C. Hart Merriam of the Smithsonian Institute, and to J. C. Merriam
of the University of California, Berkeley, who made arrangements with A. L.
Kroeber of the University of California for L. L. Loud of the Museum of
Anthropology to conduct excavations in the cave.
Comments: Hart (Loud and Harrington 1929:168) stated that Indian arti-
facts "began to appear about four feet below the surface of the guano." This
remark induced later observers to conclude that the entire site had been
abandoned during the lengthy period of time required for deposition of such
a thick layer of guano. Grosscup (1960:5,6,12,60,65,66) speculated that the
cave was not used during this guano-deposition period, and that the site had
in fact been abandoned by the Lovelock population circa A.D. 900. However,
as he points out (ibid:6):
The accounts relate that artifacts were not encountered
in the top 4 feet of deposits, but the guano miners did ex-
pose numerous artifacts.
Nevertheless, he does not deny (ibid:60) that "decisive evidence for a
break or a continuum is still lacking."   Recent excavations in the cave have
provided new evidence, which, in our opinion, helps to clarify the problem
of the proto-historic occupation of the cave.
1912; L. L. Loud, Salvage Excavations and Collection of Specimens
L. L. Loud, employed by the Museum of Anthropology, University of Cali-
fornia, was sent by A. L. Kroeber to Lovelock in the spring of 1912 in order
to salvage whatever materials might be secured following cessation of commer-
cial exploitation of the guano deposit (see Kroeber 1947:180). Unassisted,
Loud conducted excavations in the cave from April to August, 1912, and collected
5
approximately 10,000 archaeological specimens, most of which came from three
locations: the refuse dump left outside the cave by the guano miners; the
remnants of the lower level deposits in the northeast end of the cave; and
the scattered pockets of undisturbed refuse remaining in situ along the
peripheral edges of the cave.
Comments: It is impossible to provide detailed information concerning
Loud's excavations, since he devotes less than a paragraph to this topic in
his published report (Loud 1929:29). Loud did not establish a grid system
of the type presently used in recording the depth and provenience of the
specimens.   Instead, he designated each of his digging locations as "lots,"
of which there were 41. It has been stated (Loud and Harrington 1929:vii)
"that one of the joint claimants of the cave prohibited work in his end of
the cave;" however, the map prepared by Loud and Harrington (1929, pl. 2)
shows that Loud dug in a number of locations in both ends of the cave.
Lots 1,2,4,5,7,15,20,21, and 24 are not marked on the map referred to, nor
do these locations appear on Loud's field map, copies of which are in the
files of the Lowie Museum, and none of the artifacts described in the report
of his excavations are attributed to these lots. However, a partial list of
the contents of these lots is given on the original museum accession sheet
prepared by Loud.
It is a matter of historical interest that Loud's report of his work
at the cave was not published until 1929, 17 years after his first visit to
the cave. His description of the artifacts found in the cave is quite
detailed (Loud 1929:31-109), but in only a few instances were the specimens
located by "lot"--information that would have provided at least the approxi-
mate horizontal provenience of the specimens.
Many of the specimens illustrated in the report are located as to "lot"
in the explanatory notes accompanying the plates (ibid:172-181). Using this
information and the sketchy notes in the museum catalog cards, we have
attempted to determine the quantity and type of artifacts found in each of
the lots designated by Loud--bearing in mind, of course, that the vertical
or stratigraphic provenience of the material is unknown. We hoped that in
spite of the deficiencies in Loud's methods of recording data, it might be
possible to discern a few details of the prehistoric occupational uses or
"activity-facies" that might have been manifested in the cave, based on the
number and distribution of various types of artifacts. Unfortunately, because
some of the lots (       lot 9) cover as much as 20 feet horizontally, the
attempt was unsuccessful.
It is evident, however, that lots 19,33,34,37, and 44 are the deepest
in the cave, and, with the exception of the deep cache pits (which Loud
failed to find or did not recognize) probably contained some of the oldest
cultural material found in the cave. This possibility is all the more likely
in view of the fact that the upper stratigraphic layers, which may have been
as much as six feet thick, were removed by the guano miners, and the deeper
deposits were worked by Loud.
The material collected by Loud does not form a single collection. The
bulk of it is housed in the Lowie Museum, University of California, Berkeley,
and a lesser proportion is in the Nevada State Historical Society building
in Reno. Detailed restudy and functional analysis of this material, in the
light of the considerably expanded knowledge of the chronology and stratigraphy
of the cave,would probably provide new insights into the prehistory of the
cave and of the Lovelock Culture.
Loud visited another cave located on the north slope of the Humboldt
Range. This is Ocala Cave (NV-Ch-24) situated about ten miles west of Love-
lock Cave, at an elevation of 4370 feet. The cave yielded two tons of bat
guano in 1911, and Loud (1929:150-151) found 77 artifacts. Several specimens,
including part of a mummy, several baskets, and some well-preserved nets are
said to have been found there recently by a Lovelock pothunter.
Loud examined the former shore of Humboldt Lake and located 17 occupation
sites, from which he collected 1464 artifacts and the bones of 16 humans (see
Gifford 1926:382). The material was briefly described by Loud without comment
as to the possible relationship of the open-air lakeshore sites and the nearby
caves.
One of the open-air occupation sites near the lake (NV-Pe-67) has been
excavated and reported upon by Cowan and Clewlow (1968:195-236), and NV-Ch-15,
the principal lakeshore site, is now under investigation by P.H. Hallinan.
1924; M. R. Harrington and L. L. Loud, Heye Foundation Expedition
Excavations in Lovelock Cave: In July, 1924, Harrington, Loud and several
Northern Paiute Indian assistants began a season of excavation in Lovelock Cave
for the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, New York.    During the
three-month field session, Harrington's party dug to the base of the deep depo-
sits in the west end of the cave, and also excavated in the center and east
end of the cave a few remnants of the original deposit that had been overlooked
by relic collectors.
Harrington elected to follow Loud's method of collecting artifacts by
"lot" rather than by use of a controlled grid system. Fortunately, Harrington
paid much more attention to stratigraphy than had Loud, and recorded the
vertical provenience of some (but by no means all) of the material that came
to light in the course of the digging.3 Harrington also recognized and mapped
40 cache pits (ibid:9-14; pl. 2), eight burials (ibid:14-18), and observed at
least three occupational "floors" (ibid:7; fig. 2) in the southwest end of
the cave. The specimens found in 1924 were briefly reported upon (ibid:110-118),
7
but the collection as a whole was not studied until 1959, when G. L. Grosscup
visited the Heye Foundation and described most of the specimens of known
stratigraphic provenience.
The major accomplishment of Harrington and Loud in 1924 was their con-
trolled test of the deep deposits located in the west end of the cave. Part
of the deposits in this location seemed to be intact, and Harrington laid
out a trench six feet wide and eight feet long. This was the famous "lot 15"
test pit, by means of which Harrington (1929:18-28) hoped to demonstrate some
of the existing stratigraphy of the cave (fig. 23). Lot 15 was divided into
six arbitrary levels representing three equally arbitrary "phases" of occu-
pation:
Later Period:   Level 1 (0"-18") (1'6" thick) consisted mostly of stones
and ashes.  Level 2 (18"-48") (2'6" thick) was mostly grass, stones, and
rushes with few artifacts. A hard packed floor occurred 48 inches below the
surface.
Transitional Period: Level 3 (48"-72") (2' thick) contained grass,
rushes, and dust, but "many more artifacts" than had level 2. These speci-
mens were described in some detail by Harrington (ibid:20-21).    Level 4
(72"-96") (2' thick) was of the same general composition as level 3, but had
been penetrated by two cache pits (numbers 38 and 39).    Harrington (ibid:22)
found numerous artifacts:
The arrow fragments and foreshafts typical of the
upper levels were not found in this one, but instead a
single pointed foreshaft so large that it probably
belonged to an atlatl dart rather than to an arrow, and
also part of a typical atlatl dart foreshaft [Emphasis
ours].
Older Period:   Level 5 (96"-120") (2' thick) contained "a deposit of
basketry and other articles." A sample of this material gave a radiocarbon
age of 1218 B.C.+260 (C-735, Libby 1954:733-742).4 The grassy refuse in
this level gave way to guano "with a slight admixture of grass and rushes,"
followed by ashes resting "on the white lacustrine deposit forming the
bottom of the cave." Level 6 (120"-148") (2'4" thick) was mostly guano with
"some admixture of stones, grass, rushes, and on the very bottom, ashes."
Harrington notes (ibid:23);
Of weapons we found only a large, heavy, pointed
foreshaft of greasewood, larger than those commonly
used for arrows, which may have been part of an atlatl
dart [emphasis ours].
Comments. In his description of level 5, Harrington refers to the
"white lacustrine deposit" which apparently formed the bottom of the cave.
This same deposit was encountered by us beneath the cultural deposits in five
widely separated locations (fig. 22). This deposit is an important feature
of the cave and is discussed in detail below.
Harrington's principal contribution to archaeology of Lovelock Cave was
his excavation of lot 15. The relative importance of this test unit has been
over-emphasized because of the fact that it is the single unit in the cave
for which any stratigraphic data have been available. The potential value
of lot 15 was somewhat diminished by the excavation procedures used by Harring-
ton. The lot was dug in arbitrary levels, rather than by removal of each
successive stratigraphic level. The artifacts found in this unit constitute
the only reasonably well documented sample from the cave, but these specimens
comprise only a very small percentage of the total Lovelock Cave artifact
inventory. Lot 15 is located in an area close to the inward-sloping south-
west wall of the cave. Consequently, as excavation proceeded, the length of
the test pit increased under the sloping wall, until, at the bottom of the
deposit, the original pit (six by eight feet) was nearly 16 feet long (Har-
rington 1929:19, fig. 5). Because of the reduced headroom provided by the
overhanging cave wall, it is possible that lot 15 did not contain a "repre-
sentative" sample of the occupational midden. It is likely that a better
sample could have been obtained by excavation of a more suitable habitation
area located near the center of the cave, or near the entrance.
Harrington (ibid:24-28) believed that the artifacts found in lot 15 gave
evidence of the shift from the use of the atlatl to the bow and arrow. It
is probable that his interpretation of the limited evidence from lot 15,
supplemented by information from other lots in the cave, is generally correct,
but students of Great Basin prehistory who assert that Harrington's Lovelock
Cave material provides a well-documented demonstration of the transition from
the atlatl to the bow and arrow should note the paucity of the actual evidence--
lot 15 contained a single probable atlatl shaft in level 4 and another possible
dart in level 6. We believe that Harrington classified shaft sections of
Phragmites as arrows or atlatl darts on the basis of shaft diameter. Atlatl
darts with very small diameters are known from caves in the lower Humboldt
Valley.  It is because we find the actual evidence of the atlatl-bow succes-
sion in Lovelock Cave to be tenuous that we consider Harrington's conclusions
on the matter not acceptable.
The deposit of basketry found in the gradational contact between levels
5 and 6 in lot 15 may have been contained in the "older guano layer," as
Harrington calls it, but it is equally possible that the basketry might have
lain in an undetected cache pit that had been dug into the guano layer from
an upper and later occupation level.   This is further attested, perhaps, by
the fact that the basketry cache was found in an out-of-the-way area against
9
the cave wall. In any case, this cache of basketry provided a radiocarbon
age of 1218+260 (C-735), which has been interpreted as being the approximate
date of the earliest human occupation of the cave. However, it is evident
that the older bat guano is stratified, and contains occupational debris
that is considerably older than 1218 B.C.
Harrington photographed a few of the more important finds in the cave
in situ, and in the summer of 1969, through the courtesy of Dr. Frederick J.
Dockstader, one of us (Napton) examined Harrington's negatives and contact
prints which are filed in the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation,
New York.5 One of the photographs gives the viewer an idea of the quantity
of material, some of it undoubtedly cached, which was found in lot 15 under
the inclined cave wall. The photograph is imperfect, but is reproduced here
for its documentary value (p1. 7).
Many of the photographs taken by Harrington in 1924 are reproduced in
the 1929 report. One of these (1929; p1. 7,b) shows Harrington holding the
famous bundle of 11 duck decoys found in cache pit 12. Loud was photographed
in the same pose. With the kind permission of Dr. Dockstader, we have repro-
duced this hitherto unpublished picture, one of the few existing photographs
of Loud (p1. 6). Other unpublished photographs taken by Harrington in 1924
appear in plates 2 and 7.
Excavation of lot 15, discovery of the duck decoys, and the careful
recovery of several inhumations were the most important features of the
excavations made by Harrington. One of the human bodies found by Harrington
had been mummified by natural desiccation and was quite well preserved. It
was photographed in situ (see Loud and Harrington 1929, p1. 9ab) prior to
its removal from the cave and subsequent shipment to the Heye Foundation in
New York, where it reposed in the museum's annex until the summer of 1969,
when it was located by Vincent Wilcox and studied by Napton and Dr. John
Budinger. Laboratory photographs of this specimen were taken and a detailed
paleoautopsy is now in progress.
Other Work by Harrington in 1924: Loud and Harrington (1929:8-9)
investigated at least three other locations; the outer rockshelter of Love-
lock Cave, the Humboldt Lakebed site (NV-Ch-15), and Ocala Cave (NV-Ch-24).
Their excavations in the outer rockshelter of Lovelock Cave, which is 65
feet long and 25 feet wide, evidently failed to disclose any evidence of
post-contact occupation--or, if such evidence was found, it was not reported.
Harrington described the deposits in the outer rockshelter as being about
two feet deep at the back of the overhang in an area located immediately
north of rock C (fig. 12), which blocks the cave portal. Harrington (ibid:8)
states that the dry deposit of occupational refuse lay "just northeast of the
slope leading down into the southwest entrance of the cave... ." The upper
four or five inches of this deposit was limedust and rock fragments; beneath
this was charred grass contained "many small round charred seeds, doubtless
used as food by the Indians." Below this was a layer containing grass, fea-
thers, human hair, rushes, cattail spikes, felted cattail down, two sandals,
and the feathered end of a wooden arrow.
Comments. This was the only reported test ever made of the rock-
shelter deposit. We believe that most of the deposit excavated by Harrington
in 1924 accumulated after the fall of rock C and must therefore represent
very late use of the cave (see pl. 5; see also Napton 1969:90, pl. 2). In
1968 we discovered in the "west alcove" of the outer rockshelter an intact
section of stratified midden that probably constitutes a small remnant of the
original outer rockshelter deposit.
Harrington and Loud found some duck decoys and other artifacts in Ocala
Cave (NV-Ch-24)-. These are undescribed. They also examined the Humboldt
Lakebed site (NV-Ch-15). The extent of their work at this site is unknown,
but Harrington subsequently published a brief report of the salient features
of this site and pointed out the possible significance of the juxtaposition
of the lakebed site and the cave (Harrington 1927:40-47). Harrington's photo-
graphs of the lakebed area include a good view of a dense stand of Phragmites
communis, now totally extinct in the immediate vicinity of the site. The
photograph is instructive in demonstrating the deterioration through desicca-
tion of the floral cover at this location in the years since 1924 (see pl. 2;
compare pl. 1 taken in 1968).
Investigations in Lovelock Cave, 1924 to 1960
1936; Nels Nelson, Surface Collection:  Nels Nelson, sponsored by the
American Museum of Natural History, visited Lovelock Cave for a brief period
in 1936, according to Grosscup (1960:2), to whom we are indebted for some of
the data in these pages. All of the specimens collected by Nelson were sur-
face finds, some of them probably came from backdirt left by relic hunters.
1936; R.F. Heizer, Surface Collections:  Heizer, Krieger and their work
crew visited Lovelock Cave and Leonard Rockshelter in the summer of 1936 (see
Heizer 1938:68-71; 1967b:49-52; Heizer and Krieger 1956). A small number of
specimens found in crevices and under rockfalls were contributed to the Lowie
Museum, Berkeley.
1949, R.F. Heizer and J. Mills; Collection of Samples for Radiocarbon
Determinations: Heizer and Mills obtained several samples of organic materials
to be used for the radiocarbon dating process then being applied by Willard
Libby at the University of Chicago. The locations of these samples and the
radiometric data have been reviewed by Heizer (1956:50-57) and Cressman (1956:
311-312).
11
1950, R.F. Heizer and Field Party, Surface Collections:  Heizer, E.
Antevs, N. L. Roust, and a large group of Berkeley students excavated
Leonard Rockshelter (Heizer 1951:89-98), Granite Point cave (Roust 1966:
37-72), NV-Pe-8 (Baumhoff 1958:14-25), and surveyed surface sites in the
lower valley (fig. 2). A visit was made to Lovelock Cave for the purpose
of collecting grab samples of numerous coprolites (desiccated human feces),
which were in evidence on the surface and in the spoil dirt that had been
dug from various locations in the cave. (See Heizer and Krieger 1956:33;
Heizer 1967b:50.) Fifty-one of these coprolites were analyzed by N. L.
Roust (1967:49-88).
G.L. Grosscup, 1960, Synthesis of Culture History of Lovelock Cave:
Grosscup's reconstruction of the culture history of Lovelock Cave was based
on his study of Lovelock Cave artifacts collected by Loud and Harrington
for the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, New York. Grosscup
(1960:13) is explicit in stating that his reconstruction of the culture
history of Lovelock Cave is based on examination of only those artifacts
"for which a depth has been recorded or for which some other associational
data are available," but he does not give the total number of specimens
examined by him for which such data exist.6 His interpretations of the
culture history of the cave have helped to define some of the problems that
have been investigated by recent fieldwork at the site.
One of the principal conclusions reached by Grosscup was that Lovelock
Cave had been abandoned circa A.D. 900, and that an occupational hiatus of
some 800 years duration occurred between the departure of the prehistoric
Lovelock population and the arrival in the area of the numic-speaking Northern
Paiute. This postulate is stated several times by Grosscup (1960: 5,6,12,60,
65,66) and is the principal theme of a later article (Grosscup 1963:67-71).
The "occupational hiatus" theory has been discussed in some detail in another
publication (Napton 1969:28-97), and at this time we can only reiterate our
opinion that there is no demonstrable hiatus, either cultural or chronolo-
gical, between the Lovelock Cave populations and the Northern Paiute of the
Historic Period. The problem of the putative linguistic discontinuities in
the Great Basin during this period continues to be a matter for speculation
(see Lamb 1958:95-100; Taylor 1961:71-81; Swadesh 1964:527-556; Miller 1966:
75-112; and Goss 1968:1-42). The latter has summarized the major arguments
advanced by the principal protagonists in the dusty arena of Great Basin
lexiostatistics. Unfortunately, linguistic problems do not lend themselves
to solution by archaeological investigation, no matter how detailed. The
linguists have formulated a very interesting problem, and they must shoulder
the burden of devising tests for its solution.
An important contribution made by Grosscup (1960:3-4) was to point out
the fact that if the white "lacustrine deposits left by the waters of Lake
Lahontan" (Harrington 1929:9) are really lacustrine in origin, they are "unlike
other Lahontan deposits in caves in this area." This remark by Grosscup was
prompted by his first-hand observation of the deposits in Hidden Cave (Roust
and Grosscup n.d.).  Further excavation would be needed, he believed, in order
to solve the problem of whether the white deposit consisted of lacustrine
sediments laid down over 14,000 years ago (ibid:62), or was a diaphragm of
decomposed cave material.
1965; Heizer and Field Party, Collection of Human Coprolites: In the
summer of 1965 members of a new group of Berkeley graduate students were
being introduced to Great Basin archaeology, and the Lovelock valley was selected
as a training area. The field party visited Lovelock Cave and from two loca-
tions collected some 500 human coprolites. One series, the "crevice" or
"entrance" coprolites, came from the area between rocks A and B (pl. 5). (The
grid coordinates of this locus are NSO/W55; see fig. 9.) These specimens were
found on the surface of refuse contained in a crevice under the inner edge of
rock B (see Heizer 1967a:12, fig. 1). It is likely that the crevice was used
as a latrine by some of the latest occupants of the outer rockshelter. One of
the entrance samples yielded a radiocarbon date of A.D. 1805+80 (UCLA-1071-E,
Tubbs and Berger 1967:89-92).
A second group of human coprolites was found in an abandoned cache pit
(designated pit No. 48, following the numbering system used by Harrington
[1929:14]). The pit was against the north wall of the cave, grid coordinates
N30/W5; see fig. 9; see also Heizer 1967a:12, fig. 1). A few artifacts and
other specimens found in the cache pit have been accessioned by the Lowie Museum,
Berkeley. The radiocarbon age of a sample "interior" coprolite was A.D. 740
+60 (UCLA-1071-F, for additional information see Tubbs and Berger 1967:89-92).
Twenty entrance and thirty cache or "interior" coprolites were analyzed
in 1966-1967 by R. Ambro (1967:37-47) and R. Cowan (1967:21-35). Additional
reports based on analysis of these specimens are by Heizer (1967a:1-20),
Follett (1967:93-116), Napton and Heizer (1969:i-v), Douglas (1969:1-8),
Napton and Brunetti (1969:9-18), Napton and Kelso (1969:19-27), Heizer and
Napton (1969:563-568), Napton (1969:28-97) and Heizer (1969:244-250). (See
also the additional articles in this volume.)
Another location examined in 1965 was the "guano miners dump" on the slope
in front of this cave. Salvage screening of part of this deposit produced 73
projectile points, including specimens of Desert side-notched, Rose Spring
corner-notched, and Cottonwood triangular types, all of which were in use dur-
ing the Late Period in the Great Basin (see Clewlow 1968:89-101). Other types
of artifacts found in the dump are described by Clewlow and Napton (this volume).
13
Summary
Thousands of perishable artifacts have been collected during the
sporadic excavations made in Lovelock Cave during the half-century from
1912 to 1967. It is probable that more than 20,000 specimens have been
found, exclusive of coprolites, of which there are now an estimated 6000
whole and fragmentary specimens in the collections of the Lowie Museum,
University of California, Berkeley. Our interest in disclosing some of
the vast amount of information contained in the Lovelock coprolites led us
to conclude, in 1967, that while preliminary analyses of the Lovelock Cave
coprolites had produced very interesting information concerning the dietary
regimes of the Lovelock population, we lacked an adequate chronological
framework for correlation and comparison of these data. Our assessment of
the condition of the site, following a brief visit to the cave in the spring
of 1968, encouraged us to plan a further program of excavations.
RECENT EXCAVATIONS IN LOVELOCK CAVE
The excavations made by us during 1968 and 1969 at Lovelock Cave,
NV-Ch-18 (legal location SE 1/4 of the SW 1/4 of the NE 1/4 of section 12,
T24N, R30E, Churchill County, Nevada) were conducted under authority of a
U. S. Department of Interior excavation permit, with the cooperation of
the Bureau of Land Management, Reno and Winnemucca, Nevada. Field work was
accomplished in two stages, beginning with pilot tests during the week of
September 13 to 19, 1968. The field party was composed of seven Berkeley
students (K. Nissen, P. Hallinan, C. Johnson, R. Ambro, J. O'Connell),
Dr. Albert Elsasser, and the authors. The second phase of the project was
carried out during a six-week period from April 14 to May 20, 1969, by a
group of 22 undergraduate students enrolled in an experimental course in
field methods in archaeology (pl. 4).
The field party camped at the old Ragucci ranch on the east edge of
the Humboldt lakebed, now maintained as a line camp by Mr. John Froelich
and Mr. Leon Anderson, whom we thank for allowing us to use the ranch
building, and for granting us access to the cave via their lease holdings
in the lower valley. The 1969 field crew was divided into two groups, one
of which, supervised by P. Hallinan, carried out mapping and excavations at
the Humboldt lakebed site (NV-Ch-15).   The remainder of the crew, supervised
by Napton, worked in the cave.
The 1969 excavations in Lovelock Cave, particularly those in the west
alcove and in the "LX" (Lot X) area, were largely direct continuations of
the probes begun in 1968; hence, instead of describing the work season by
season, we will summarize the cumulative results of excavations completed
in each unit.
Conditions inside the cave were more or less the same during both field
seasons.  Protective "hard-hats" and respirators (4gri-Tox dual cartridge type)
were mandatory. Goggles would have been desirable, but were impractical in
actual use. Some relief from breathing the dust-laden atmosphere was obtained
in 1969 by means of ventilating equipment loaned by the Pacific Telephone Com-
pany, San Francisco. Illumination was provided in 1968 by a small portable
power plant. In 1969 an 1100 watt alternator was used to provide power for
suction fans and for electric lights. In spite of their relatively short life,
photoflood lamps were quite useful in illuminating the excavations in the
poorly ventilated west end of the cave, where clouds of dust often achieved an
almost unbelievable density.
The general appearance of the interior of the cave has apparently remained
almost unchanged since 1924 (pls. 8,9,10,11) except for the fact that at pre-
sent the chamber is the home of a large flock of feral pigeons, whose nests,
feathers, and droppings are highly deleterious to the remaining occupational
deposits in the cave. Relic collectors have dug in the cave for years, and
continue to do so, but casual diggers are usually discouraged by the extremely
dangerous condition of parts of the cave roof, by the obnoxious odor of the
cave, by the fact that few good specimens have been found in recent years, and
by the fact that the clouds of dust produced by even the most casual distur-
bance of the deposits rapidly clogs the air intake valves of gasoline lanterns--
to say nothing of the respiratory apparatus of the diggers themselves. Carbide
lamps, used by Harrington in 1924, have the potential hazard of producing a
flash explosion of the thick clouds of organic cave dust. Ventilation is
inadequate throughout the cave, although a "venturi" effect resulting from
strong westerly winds provides limited air circulation. (The same effect would
have helped to draw off the smoke produced by the Indians' campfires.)
We established a uniform grid system designed to be expanded over the
entire site (fig. 9).  The principal datum, referred to here as UCB datum A,
was located inside the cave in an area where it would be readily accessible
for measurements in the areas to be excavated. The coincidence of the north/
south and east/west grid coordinates is marked by this datum. From this point
it is possible to see the east and west ends of the cave, and instrument sight-
ings can be taken through the guano miners tunnel and through a narrow gap
between rocks B and C to points located in the outer rockshelter (fig. 10).
An auxiliary datum, designated UCB datum B, was established on the tabular
summit of massive rock F, located on the floor of the outer rockshelter,
approximate grid location N30/W40. We cleaned the rock surface and chiseled
into it a cruciform index mark, the center of which is the zero point of UCB
datum B. This point is also considered to mark the mean elevation of the en-
trance of Lovelock Cave, which is approximately 4240 feet above sea level.7
From UCB datum B one may see most of the outer rockshelter, Humboldt
Lakebed, and various landmarks to the north, such as the Toulon tungsten mill,
15
the BLM windmill on the Humboldt lakebed, and the buildings at the old
Ragucci Ranch. Bearings were taken intersecting the center of the Derby
Field airway rotating beacon (No. 26-A) located near the site of U.S. Geo-
logical Survey bench mark No. 317 (elevation 3899.802 feet), and on the
center of the dome of the Lovelock VOR (Vortack) radio range 54-A on Derby
Field.  The assumed elevation of UCB datum B., 4240 feet, may be subject to
correction.  Therefore, datum B. the highest elevation with which we were
to be concerned during excavation of the cave, was given an arbitrary ele-
vation of 100.00 feet. A preliminary map of the site was prepared by Napton,
using a Gurley high-standard alidade and Johnson plane table (fig. 9). The
rockshelter was mapped and some of the more important landmarks in the lower
valley, including datum One, established by P. Hallinan on NV-Ch-15, the lake-
bed archaeological site, were plotted in reference to datum B. From this
datum it is possible to sight on UCB datum A, located at floor level inside
the cave. The distance between datum A and datum B., corrected to the hori-
zontal, is 51'3"; the difference in elevation is 14'3", giving UCB datum A
a reference elevation of 85.70 (or 4225.7 feet). The latter figure coincides
with an estimate of the elevation of the cave made in 1950 by Ernst Antevs
(personal communication to Heizer, 1950), who used a Paulin altimeter cali-
brated on the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey Lovelock south base, elevation
3908 feet. The elevation of other cave features of interest are given in
the text, or are plotted on the preliminary site map (fig. 9).
The site grid is laid out in increments five feet square, with the north-
south grid axis oriented on magnetic north (declination 17 1/2 degrees west,
1969), so that each test unit is aligned with the cardinal points of the
compass. All measurements made to determine horizontal and vertical proven-
ience of an artifact or feature found within each grid unit were taken from
the center of the southwest grid stake, so that all internal data were re-
corded as distance north and east of the southwest control stake (Heizer 1958:
54, fig. 9).
The following "areas" and grid units were selected for excavation in
1968-1969 (see Heizer 1969a:3-4)1. The year of excavation is given in brackets;
all grid locations refer to UCB datum A:
1. Lot "LX," a deposit of midden trash located between rocks B. C, and
D (grid location NSO/W30) [1968].
2. Grid unit NSO/W35, an extension of the "LU" area [1969].
3. Grid unit N5/W25, a deposit of disturbed refuse near the cave
entrance [1969].
4. Grid units S5/WlO; S5/Wi5 ("miners entrance") a test entry made for
the purpose of sounding the deep white "lacustrine" deposit forming the apparent
basal stratum of the cave [1969].
5. Lot "AN" (grid units Sl0/W50; SlO/W55), first explored in 1967, and
entirely covered by massive rock B [1968].
6. West crevice area ("WC"), approximate grid location S40/W95, UCB datum
A, a nearly vertical chute leading down from the west alcove into the deep west
end of the cave (the chute is actually a narrow passage between massive rock A
and the inward-tilting north wall of the cave [1968, 1969].
7. The west end area ("WE"), grid location S40/W80 and S40/W85, UCB datum
A,a deposit of refuse adjacent to Harrington's lot 15 dug in 1924 [1969].
8. The west alcove ("WA") the hitherto unexcavated extreme west end of
the cave (grid location approximately SlO/W95; S15/W100), the north portal of
which lies some 60 feet southwest of UCB datum B [1968, 1969].
9. The east alcove area ("EA"), in grid location N40/W25, an unexcavated
area almost completely covered by rubble [1969].
10. The guano miners dump ("MD") (approximate grid location N100/W100)
situated on the steep hillside in front of the cave. Debris and rubble from
the interior of the cave was discarded here by the guano miners in 1911, form-
ing a loose, sliding mass some 200 feet long and 40 feet wide. Part of this
mantle of debris had been screened by us.at an earlier date [1965, 1968, 1969].
The excavation of these ten locations will be described in some detail,
in view of the paucity of such information for previous excavations in Lovelock
Cave.
Lot "LX", Grid Location NSO/W30, UCB Datum A
The purpose in excavating "Lot X" was to recover from this part of the
cave further specimens of desiccated human excrement, samples of which were
analyzed in order to supplement the data from the "entrance'' and "interior"
samples previously described. The surface of the deposit in this area was
tested by Harrington (Loud and Harrington 1929, pl. 2), but we hoped to find
some undisturbed remnants of the midden. The test unit was approximately
five feet long, east to west, narrowing in the center due to a projection of
rock D. The deposit was excavated in arbitrary six-inch levels from the sur-
face to a depth of 72 inches, at which point we encountered the powdery-white
"lacustrine" substrate deposit. The test was successful in its primary
purpose: 52 coprolites were found in the unit and all of these were subse-
quently analyzed.
The upper three levels of the test unit consisted of fragments of grass,
dust, rocks, twigs, pieces of rush or tule, and other organic debris, all of
which was thoroughly mixed. The middle levels (levels 3 to 5) had been
17
disturbed in prehistoric times by construction of a cache pit (No. 49,
feature No. 1), which (unfortunately) was empty. The basketry lining of
one wall of the pit was well preserved, and a pile of rushes and grass
served as the bottom of the pit. A sample of this material (LX-56) gave
a radiocarbon age of A.D. 50+60 (UCLA-1417, see table 1), which dates the
construction of the pit. The refuse deposits enclosing the pit must of
course be older (fig. 16).
Samples for palynological analysis were taken at six-inch intervals
from the bottom to the top of the entire test unit. The "LX" test unit
could not be expanded due to the mounting danger of further undermining
rock D, upon which rests (in a most precarious fashion, as it appears when
viewed from beneath) the 20 ton mass of rock C (fig. 11).
Levels 4 and 5 consisted almost entirely of bat guano, probably the
"older guano" found at about the same depth by Loud and Harrington in lot 15
(1929:22-23). The lower part of the layer is interfingered by thin strata of
sand, dust, and at least one layer of vegetal material, consisting of Scirpus
sp. and other species of aquatic vegetation. The presence of this material
as an integral member of the guano layer suggests that Lovelock Cave was
occupied by man, if only intermittently and briefly, during part of the time
in which the bat guano layer was forming. The gradational contact of the
surface of the early guano and the base of the overlying layers of midden
trash is only moderately well defined, but there is an abruptly well-defined
transition from the early guano to an underlying white ash layer. The ash
layer is about two inches thick. Under this is a stratum of crystalline
white-colored material. We were able to penetrate this deposit to a depth
of 12 inches, at which point several very large rocks were encountered. None
of these could have been extracted from the pit without the use of heavy
equipment.
The north profile of this unit, as depicted in Figure 16, was recorded
by J. O'Connell and P. Hallinan. The section is quite similar to a somewhat
idealized profile-section prepared by Loud and Harrington (1929:7, fig. 2;
compare ibid:ll, fig. 3).
Part of the LX or NSO/W30 unit lies within Harrington's lot 4 (Loud
and Harrington 1929; pl. 2). We have no way of knowing how deep Harrington
dug in lot 4, but he discovered five cache pits (Nos. 9,10,11,12, and 13).
Harrington (ibid:12) states that pit 10, found in lot 4, belonged either to
the "transitional" or "older" period of cave occupation. The bottom of the
pit was "6 feet 1 inch below the surface." Unfortunately, it contained little
of interest, although Harrington noted that a grass layer in the bottom of
the pit was covered by a layer of bat guano approximately one inch thick,
"showing that the pit had lain open awhile," and also indicating, of course,
that bats had occupied the cave either during or after human use of the site.
A section transecting pits 9 and 10 from east to west was sketched by Harrington
(1929:11, fig. 3; see fig. 15, this volume). The west side of the profile is on
the right side of the illustration, so the viewer is looking north toward the
"ILX" profile, which is about six feet farther north of the section recorded by
Harrington. The rock shown at the right hand side of Harrington's drawing
(1929, fig. 3) is omitted on his plan map of the site (1929, p1. 2), but a
large rock does exist at this location (rock E; see fig. 6, event IV). Loud
and Harrington (1929, p1. 2) place pit 12 in lot 4, whereas, in the text Harrington
(1929:12) states that pit 12 is in lot 7. The latter location is probably erron-
eous, for in his figure 4 (ibid:13), pit 12 is shown next to pit 11, and is also
shown in Plate 2 as occurring in lot 4 with pits 9, 10, 11, and 13. Pit 12 is of
more than routine interest, since it contained the remarkable cache of 11 duck
decoys. The bottom of this pit was five feet below the surface, according to
Harrington, indicating that his excavations in this area reached at least that
depth. Pit 12 was apparently situated just beyond the south wall of the LX
unit.
Grid Unit NSO/W35, UCB Datum A
In 1969 we continued exploration of the LX area by excavating unit NSO/W35,
a sloping mass of refuse located under the edge of massive rock C and just west
of unit LX in the narrow passage between rocks B, C, D, and E. The upper layers
of the east end of this unit had been excavated by Harrington in 1924. We could
not extend the test unit to the west since this would undermine a group of
poorly supported rocks lying in the passage between rocks B and C.
The test unit was excavated in six-inch levels, but very little was found,
other than the usual fragments of twine, quids, feathers, etc. (feature No. 2).
At a depth of 30 inches we found a mass of rushes and grass (Distichlis cf.
spicata) (feature No. 4). A piece of fox skin (Vulpes sp.) was found at a depth
of 50 inches (feature No. 7), under which was a large, fragmentary tule mat
(feature No. 8). Crushed bulrush culms were observed adhering to the underside
of rock E, an indication that this boulder was part of the massive Event IV
rockfall (fig. 6).
The principal value of this unit is the excellent display of the cave
strata in the north profile, extending from the surface under rock C to a
depth of at least 72 inches. The profile was brushed and dusted with the aid
of a small bellows. When this was done it was possible to see that the deposit
sectioned by the profile is undisturbed, and is a good sample of the original
stratigraphy of Lovelock Cave. The strata to the north of the profile, extending
into the area covered by massive rock C (units N5/W35, N5/W40, NlO/W30, NlO/W35)
are probably undisturbed, in view of the fact that they are capped by at least
20 tons of limestone.
19
Most of the internal features recorded by Harrington for lot 15 in the
west end of the cave apparently also occur in the north profile of NSO/W35,
with the important difference that in the latter unit the strata are a good
deal thinner. The minimum depth of lot 15, according to Harrington (1929:
19, fig. 5), is ten feet.   In NSO/W35 the same strata are six feet thick,
and probably become progressively thinner under rock C as one ascends the
slope toward the mouth of the cave. It might be possible to excavate part
of the deposit under rock C, depending on the engineering problem involved
in working under this monolith, which appears to be poorly supported on the
south (the downhill side of the slope). We surmise that most of rock C
rests on cultural midden trash, but this possibility must of course be demon-
strated by excavation, which could be accomplished by extending a lateral
cut under rock C to the outer rockshelter, revealing at the same time the
relationship of the white "lacustrine" stratum and the basal strata of the
outer rockshelter.8
Stratigraphy of the test unit: The NSO/W35 test unit is overlain by
rock C, which, if we correctly interpret the apparent situation, fell on
the deposits during the time that the cave was occupied by the Indians (fig.
11). The approximate date of the fall of massive rock C (event IV) can be
estimated by obtaining the radiocarbon age of a sample of the uppermost
cultural material found under the rock. One such sample gave a radiocarbon
age of A.D. 440+90 (I-4629), but this date is probably somewhat short of the
actual occurrence of the rockfall, due to the fact that there is a gap between
the surface of the deposit and the under side of the rock, as shown in Figure
12. The gap is partially filled with packrat nest and midden material, and
a date for the occurrence of the rockfall based on a radiocarbon determina-
tion of this debris would almost certainly be erroneous. Because of this,
the sample for radiocarbon dating was taken from the uppermost integral
member of the stratified deposit (fig. 13). A more precise date for the
rockfall could probably be obtained by determining the radiocarbon age of
organic material which was crushed when the rock fell.
The uppermost part of the deposit under rock C could not, of course,
have been removed by the guano miners, but one should note that the profile
NSO/W35 indicates that the rock does not seem to rest on a layer of bat guano,
which, as Harrington (1929:1) describes it, was "3 to 6 feet deep" elsewhere
in the cave. It would appear that two possibilities obtain: the thick
"Later Guano" removed by the guano miners may have been deposited after the
Event IV rockfall; or perhaps the Later Guano deposit never existed in this
locality, near the mouth of the cave. However, a deposit of guano about one
foot thick is indicated by Harrington (ibid:ll, fig. 3) as a feature near the
surface of the cross-section between lots 9 and 10. It is possible that most
of the thick Later Guano layer was deposited after the Event IV rockfall
nearly closed the cave portal, an occurrence that might have made the cave
less suitable for human occupation, but probably improved it as a colony site
for bats. Hence, in our view, it is likely that most of the Later Guano unit,
said to be three to six feet thick, was deposited during the period between
A.D. 440 and A.D. 1911, a period of about 1500 years, indicating that estimates
of cave chronology based on the assumption that the cave debris accumulated at
a constant rate are likely to be erroneous (fig. 14).
The radiocarbon determinations of samples taken from the north profile
NSO/W35 are given in Figure 13. Because of the varying (and unknown) amounts
of midden removed from the surface of the cave deposit by the guano miners,
and because of the slope of the cave floor in this vicinity, the total thick-
ness of the NSO/W35 unit is greater than that of the "LX" units. However, the
buried surface of the white "lacustrine" deposit forms a stratigraphic marker
throughout the cave, and the various strata can be correlated approximately,
using this feature as a common reference (fig. 23).
Additional details of the stratigraphy of the NSO/W35 profile are given
in the caption of Figure 13. (See also p1. 7.) Particle-size fractionation,
identification, analysis of organic material, and palynological studies of
30 samples, which were taken from the profile at six-inch intervals, remain
to be completed. A rough analysis of the samples is given in Table 2. The
stratigraphy of unit NSO/W35, from the top to the bottom of the deposit, con-
sists of the following components:
The surficial deposits are composed of packrat nest and midden debris.
Packrats, or wood rats (Neotoma cf. cineria),tend to defecate in specific
locations in their middens, and part of the uppermost deposit of this test
unit consisted of a compact mass of rat dung. A slab of this material (field
specimen 65:1427) was removed for laboratory examination, and was found to
contain a quantity of mudhen feathers (Fulica americana) which was once
part of a garment similar to one found in lot 12 (Loud and Harrington 1929,
p1. 18). The surficial layers also contained bits of twine and several human
coprolites. Beneath the rat nest was a thin layer of aeolian sand, followed
by a layer of vegetal material, dated by sample I-4629. Below this were
layers of sand, dust, and limestone spalls, interspersed with distinct layers
of rushes. It is possible that some of these layers of organic materials
represent occupational "horizons" or single occupations. In a site as large
as Lovelock Cave, different areas may have been occupied at different times.
The layers of dust, sand, and rushes cease abruptly at a depth of 40
inches below the surface, at the contact of the underlying "Older Guano." The
buried surface of the Older Guano strata is so compact that it can hardly be
penetrated with a pointing trowel. The hard surface is probably an occupa-
tional floor, but only a small segment of this feature was found to be intact
in this test unit (fig. 17). On the hard surface of the "floor" were found
quids, strands of human hair, and other evidence of human occupation (p1. 13).
21
The "Older Guano" layer, previously described, is about 12 to 16 inches
thick in this location. The upper part of this deposit, consisting of approxi-
mately 90 per cent bat guano, is superimposed on a thin cultural stratum, under
which is a six-inch thick deposit of sand, guano, and dust. A single quid was
found in the occupation layer. The basal portion of the Older Guano layer has
been burned, either by man or as a result of spontaneous combustion. In this
test unit, the burned guano is superior to a thin layer of white ash, beneath
which, as might be expected, is the white lacustrine deposit.
N5/W25
The upper part of the refuse deposit in this test unit was found to be
badly disturbed. The loose debris contained modern trash and very few arti-
facts. An empty cache pit (feature 9) came to light at a depth of 12 to 18
inches below the existing surface. The test unit location is covered by
Harrington's lot 11 and perhaps by part of his lot 9. Pit 46, which con-
tained the partially desiccated body of an adult male, was found by Harrington
near this location.
S5/WlO, S5/W15; Miners Entrance Pit ("ME")
This test entry, located approximately in the center of the cave near
the guano miners entrance (fig. 10), was the scene of our ambitious but
abortive effort to reach the bottom of the white "lacustrine" deposit--the
"lime-powdered bottom of the cave," as it was described by Harrington. The
deposit had been exposed to view in this vicinity by the guano miners and
by Loud, during his excavations in 1912. Harrington (1929:4) gives this
description of the exposed deposit:
Here could be seen its general character--higher in the
center of the cave and sloping gradually downward from
the northeast end toward the southwest, and sharply
downward 2 or 3 yards from the wall everywhere. This
condition is doubtless due to rockfalls from the roof
when the cave was forming, the fallen material creating
a pile higher in the center than around the edge. The
bottom was composed of such limestone from the roof,
cemented together with a rather soft, white mineral
substance which crumbles into fine granules when dug.
If this feature is a lacustrine deposit it is a very unusual one, as
Grosscup (1960:3-4) has pointed out, for no comparable stratum is known to
have been found in any of the excavated cave and rockshelter sites located
in the Humboldt-Carson Sink area. Some of these sites, such as Humboldt
Cave, approximate elevation 4065 feet (Heizer and Krieger 1956); Leonard
22
Rockshelter, elevation 4175 feet (Heizer 1951:89-98); and Hidden Cave, elevation
4104 feet (Roust and Grosscup n.d.), contain strata that can be correlated with
one or more stages of Lake Lahontan, but none of these lacustrine strata resemble
the white deposit which uniformly underlies the midden and older guano deposits
in Lovelock Cave (fig. 22).
Excavation of test unit S5/WlO disclosed an apparently stratified deposit
some six feet thick.   The stratification is spurious, because the crossbedded
debris found here is for the most part spoil dirt derived from numerous pits
dug in this part of the cave by relic hunters. Pieces of newspaper, discarded
cigarette butts and other modern trash attest to the recent disturbance of these
layers. The older guano layer, which elsewhere usually occurs under the midden
trash, was not present in this test unit.
The white deposit was encountered at a depth of six feet, as expected.
The stratum contained several large rocks, greatly reducing the already limited
work space in the bottom of the pit. The white deposit was anything but the
"soft and powdery" material which Harrington (1929:4) described.     Excavation
could be continued only by means of railroad picks and pry bars. We removed
from the pit several large slabs of material composed of a very hard, crystal-
line-mineral substance, usually grey-white in color, but not infrequently
having a faint pink or green tinge. We were able to detach hand specimens with
the aid of a sledge hammer. As the pit deepened it became increasingly diffi-
cult to penetrate the stratum, and work was finally discontinued at a depth of
three feet into the white deposit, the test unit having been carried to a total
depth of nine feet.   There was no indication, of course, that we had reached
the bottom of the white deposit, nor was there the slightest clue as to what
lay beneath this stratum.   It was obvious, however, that the white deposit was
the product of phenomena very dissimilar to those responsible for the develop-
ment of the stratigraphically superior deposits. Inspection of the crystalline
structure of the deposit suggested that water had played a major part in its
formation.   In fact, the deposit seemed to be a precipitate resembling silicious
sinter; however, its true nature was revealed only by spectroscopic analysis.
It is unfortunate that we were unable to reach the bottom of the white
deposit, for it will be necessary to do so before this feature of the cave can
be said to have been adequately examined. This particular location was prob-
ably a poor choice for a deep probe of the white deposit: much more could have
been learned by excavation of a unit located adjacent to the cave wall, where
the contact between the bedded limestone and the white stratum could be examined.
There is an indication, in unit N25/E25, that the white deposit covers some of
the tufa that adheres to the cave wall (fig. 21), but it will be necessary to
expose a much better preserved contact.
23
Lot "'AN"', Grid Units SIO/W50, SlO/W55
This test unit is situated entirely under massive rock B, which is some
20 feet long, 12 feet wide, and is about six feet thick along the edge visible
inside the cave. Rock B weighs approximately 20 tons, and, if nothing else,
at least provided a reassuringly solid ceiling over the heads of the excava-
tors of the underlying deposit. Due to the presence of this monolith, it was
necessary to enter the "AN" unit laterally, from the south. Some of the
refuse under the edge of the rock had been removed by Loud and Harrington as
part of their lots 7 and 18. Pit 42, in lot 18, is shown by Loud and Harring-
ton (1929, p1. 2) as having been located just under the edge of rock B, but
the construction and contents of the pit are not described in the text.
The surface of the deposit beneath the rock rises steeply from the lower
(south) edge of rock B to the "Entrance" coprolite crevice (grid location
NSO/W55), which is formed by the north edge of rock B and several rocks rest-
ing against it (fig. 18). Between the surface of the deposit and the under-
side of rock B is an unobstructed space which was about ten inches high and
four feet wide. On either side of this unobstructed passage, as viewed from
the excavation entrance, rock B is supported by tightly packed occupational
debris and rocks. The underside of rock B is smoke-stained, but much of the
stain has exfoliated from the rock cortex due to the admission of moisture
into this part of the cave via the access passage. The underside of the rock
is embellished by graffiti, which include the legend "VC 1949" executed in
carbide lampblack, mute testimony to the presence of relic collectors two
decades ago in even this relatively inaccessible part of the cave.
As the details given in Figure 18 indicate, excavation of the "AN" unit
proceeded through the remains of Harrington's lot 18, which had been almost
completely refilled by debris sliding down from the "entrance" crevice. The
northernmost extent of the lot 18 excavation pit was readily apparent. Beyond
the edge of the pit, farther under rock B. lay the usual compact mass of
rushes, rocks, sand and dust. Our hope that part of this deposit might be
undisturbed failed to materialize, for we soon found evidence of an ancient
cache pit (No. 50; feature 3), which had two separate bottoms formed by large
pieces of tule mat. The mat fragments were very damp, and by Lovelock Cave
standards, were very poorly preserved.
Below the cache pit, as indicated in Figure 19, was a layer of dry bat
guano recognizable as the Older Guano layer described by Harrington (1929:18-28).
This is the same layer that we found in the lower levels of units NSO/W30 and
NSO/W35.
The upper portion of the Older Guano layer consists almost entirely of
"pure" bat guano. It is "pure" in the sense that by visual inspection its
principal component appears to be bat guano. Miscroscopic examination,
24
however, reveals that it contains hair, sticks, fragments of insects, bones of
bats, and numerous other types of organic and inert debris (table 2).
The lower part of this layer is composed of several thin members of sand,
grass, and guano. Dividing the layer is a thin but well-defined cultural stra-
tum consisting of bulrush and other vegetal matter, which occurs at a depth of
seven inches within the guano layer, or 78 inches below the surface of the test
unit. This stratum of vegetal material could be traced throughout the profile
of the Older Guano layer, wherever the latter was exposed in the walls of the
test unit. A sample of the vegetal component of this stratum produced a radio-
carbon date of 2740 B.C.+110 (I-3962; our sample AN-16). The fact that the
vegetal material in this stratum consists of aquatic plants--the nearest source
of which would have been Humboldt Lake, located 2.0 miles northwest of the cave--
indicates that the lake was in existence at this time and that the cave was
occupied by man, for it is unlikely that any other animal would transport large
quantities of aquatic vegetation from the lake to the cave. This supposition
is fully confirmed, in our opinion, by the presence in the layer of pieces of
twine, human hair, bulrush quids (Scirpus sp.), and other cultural materials
(pl. 14).   The overlying guano was compact and undisturbed, giving satisfactory
evidence of the fact that the vegetal and cultural material dated at 2740 B.C.
+110 (I-3962) is not intrusive in the guano, but represents an occupational
horizon occurring as an integral member of the Older Guano layer. (As we noted
in the preceding section, samples of the older bat guano obtained in 1949 gave
radiocarbon ages of 2498 B.C.+250 [C-277] and 4054 B.C.+250 [C-278].) Sample
I-3962 is bracketed by these determinations and by the interally consistant
series of radiocarbon dates from the NSO/W35 profile, as shown in Figure 23 and
Table 2.
The lowest part of the guano stratum had been charred and was black or
cherry-red in color. An abrupt contact separates the guano and an underlying
powdery ash layer of a grey-white or dark grey hue. The ash layer gave way to
a powdery crystalline substance, which is the same deposit that occurred at
the base of the preceding units, with the difference that in this location it
is somewhat more soft and powdery than it was in any other location. The white
deposit contained several rocks of the 200 pound variety (fig. 18). There was
no possibility of moving these rocks in the restricted confines of the test
location. In summary, the AN excavation provided a well-defined profile of the
cave deposit. From top to bottom the stratigraphy consists of rushes, grass
and dust, the older bat guano, grey ash, and the white crystalline basal deposit.
The north profile of the "AN" unit was sketched by R. Ambro (fig. 19).
Palynological samples (field catalog numbers 71:1486-71:1503) were taken at
six-inch intervals following the procedure outlined by Bryant and Holz (1968:
11-19).
The surface of the slope under rock C was littered with large human
coprolites, some of which were of the same age and general composition as the
25
"Entrance" coprolite series.   Ten coprolites were found in situ in the midden
debris superior to the Older Guano.
Lot "WC", Grid Location S40/W95, UCB Datum A
The west crevice area is a nearly vertical chute descending from the
back of the west alcove into the deep west end of the cave. The crevice is
formed between the back, or south side, of rock A and the inner wall of the
cave (fig. 9). When we first examined the crevice, it was full of debris of
all kinds, mostly sticks, stones, grass, dust, and sand that had fallen from
the west alcove (p1. 10). Several large boulders were wedged in the chimney-
like upper end of the crevice, and excavations in 1968 were limited to removal
of the lower portions of the refuse located beneath these rocks.
Three hundred human coprolites, 30 cane arrows with greasewood fore-
shafts, and a number of feathered arrow shafts were found in the debris.
Other artifacts found in the west crevice included several sections of a
string of beads described by J. Carroll (in press, 1970).
It was apparent that the west crevice is stratified, albeit on a very
steep incline (fig. 10). Removal of part of the debris in the lower depths
of the crevice exposed a small remnant of the midden in the west end of the
cave.
West End Area ("WE") Grid Location S40/W80; S40/W85
The major effort of the 1969 season was an attempt to excavate part of
the deep midden deposits in the west end of the cave near the location of
lot 15, dug by Harrington (1929, p1. 2). Here we hoped to find undisturbed
remnants of the original cave deposit. Excavation proceeded very slowly--
more than 800 man hours were expended before we reached the bottom of the
midden deposit.
The excavation area was partially covered by colluvial debris derived
from the west crevice, and the upper levels of the test unit area may have
been removed as part of Harrington's lot 16. The deposits included reeds,
grass, occasional coprolites, and a few small artifacts which were doubtless
overlooked by previous diggers. Stratified layers, such as those observed
in NSO/W35, were not present. An occasional find of modern trash, including
a pipe tobacco tin bearing a tax stamp issued in 1924, gave evidence of dis-
turbance in this area.
At a depth of seven feet below the surface we found an assortment of
human bones representing three adults and one child (M. E. Morbeck, this
volume). This assemblage, which we designated Feature 5, included a
tibia and fibula, a large clavicle, a very large femur (the head and greater
trochanter is visible; see Morbeck, this volume), the mandible of a sub-
adult, and about 100 other human bones. A single calcined skull fragment lay
amid the mass of unburned bones. The dry refuse immediately above the bones
contained a few pieces of decayed matting and a single Olivella bead. The
loose sand matrix around the bones contained pieces of wood, fragments of reed
(Phragmites sp.), and hundreds of small insect pupae cases. The bones were not
found in anatomical order, although the individual represented by the large
femur and other appendicular bones may have been buried in a flexed position
prior to being placed in this common ossuary. A few of the bones bore remnants
of cartilage. Part of a femur and a tibia sacrificed for radiocarbon determin-
ations produced a date of 1450 B.C.+80 (UCLA-1459-C, Berger, personal communi-
cation, 1969).
The bones were removed from the excavation pedestal, which was composed
of a six-inch thick layer of sand and cave debris. Beneath this we encountered
the now-familiar, pavement-like layer of crystalline material that forms the
floor of the cave beneath the midden trash.
We surmise that the bones comprising Feature 5 were the remains of several
inhumations that at some time in the past had been exhumed by coyotes during
a period when the cave was unoccupied by man. When the Indians reoccupied the
cave, they probably collected the scattered bones and made a common burial of
them in this location. It is probable that these events occurred early in the
occupational history of the site, since the bones lay in such close proximity
to the basal white deposit. An alternative explanation of the presence of the
several lots of buried bones in the west end of the cave is that the cave was
early used as a place to deposit corpses. When large-scale human occupation
occurred (circa 1300 B.C.), the exposed human bones were collected and buried
in the west end of the cave in order to clean up the living area. This hypo-
thesis could be true only if the age of the bones is older than the age of the
earliest layers of living debris indicating occupation of the cave by large
numbers of people. According to radiocarbon age determinations now in hand,
the bones in the secondary burial just described, which date from 1450+80 B.C.
(UCLA-1459-C), are slightly older than the lowest levels of lot 15 which date
at 1218+260 B.C. (C-735).
Harrington (1929:17-18) found an almost identical cache of bones under
rock A in this same area. The numerous calcined inhumations and the several
discrete caches of extraneous bones found in the west end of the cave demon-
strate that this part of the cave was used as a general bone disposal area.
Many of the human bones found in the cave by Loud (1929:31-32) were calcined.
It would be desirable to secure radiocarbon dates for these bones. Loud appar-
ently believed that most of the human bones that he found had been burned by a
conflagration in the cave refuse. It is likely that these human bones are not
evidence of intentional cremation, but have been carbonized through burning of the
guano-refuse deposits in which they lay. The Wheelers (Wheeler and Wheeler 1944)
27
recovered from a cave near Grimes, southeast of Fallon, two twined wallets
containing cremated human bones. These are atypical, perhaps unique, for
the western Great Basin.
One hundred and fifty coprolites were found in the west end area, 50
of which have been analyzed.
West Alcove ("WA"), Grid Location S10/W95, S15/W100, UCB Datum A
The west alcove, a hitherto unexcavated area located in the western
extremity of the outer rockshelter of the cave, can be entered from the
rockshelter via either of two apertures located some 60 feet west of UCB
datum B. The west alcove deposit is perched on the summit of massive rock
A, which detached from the ceiling at an unknown, but probably early, date.
The deep west end of the cave (S40/W80) at the base of the west crevice, is
about 35 feet lower than the entrance of the west alcove. It is evident that
rock A blocked most of the west end of the cave portal (fig. 10). Rock A,
which is 50 feet long, 25 feet wide, and about 15 feet thick, is displaced
into the cave a distance of about eight feet. The summit of the west end of
rock A is approximately flush with the surface of the outer rockshelter; thus,
the debris found on its summit constitutes an extension of the outer rock-
shelter deposit. Midden trash composed of rushes, sticks, stones, and sand
covered the top of rock A and completely filled the crevice between it and
the west wall of the alcove, forming a mass of debris at least 35 feet deep.
The west alcove deposit was excavated in six-inch levels, beginning at
the north entrance and descending toward the upper part of the west crevice.
The surface deposit consisted of sand and stones, and from this stratum, at
a depth of six inches, came several interesting specimens, including a bullet
mold and some associated gun parts (pl. 15).
These specimens were examined by C. E. Hanson Jr. and we are indebted
to him for the following observations. According to Dr. Hanson (personal
communication, 1970), three of the parts are the sear, bridle, and main-
spring of a good quality percussion lock. Miscellaneous parts include a
long screw (possibly a tang screw to fasten the breech of a barrel to the
trigger plate). These parts were manufactured during the years 1830-1870,
most probably circa A.D. 1850. Dr. Hanson states that the bullet mold is a
cheap commercial mold made during the middle half of the nineteenth century.
The number "46" refers to the size of the bullet (46 balls to the pound or
about 45 caliber). The mold shows extensive use: the center pin has been
hammered to tighten the joint, and the cutting edges to trim balls show
extensive nicks and the ends of the handles have been sharpened to facili-
tate driving on wooden or horn handles. The ball is of the size which could
be used in an Indian trade rifle. The good quality parts and the worn tang
screw and bullet mold seem to suggest the presence in the cave of two separate
guns.
Another interesting specimen found in the west alcove (S15/Wl00, depth
36") was a pouch or "kit" made of fox skin which contained three awls, some
coiled vegetal fiber, and a piece of chert.
Beneath the recent surficial strata of sand and stones lay a quite re-
markable series of cultural strata, some of which consisted of inch-thick
layers of charred bulrush seeds (Scirpus cf. nevadensis and Scirpus robustus)
(fig. 20). Detailed examination of a sample containing thousands of these
charred seeds revealed that the seeds had not been burned as the result of a
general fir. in the strata, for intermixed with the burned seeds were twigs
and fragments of other materials that had not been burned. The evidence sug-
gests that these seeds were discarded in this area after having been charred
on seed roasting trays. Bulrush seed (Scirpus sp.) found in level 7 of this
unit (SIO/W95, depth seven inches) gave a radiocarbon age of A.D. 1430+95
(I-4672).  Fish bones, such as the bones of tui chub (Gila robustus) found in
the Lovelock coprolites (Follett 1967:93-116), were scarce in the burned de-
posit, although a few cui-ui bones (Chasmistes cujus) were found in the surface
sand lavers (W.I. Follett, this volume). Samples of a successive series of
15 of these strata were secured in 1968 and 1969 by Napton and P. Healy.      Five
of these s;amples have been processed by application of the micro-analytic
techniques used in the analysis of the Lovelock Cave coprolites (table 1).
These 15 discrete strata were superimposed on a deep deposit composed of
aeolian sand and pebble-sized fragments of rock scalings derived from the walls
and ceiling of the cave (fig. 20). The deposit is yellow in color, in marked
contrast to the dark organic layers superior to it, and is apparently devoid of
cultural material. The sand contained a large number of tiny bones probably
derived tram decomposed owl pellets. The bones include the remains of pocket
gophers. microtines and other rodents (Douglas, personal communication, 1970).
Table 1
Lovelock Cave,(NV-Ch-18) West Alcove, SlO/W95, Microanalysis and Composition
(estimated volumetric percentage) of Five Midden Samples
CZ  QG)                                         G)
r-4      Ca   co J)    C( 9c                         0     0
o              D4-J   '-4    0                      X
c>L X  ~   - XU X               U     CS 44       U     y    b
Ca LH             0 En X   4 ?                                     co X zm  P
>1Ca     C coc    0 0     4-j  4            5)         .4   -r4    Ca 0     0
S-6   WA             tr      tr       80     tr    tr          tr                tr     tr      20
S-7   WA              5               70     tr    tr     tr   tr    tr   tr              5     20
S-8   WA             tr      tr       60     tr    tr                tr                 tr      30
S-li WA                       tr      90           tr     tr   tr                       tr      10
S-15 WA              tr       tr      70     tr    tr     tr                            tr      25
29
In the spring of 1969, we excavated the deeper deposits in the west
alcove. Excavations were resumed at a depth of three feet below the surface,
in an area extending from the inclined summit of rock A to the back of the
cave, and thence downward into the west crevice (S20/W100). This test unit
was dug to a depth of 12 feet below the surface.9 The strata became pro-
gressively damper in the lower levels, but moisture had not seriously
effected preservation of perishable specimens such as coprolites, of which
more than 1500 were found. We attribute the large number of coprolites
found in the west alcove to the fact that the crevice at the back of the
alcove is the sort of place to which Homo sapiens characteristically re-
tires for such purposes. One hundred and thirty-five of the west alcove
coprolites have been analyzed at this writing. Two human coprolites from
this unit were dated by radiocarbon.   Coprolite WA-21, from a depth of 11
feet, S20/Wl00, has a radiocarbon age of A.D. 120+60 (UCLA-1459-A). Copro-
lite WA-20-A, found 12 feet below the surface in the same unit was processed
for comparison.   This specimen gave a date of A.D. 300+60 (UCLA-1459-B,
Berger, personal communication, 1969).
Three artifacts of more than routine interest were found in the deeper
deposits. A container made of bulrush culms was discovered tucked away in
the sand at the rear wall of the cave (S15/W100, depth 48", feature 6, pl. 16).
The tule parcel, which appears to contain a large quantity of loose bird
feathers, is unopened, pending special laboratory studies to be made of its
undisturbed contents.
The principal west alcove excavation units were located about eight feet
west of the nearly vertical "chimney" of the west crevice. We had by this
time constructed a bulkhead in the upper end of the west crevice in order to
give some protection to personnel working in the deep west end of the cave
some 35 feet below. The west alcove test penetrated the uppermost part of
the west crevice fill. All excavation was by troweling; the backdirt was
screened and was dumped inside the cave against the south wall of the alcove,
rather than being disposed of on the slope outside the cave--a common prac-
tice that has little to recommend it.   The cave earth, even though mixed,
could yield additional information.   Merely because the arrowshafts, coprolites,
basketry fragments and other materials have been removed does not thereby make
this earth valueless. It doubtless contains a great deal of material that
could provide additional information about ancient cultural practices. For
this reason we elected not to dump the spoildirt c itside the cave. Excavation
was discontinued at a depth of 14 feet beneath the original surface. At this
point the crevice had narrowed to a width of 16 inches, and the backdirt had
to be handled three times on the stepped levels ascending the slope of rock A.
East Alcove "EA" area Grid Location N40/W25
The east alcove of Lovelock Cave is approximately 25 feet east of UCB
datum B. The east alcove is part of the outer rockshelter, and is formed on
30
the axial plane of the hinge fold oriented roughly east-west along the face
of the cave outcrop. The east end of the alcove converges to form a narrow,
nearly vertical chimney or cleft.  The opposing faces of the rock walls, which
are well protected from weathering, support a deposit of tufa some four inches
thick. The exposed surfaces of the outer rockshelter are almost entirely de-
void of tufa. The presence of tufa in the east alcove suggests that the outer
rockshelter had assumed its present configuration prior to the last inundation
of the cave by Lake Lahontan. Samples of the east alcove tufa were taken for
radiometric dating.
Most of the floor of the east alcove is covered by large pieces of lime-
stone from the alcove roof. A few artifacts, including several wooden fire-
hearths (see Loud and Harrington 1929:96-97), were found in interstises of
the rubble in grid unit N40/W25.
An area on the east edge of the alcove produced at least one notable
artifact--a carved wooden grasshopper found in June, 1965 (Jones, Weaver and
Stross 1967:123-128). This specimen is said to have come from a crevice
located between the east alcove and the east abutment of the cave portal.
The locus of the find, as it was indicated to us by Mrs. Ethel Hesterlee of
Lovelock, is in grid unit N30/W20. The cave wall in this area is smoke-stained,
and it is evident that it is part of the original cave portal.
Miners Dump (Nl00/WlOO)
The last area examined by us in 1969 was the guano miners dump ("MD")
located on the hillside below the edge of the outer rockshelter. Part of
this mantle of debris had been screened earlier (see Clewlow 1968:89-101),
but the balance of the deposit had not been examined. The results of the
recent work are reported by Clewlow and Napton (this volume).
This concludes our summary of the 1968-1969 excavations in the interior
and outer rockshelter of Lovelock Cave. These data permit us to offer, as the
concluding section of this report, a tentative synthesis of the stratigraphy
and chronology of Lovelock Cave.
THE STRATIGRAPHY OF LOVELOCK CAVE
The discovery of an undisturbed remnant of midden or cultural material
under massive rock C in grid unit NSO/W35 and made available for the first time
abundant stratified materials that can be used for isotopic age determinations,
palynological analysis, particle-size fractionation, and other types of analyses.
The following synthesis of the stratigraphy of Lovelock Cave is based primarily
on data from the above location and from Harrington's excavations of 1924.
Figure 23 depicts a cross section of the cave along a transect designated
by us as section I-J, following Loud and Harrington (1929, pl. 2). The axis
31
of this section roughly parallels their reference line A-B, which describes
a transverse line NW to SW about 20 feet north of line I-J. The upper contact
surface of the white lacustrine deposit is used by us as a common reference
marker in the six enlarged cross-sections appearing in Figure 23. The deposits
found in the course of our excavations in Lovelock Cave are described below,
beginning with the uppermost layers.
Upper Guano Layer: We were unable to find any trace of the upper, or
"Later Guano" layer, which was the deposit mined in 1911, although some rem-
nants of it may exist under various rocks. This stratum, described by Hart
(Loud and Harrington 1929:168), is apparently not present under rock C, which
probably fell before the guano layer began to accumulate.
Midden Strata: The strata, from the surface of test unit NSO/W35 to the
abrupt contact with the buried surface of the "Older Guano", consist of several
discrete layers of midden trash interfingered by layers of sand, dust, and
rubble.  Unit NSO/W35 contains at least three discernible trash layers, each
of which could represent an occupation horizon. The vegetal component of these
strata is remarkably well preserved (pl. 12). Radiocarbon determinations were
made on several samples of this material (table 4).
Older Guano Layer: We have continued to employ Harrington's term for this
deposit in order to facilitate comparison of the stratigraphy of lot 15 and
other units in the cave. The Older Guano seems to have occurred throughout
the cave, except in the central part of the chamber, where it was removed by
the guano miners. The characteristics of the various organic samples are given
in Table 2.
Samples of the Older Guano layer were taken from the north profile of
grid unit NSO/W35 at two-inch intervals. The existing surface of this stra-
tigraphic unit is formed by a layer of rat nest material which accumulated
under rock C. Each sample of the stratified debris under rock C weighed
about 400 grams.
In the laboratory the samples were poured onto a large grid ruled in
centimeter squares, and the composition of each sample was estimated as a
volumetric percentage, using the same techniques employed in analysis of the
Lovelock Cave coprolites. The data given in Table 2 indicate that this
technique is useful in providing a rapid means of assessing the organic and
inorganic contents of the midden.   There are, of course, other techniques,
such as sieving and gravimetric quantification, that yield much more precise
data, and these procedures will be applied when larger samples of the test
unit are obtained in 1970.
32
Table 2
Composition (estimated volumetric percentage) of Sediment Samples
from Lovelock Cave and Radiocarbon Determinations, Grid Location NSO/W35,
Samples 64:1428 - 68:1466, Collected in 1969
(Approximate Weight 400 gms. per Sample)
'-4              U) ~~~~~~~~.dA
0            )                                       co
U   A   U       v-4  Q  0   U)      0                       4.4
0   wU  $4  '   9 -4  0  r0  0   .      4    4,             "4
Depth              '"4   0       0   0   U   0   0   0   P4  0   '"4 S
vept?4           <~L        <   c~ 4n HO    s    ra resid    ' at
(Inches)                     0 a  o          a    00  0  PM               0   0   $4
1 - 2                    tr   tr                     tr                  80   10
2 - 4             5      tr   tr                 tr  tr                  90    5
4 - 6            tr       5       tr             tr   1                  80    5
6 - 8             5      20   tr  tr                  3                  65   10      ***
66:1432 A.D. 440 (I-4629)
5     5                 tr
tr tr
tr     tr
tr     tr
tr     30      tr
66:1438 660 B.C. (1-4630)
tr
tr
30      tr
35 tr tr
10      tr
tr     tr
tr
tr tr tr
tr tr tr
tr tr tr
tr     tr tr   tr
tr     30 tr   tr
10     40 tr    5
tr     tr tr   tr
tr     tr      tr
68:1453   2320 B.C.
tr     tr tr   tr
tr     tr tr   tr
tr     tr tr   tr
tr     tr tr   tr
tr     tr tr   tr
tr     tr tr   tr
tr     tr tr   tr
tr tr tr
68:1464   2570 B.C.
tr     tr tr   tr
tr tr
tr
tr
tr
tr
tr
tra tr
20 tr
25 tr
15 tr
20 tr
10 tr
5 tr
tr tr
5 tr
90 tr
95 tr
(I-4632)
95 tr
95 tr
95 tr
90 tr
95 tr
95 tr
tr    95 tr
tr 95 tr
(I-4633)
tr 95 tr
tr 95 tr
tr 15 tr
tr
tr
tr
tr
tr
tr
tr
tr
tr
tr
tr
tr
tr
tr
tr
tr
90
90
90
90
60
tr
tr
tr
tr
tr
tr
tr
tr
tr
tr
tr
tr
tr
tr
tr
tr
tr
tr
tr
60
65
tr     80
70
70
80
tr     80
tr     90
90
tr     65
tr     25
tr     tr
tr     tr
tr
tr
tr
10
5
5
tr tr
tr
tr         tr
tr         tr
tr         80
*** = occupation level
a - owl pellet
b - cordage
c - net fragment
6
8 -10
10-12
12-14
14-16
16-18
19
18-20
20-22
22-24
24-26
26-28
28-30
30-32
32-34
34-36
36-38
38-40
40-42
42-44
43
44-46
46-48
48-50
50-52
52-54
54-56
56-58
58-60
60
60-62
62-64
64-66
tr
tr
5
5
5
tr
tr
5
5
5
5
tr
tr
5
5
tr
5
tr
tr
tr
tr
tr
tr
tr
tr
tr
tr
tr
05
b
tr
trc
trb
t
33
The guano layer is composed of fecal pellets deposited by cave-dwelling
bats. Guano layers are found in many of the archaeological cave sites in
the Great Basin, and the mere occurrence of these layers is often taken as
evidence in support of various conjectures (which ultimately become someone
elses' "facts") concerning supposed environmental alterations that might have
occurred in the vicinity of the site. The well preserved guano layer in
Lovelock Cave afforded a very good opportunity for us to attempt to deter-
mine the species of bat living in the cave, and its environmental and food
requirements.
A mummified bat (22:391) found in the guano has been identified as an
immature individual, probably two or three weeks old, of the genus Myotis cf.
yumanensis (Pearson, personal communication, 1970). Hair samples from the
"Older Guano" layer are from bats belonging to the cave dwelling genus
Tadarida cf. brasiliensis. (For information on generic identification of
bats by hair structure, consult Benedict[1957:285-548].   Background informa-
tion on the bats of Nevada will be found in Hall r1946:127-171) and Cockrum
and Musgrove [.1964:636-637] .) Dr. Pearson states that various species of
Myotis gather in warm caves in groups called "nursery colonies."   Myotis
yumanensis has a wide range, extending from Lake Tahoe down to the Colorado
River; therefore, its environmental constraints are not very specific. Dr.
Pearson states:
While both species would have needed water to drink
every day, even a small puddle is enough to water a large
number of bats. Neither Myotis or Tadarida require water
to breed insects for a food supply.
One might theorize that the bats colonized Lovelock Cave following
amelioration of ecological conditions in the immediate vicinity of the site.
It is essential to bear in mind the fact that Humboldt Lake, located about
two miles from the cave, could have been converted, in a matter of a few
years or even during a single year, from a desolate, wind-scoured playa totally
devoid of vegetation (p1. 1), to a comparatively lush, well-vegetated lacus-
trine environment of potentially high carrying capacity (pls. 17 and 18).
This transformation could have been achieved without drastic climatological
change, merely by maintenance, for a few consecutive seasons, of an adequate
water supply in Humboldt Lake, located 2.0 miles northwest of the cave (pls.
19, 20). It is possible that the lake was dehydrated during the Altithermal
(Antevs 1948). By Medithermal times, however, it might have rejuvenated suf-
ficiently to support a colonial growth of vegetation, and, eventually, an
extensive growth of hydrophytes and a large insect population, which in turn,
provided food for the bat population of the cave. Jennings (1957:92) has
advanced a similar explanation for the occurrence and development of the thin
guano layer in level III of Danger Cave. Leonard Rockshelter, not far north
of Lovelock Cave, contains a depositional layer attributed to the Altithermal
34
climate period of the Postglacial which is interpreted as reflecting a long
period of desiccation of Humboldt Lake (Heizer 1951:89-98).
It is true, of course, that many species of bats feed over water (Hall
1946:128-129) and it is likely that the older and later guano layers in Love-
lock Cave formed as a result of conditions such as those outlined above.
However, one of the most knowledgable students of the bats of Nevada pointed
out to us that the two largest known colonies of cave-dwelling bats now extant
in Nevada are located at least 50 miles from the nearest large body of water
(Alcorn, personal communication, 1969). This information does not, of course,
refute the possibility that the explanation given above is the correct one.
However, in an effort to resolve the problem we processed a large sample of
the older bat guano and isolated the insects that it contained. The insects
in the guano layer came from three sources: (1) insects ingested by the bats
and contained in fecal pellets; (2) insect parts that were not ingested, but
were dropped from the roost sites on the cave ceiling; and (3) bodies of various
insects that might have lived in the guano. The guano layer contained an incred-
ible quantity of insect remains, and it is of considerable interest to discover
that almost all of the insects deposited in the guano by the bats are desert-
dwelling, non-aquatic species (Chemsak, personal communication, 1970). Dr.
Chemsak states that very few of the insects represented species usually asso-
ciated with aquatic habitats.
Additional information on food habits of Nevada bats is given by Fautin
(1946:277), who counted the remains of 43 scorpions and 17 sand crickets which
had been consumed by bats (Antrozous pallidus) over three successive nights.
Hall (1946:152) examined food remains on the floor of charcoal kilns and found
insects, camel crickets, and elytra of Scarabaeid beetles. (See also Hatt 1923:
260-261.)
In summary, we can say that the development of the Older Guano layer and
the beginning of human occupation of the cave occurred at about the same time,
but the occurrence of guano layers in cave sites does not necessarily give
evidence of local or regional climatic alterations. Study of the insect parts
in the bat guano is continuing.
Ash Stratum: The ash stratum located between the older guano and the white
deposit probably resulted from charring of the guano, but additional study will
be needed to confirm this opinion.
White Deposit: We have quoted or cited most of the statements made by
Loud and Harrington (1929) in reference to the "lime" or "lacustrine" deposit
found beneath the cultural stratum of the cave. In his description of level 5
of lot 15, Harrington (1929:22) mentions the "white lacustrine deposit" forming
the bottom of the cave. Elsewhere (ibid:4,9,15, and 17), in referring to this
feature, it was his tacit assumption that the "white deposit" is lacustrine in
35
origin, probably consisting of sediment deposited by the receding waters of
Pleistocene Lake Lahontan.  If this is true, the white deposit was laid down
circa 12,000-10,000 years ago (Morrison 1965, table 1; fig. 4D, see also
Broecker and Kaufman 1965, table 1). Broecker and Orr (1958:1027) state:
Thus far no evidence for a major post-11,000 year
oscillation [of Lake Lahontan] has been found in the
sediment sections.
The strata above the white deposit were laid down in the last 6000 years,
if the isotopic dates of the guano strata are any criteria, indicating that
there is a disconformity of some 6000 years duration between the two layers,
if the lower white deposit does in fact refer to the recession of Lake Lahontan.
The surface of the white deposit dips toward the west end of the cave, and it
is difficult to believe that a deposit of lacustrine origin would assume an
incline tangential to the water surface level. The entire limestone unit con-
taining the cave could have been tilted by faulting. However, the Lahontan
shorelines above and below the cave are nearly horizontal.
The chemical composition of the white deposit has recently been estab-
lished by spectroscopic analysis of three samples, one each from the "AN"
area (SlO/W50, depth 76.4, sample No. 71:1503), "ME" area (S5/W10, depth
78.7, sample No. 22:400), and "WE" area (S35/W70, depth 69.0, sample No. 69-
1469). These samples were processed in the laboratories of the U.S. Geological
Survey, Menlo Park, California. The analyses demonstrate that the material
in question is mostly sodium chloride and potassium chloride, forming a mineral
commonly known as "halite" (Tatlock, personal communication, 1969), which is
usually formed by precipitation of minerals from standing water, or by cyclic
evaporation and rejuvenation of mineral-charged waters. There are large de-
posits of halite, anhydrites, and other evaporites on the surface of playas
near Lovelock Cave. Another occurrence of a halite-like deposit is in Danger
Cave, Utah (Jennings 1957:62,73-75,92-93) between levels II and III, the second
and third depositional units above level I, the basal strata of the cave.
Level II in Danger Cave has an isotopic age determination of 7839 B.C.+630
(C-6111); level III dates are 5150 B.C.+150 (GaK-1897) and 4620 B.C.+110 (GaK-
1901) (Jennings, personal communication, 1969). The level III dates in Danger
Cave are approximately concordant with the date of 4054 B.C.+250 (C-278) ob-
tained from the unburned guano layer situated immediately above the Lovelock
halite stratum. It may be mere coincidence that the dates are nearly synchro-
nous, but the chemical compositions of the halites from each cave are remarkably
similar (table 3).
Table 3
Chemical Analyses of Evaporites from Lovelock Cave, Nevada (NV-Ch-18)
Lovelock Cave
Evaporitea (S5/Wl0)
(64:1424)
C     0.51
H     0.29
Ca    8.8
S04   4.08
Cl    3.58
Danger Cave
Chemical Analyses oa
1950
Free H20           5.56    No
Insoluble acids   8.56     Ke
CaCO3             19.85    No
KCl                7.36    Me
NaCl              28.21    N
Na2SO4            18.09    N
NA2SO3             5.74    s
NaNo3               .374   Ct
P205                .34    MI
94.084c   Ci
C t
H.
0
0-
f Saltsb
a95Cd
aCl
.C 1
a2SO4
[gC 1
'aNO3
Ia2C03
1?2
aCO2
g9CO3
e203
a3 (PO4)2
.20
Organic
(Soluble)
rganic
(Insoluble)
Analysis by H. Rapoport, Department of
After Jennings (1957, Table 9).
Balance was probably water and organic
A 1953 sample virtually duplicated the
Chemistry, U.C.B.
matter.
1951 specimen.
The "Salts" in Danger Cave did not uniformly overlie the level II strata,
but occurred as a small "dike" or discrete member near the cave entrance.
Jennings believed that the salts resulted from alternate periods of wet and
dry conditions perhaps produced by sheetwash or groundwater which entered the
cave, ponded, and eventually evaporated.   We believe that the evaporites in
Lovelock Cave probably had a similar origin. This deposit should be explored
to a sufficient depth to expose the limestone bed of the cave.8
21.42
6.42
13.75
1.04
1.73
10.19
7.96
18.74
2.11
1.95
1.05
5.78
4.70
.40
99.72
a .
b.
c.
d.
37
CONCLUSIONS
Hypothetical Sequence of Events in Lovelock Cave
The massive bed of Jurassic limestone in which Lovelock Cave is situated
has been subjected to a variety of seismic and tectonic forces, including
severe local folding and extensive erosion produced by wave action of
Pleistocene Lake Lahontan. The collective effects of these forces has brought
the cave to its present configuration. Some of these events, although very
recent in terms of the geological time scale, have drastically effected human
occupation of the cave. The hypothetical sequence of some of these events is
outlined in the following section.
In our introductory comments we stated that the earliest geological event
of immediate concern in studying the archaeology of Lovelock Cave is the ini-
tial development of the cave in a massive unit of Jurassic limestone. Dr. R.C.
Speed (personal communication, 1970) has suggested that the cave was formed as
an opening between a flexed upper unit which was thrust over unflexed subjacent
strata. It is possible that the hinge region was strongly strained or frac-
tured; therefore, the exposed hinge region was rapidly eroded by Lake Lahontan.
L. L. Loud (1929:30) states that the cave was located just above the
Dentritic terrace of Lake Lahontan (see Russell 1885), and asserts that at one
time the cave was "perhaps a hundred feet high". This is doubtful in view of
the geomorphology of the site, but at the same time it is evident that wave
action played a major part in its formation. Strand lines are visible both
above and below the cave.
Tufa layers occur both inside and outside the cave (fig. 5, event 1).
The tufa deposits inside the cave were not mentioned by previous investigators.
The west end of the cave, which is more stable and is less subject to shearing
than the roof of the east end, still supports a deposit of tufa eight to ten
inches thick, and the opposing faces of some of the vertical fissures in the
ceiling of the east end of the cave are covered with tufa. Much of the tufa
deposit inside the cave has been destroyed by collapse of the cave ceiling.
Large slabs of limestone with adhering tufa must lie buried in or beneath the
white deposit in the east end of the cave.
Not long after Lake Lahontan finally withdrew below the level of Love-
lock Cave, a huge block of limestone detached from the cave roof near the
portal and fell into the west end of the cave. This block (fig. 5, event II,
rock A) is some 50 feet long, 25 feet wide and 15 feet thick. Excavation
demonstrated that the outer surface of the rock, which once formed part of the
overhanging cliff above the cave portal, bears the weathered remnants of tufa,
but nearly all traces of tufa have long since been eroded away from the cliff
above the fallen rock. The west end of rock A is situated in such a way as to
38
form two important features of the cave: a discrete chamber or "alcove" in the
upper west end of the cave, and the "west crevice," the narrow, constructed
passage between rock A and the west wall of the cave (fig. 10). Both of these
features contain cave debris of various kinds, including twigs, grass, aeolian
sand, and roof scalings. Harrington (1929:17-18) found several artifacts and
some human bones under the inner edge of rock A inside the cave, but these
specimens surely were cached after the rock fell, rather than having formed part
of an old midden deposit that had been laid down before the rock fell. The
underside of this monolith is free of smoke-stain and cave varnish, the absence
of which is important, in view of the fact that a thick deposit of hydrocarbons
occurs on the undersides of rocks B and C in the northeast end of the cave.
It is possible that the initial occupation of the cave began soon after
the fall of rock A. The central and east end of the cave remained open, with
an estimated floor-to-ceiling clearance of at least 15 feet and a proscenium
some 50 feet long, extending from the east end of rock A to the solid rock abut-
ment at the east end of the cave portal (fig. 5, event II).
The depositional occurrences of "Event II" are as yet almost wholly un-
known, and can be revealed only by extensive deep-probing tests of the white
evaporite deposit. We do not know what kind of strata occur under the evaporite,
nor do we know why the water-formed evaporite deposition ceased, to be succeeded
by the older guano deposit, unless this occurrence represents the last recession
of Lake Lahontan. It is possible that a temporal discontinuity of considerable
magnitude is indicated between cessation of evaporite deposition and the begin-
ning of guano accumulation. On the other hand, there may be no disconformity,
but the problem cannot be settled without further excavation of the evaporite
deposit.
The cave was occupied by bats at a date coinciding with the estimated end
of the Altithermal (Antevs 1948), perhaps as a direct result of rejuvenation
of Humboldt Lake. The problem could be investigated by study of an extensive
series of core samples taken from the bed of Humboldt Lake. The initial buildup
of the older bat guano layer may have begun circa 5000 B.C. A radiocarbon date
(C-278), obtained in 1948 by solid carbon analysis, indicates that the lower part
of the layer had begun to accumulate at least by 4000 B.C. (table 4).
*I'%  --
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40
Notes to Table 4
*    Original sample identification number not given.
**   The apparent inversion of the ages of NSO/W35 sample 64 and NSO/W35 sample
60 is due to an error made in recording depths when the samples were collected;
however, both samples are from the same stratigraphic component of the Older
Guano layer; depth about 60 inches below the surface of the test unit.
*** Mummy found in Pit No. 35 (Loud and Harrington 1929:16).
The earliest evidence of human occupation that we have found up to the
present time occurs in the Older Guano layer, age circa 2700 B.C.; however, at
this time the cave was only intermittently occupied by man. Bats and other
creatures continued to inhabit the cave until about 2500 B.C., when human occu-
pation increased. We do not know why the cave suddenly (as it seems) became
such a popular occupation site, circa 1500 B.C. One of the inhumations on the
Humboldt Lake site (NV-Ch-15) has been dated at 733 B.C.+250 (M-649), so it is
evident that the lakeshore was occupied at this time, but, as in the case of
Lovelock Cave, we do not know the reason for the dramatic increase in occupation
of this site.10 It is evident that the fluctuations of human occupation of the
cave and lakeside sites probably coincided with the oscillations of Humboldt
Lake.
By the time of Event III (fig. 6), a considerable deposit of cultural
material began to accumulate above the Older Guano. According to Harrington
(1929), the midden deposits were 10 to 15 feet thick in the west end of the
cave. We believe that intensive occupation of the cave began circa 1500 B.C.
and continued until about A.D. 500. At this time, certainly no earlier, oc-
curred Event IV (fig. 6), a massive rockfall probably triggered, as Harrington
(1929:120) remarks, by some forgotten earthquake. Five or six extremely large
blocks of limestone were dislodged from the ceiling of the cave and crashed
down upon the occupational refuse left by the Indians. One hopes that no one
was in residence in the cave at that exact moment. We say this charitably,
because the value of any human casualties as subjects for paleopathological
study would be considerably diminished by the impact of several tons of lime-
stone. The nether side of rock C is thoroughly smokestained. The approximate
date of the rockfall (A.D. 440+90) is indicated by radiocarbon sample I-4629,
but this date is obtained from vegetal material that had accumulated prior to
the rockfall. The exact date of the rockfall probably can be determined by
isotopic analysis of samples taken from the impacted vegetal debris under rock
C.  It is likely that rocks B. C, and D fell at the same time. All are smoke-
stained; all came from the same shear-zone; all rest directly on masses of
occupational debris. The east and central part of the cave portal was gradually
being reduced in height by the slow accumulation of occupational trash and other
41
cave debris, but prior to the Event IV rockfall the entrance was probably
wider, and part of the human activity in the cave probably took place in
this area.
The massive rockfall of Event IV (fig. 6) wrought great changes in the
cave. Rocks B and C virtually sealed the cave portal, restricting access to
the interior of the cave to a narrow, slanted cleft between rocks A and B.
It is possible to theorize that since access to the interior of the cave was
greatly impeded by the rockfall, the Indians began to occupy the outer rock-
shelter (fig. 7, event V). The interior of the nearly closed cave was quite
dark, particularly in the center and east end of the chamber, but the site
continued to be used as a repository for the dead and for caching valued
articles.11 Human occupation of the interior of the cave was drastically
curtailed, and this, together with reduced illumination and air circulation,
made it all the more attractive as a dwelling place for bats. Thus, between
A.D. 700 and A.D. 1911, a thick deposit of bat guano accumulated over the
cultural deposits, reaching, according to Hart (1929:168), depths of four to
six feet. Human occupation of the outer rockshelter and infrequent use of the
cave interior probably continued, if we correctly interpret the results of our
recent excavations, until 1829, when Peter Skene Ogden and his comrades, the
first white men to explore the lower reaches of the Humboldt River, arrived at
Humboldt Lake, signalling the beginning of the end of the long history of
exclusive Indian occupation of the lakeshore open-air and cave sites.
The date of abandonment of Lovelock Cave can probably be estimated, but
it is difficult to do this because of the lack of post-contact European goods
in the cave midden. The apparent absence of post-contact goods in the arti-
fact inventory of this site has contributed to the widely-held belief that the
cave was abandoned prior to 1829, when Ogden and his party reached Humboldt
Lake (Cline 1963)." However, in 1833, near Humboldt Lake, members of the Bonne-
ville-Walker expedition encountered a large group of Indians--33 of whom were
slaughtered as a punitive measure. The following year, on their return trip
from California, members of the same expedition killed another 14 Indians,
setting the stage for long-term Indian-white hostilities."
These events, augmented by the rapid westward spread of disease in 1849,
led to abandonment of the lakeshore sites (Hopkins 1883; Scott 1966). By
1849, of course, the Big Meadows northeast of Lovelock Cave had become a
staging area for the California-bound emigrants, prior to their trek across
the dreaded Forty-mile Desert that lay west of the Humboldt Sink. In 1869,
less than 40 years after the first exploration of the valley, permanent set-
tlers took up residence near the town of Lovelock. A few Indians continued to
camp near the lake (Loud 1929:152-164), and to the present day a small "colony"
of Northern Paiute live in the town of Lovelock--the last remnant of the once
large Indian population of the valley (Heizer n.d.).
It would appear, on the basis of the evidence now at hand, that Lovelock
Cave was not totally abandoned circa A.D. 900, as Grosscup (1960:12) suggested,
but was visited until as late as 1829, and perhaps until as late as 1849, al-
though there is no firm evidence for use of the cave at that late date. The
gun parts found in the west alcove of the cave suggest late use of the site,
but additional evidence has not been found--or has never been reported. We
allude to the fact that when Loud catalogued the first of his finds in Love-
lock Cave (Lowie Museum accession No. 443), he recorded three pieces of "white
man's cloth" found in lots 6, 8, and 11. These specimens may be merely scraps
of material left by the guano miners who quit the cave a few months prior to
Loud's arrival.  However, the wording used by Loud would seem to imply that
the cloth might have been used by the Indians. The specimens have not been
located for study.   In any case, the fact remains that there is virtually no
evidence of post-contact occupation in either the cave or the outer rockshelter.
Accounts of the emigrant travel across the Forty-mile Desert describe the
incredible litter of abandoned goods that had been strewn along the route.
The remains of this debris can still be found, 120 years later, on the lakebed
near site NV-Ch-15.   If the cave were in use after 1849, when the bounty of
abandoned goods became available to the Indians, it is likely that some of this
material would have been retrieved by the Indians and cached in the cave. That
such evidence has not been found in Lovelock Cave is probably a very good indi-
cation of the fact that the site had been abandoned prior to 1849. In this
connection, Stewart (1939:139) states of the Kupadokado band who occupied the
Humboldt Sink region:
This band, being along the old immigrant road, was one of the
first Northern Paiute groups to feel the disasterous effects
of Caucasian contact. It was in the Kupa territory that mem-
bers of Walker's exploring party (1834) shot an Indian for the
fun of seeing him fall, an event that was followed by a battle
in which more than twenty others were slaughtered. Since the
early contact proved so calamitous, the Indians soon left
Humboldt Meadows to the immigrants. Consequently, later travel-
ers reported few or no Indians there for a number of years.
It is probable that the area was abandoned by the Northern Paiute as a
result of a combination of circumstances (see Cowan 1967:21-35). We suggest
1835 as the terminal date of Lovelock occupation.
Event VI occurred in 1911, when Hart and Pugh began mining the guano depo-
sits (fig. 7). Events VII and VIII are Loud's excavations in 1912 and Harring-
ton's work in 1924 (fig. 8, events VII, VIII).
Lovelock Cave and Humboldt Valley Sites
One of the most important aspects of Lovelock Cave, but one of the least
emphasized in most of the early publications, is the relationship of the cave
43
to the several large open-air occupation sites that occur along the former
shore of Humboldt Lake (Loud 1929:129-133; Elsasser 1968:26-51). It has
been our opinion (Heizer and Krieger 1956; Heizer and Clewlow 1968:59-88;
Napton 1969:28-97) that one of the largest of the lakeshore sites (Loud's
site 15, now NV-Ch-15, commonly known as the Humboldt Lakebed site, located
some 2.0 miles northwest of the cave at an elevation of approximately 3900
feet) was occupied during a span of time roughly coeval to the occupational
span evidenced at Lovelock Cave. The extent and former importance of the
Humboldt Lakebed site has never been demonstrated adequately. Loud (1929:132)
devotes a single paragraph to descriptions of this site and the other Hum-
boldt Valley sites which he examined.
Recently, having completed extensive re-investigation of these sites, we
have suggested that Lovelock Cave may have been more or less ancillary to the
Humboldt Lakebed site. The elucidation of the relationship of NV-Ch-15--with
its numerous house and storage pits, hundreds of milling implements, and
thousands of projectile points--and Lovelock Cave, which lacks significant
quantities of milling implements and other lithic materials, is of great im-
portance in the broad picture of human occupation of the Desert West. If
Lovelock Cave is a satellite of a larger, nearby, open-air site, perhaps other
Great Basin caves that have been treated as discrete manifestations should be
viewed in terms of their possible association with adjacent open-air occupa-
tion sites.
If we suggest that the occupants or users of Lovelock Cave were also
residents of the lakebed sites, it is of course necessary to demonstrate this
by means of the available evidence. The comparable radiocarbon dates of
specimens from NV-Ch-15 and NV-Ch-18 furnish an important clue (see note 10),
but we believe that the most obvious evidence pointing to the relationship
between the lakeshore and cave sites is the fact that the caves contain great
quantities of materials such as bulrush, cattails, remains of mudhens, fish,
etc., which could have been obtained only at the lake. The famous decoys
found by Harrington (1929:12-31;114) could have been used on the lake, of
course, and the same is true of the fishnets, fishhooks, and other artifacts
used in exploitation of lacustrine resources.
Lovelock Cave has long been known for the well-preserved materials that
it contained. Many specimens found in the cave were obviously worn-out dis-
cards, but a tremendous number of functional artifacts were found in cache
pits dug in the cave midden. The enormous mass of artifacts from Lovelock
Cave, probably amounting to more than 20,000 specimens, is an impressive col-
lection. However, in examining the cave midden, we are equally impressed with
what is not present. Absent, or nearly so, are the ash lenses that are almost
invariably found in large rockshelters and caves, absent also are large amounts
of flint debitage, discarded bones of large fauna, and many other kinds of
debris that were usually produced in the course of daily living in prehistoric
Great Basin occupation sites. The cave might have been used seasonally, or
44
as a cold weather retreat, or in spring, during periods when the lakebed sites
were flooded (see Napton 1969:28-97).
In short, there are enough anomalies in the Lovelock Cave occupational
debris to suggest that part of the daily human activity that usually occurred
in this type of Great Basin occupation site probably took place at some other
location--most probably at the lakeshore villages.
Summary
Recent excavations in Lovelock Cave, Nevada (NV-Ch-18) were made to obtain
additional human coprolites and archaeological data that would provide, for
coprolite data previously published and for the new data appearing in this
volume, a well-defined frame of reference. The excavations led to the recovery
of materials that have provided the oldest radiocarbon date of culturally asso-
ciated vegetal material--2740 B.C.+llO (I-3962)--and the earliest absolute
cultural dates: 1450 B.C.+80 (UCLA-1459-C) and 1420 B.C.+100 (I-4758), based
on radiocarbon determinations of human remains. A series of internally consis-
tent radiocarbon determinations was produced by analysis of samples taken from
one of the last existing remnants of the original cave midden.
Recent occupation of the site is evidenced by additional finds of Desert
Side-notched and Rose Spring Corner-notched points. Possible post-contact
occu-ation is indicated by gun parts found in the hitherto unexcavated west
alcove of the outer rockshelter.  Thus, the known occupational history of the
cave has been extended to include the time from circa 2500 B.C. to circa A.D.
1835. New geological information clarifies the tectonic development of the
cave and the composition of the deepest non-cultural strata in the cave. Eco-
logical studies made in conjunction with the excavations have been helpful in
reconstructing the vegetational and faunal subsistence resources exploited by
the prehistoric inhabitants of the cave.
We have summarized the history of excavations in Lovelock Cave and have
discussed the important relationship between Lovelock Cave and the Humboldt
lakebed archaeological sites. The full significance of this relationship will
be investigated during the course of further fieldwork in the lower Humboldt
Valley.
45
Notes
1. The latitude and longitude coordinates given here are based on
observations made in the fall of 1969.
2. Tufa is calcium carbonate (CaCO3) formed as an incrustation on the
shore of most of the Pleistocene Great Basin lakes.
3. Between 1912 and 1924 N.C. Nelson had (in 1916) at Tano, New Mexico,
presented American archaeologists with the archaeological principle of stra-
tigraphy. Harrington, and other workers such as A. V. Kidder and L. Spier,
learned the lesson of how to trace cultural change by stratigraphic digging.
It was this principle, unknown to Loud in 1912, which Harrington applied in
1924.
4. The date of radiocarbon sample C-735, which is 1218 B.C.+260, was ori-
ginally calculated by taking the date A.D. 1954 as "present." By accepted
convention (Deevey, Flint, and Rouse 1967), the year A.D. 1950 is arbitrarily
assumed to be the "present" date, so the date of sample C-735 would actually
be 1222 B.C., if it is to agree with the other dates given in Table 4. How-
ever, the figure 1218 B.C. is entrenched in the literature, and to avoid addi-
tional confusion we must continue to use it here.
5. The emulsion of these negatives is supported on a base of highly
inflammable cellulose nitrate. Most of these negatives have been copied in
order to minimize the possibility of their loss through combustion (Guadagno,
personal communication, 1969).
6. There are at least 556 Lovelock specimens in the Heye Foundation
collections, but only a few of these are of known stratigraphic provenience.
7. Grosscup (1960:1) gives the elevation of Lovelock Cave as "4240+20
feet above sea level," but he does not state how this figure was determined.
Napton and Heizer (1969:i) and Heizer and Napton (1969:563-568) give the ele-
vation of the cave as 4240 feet, an estimate based on the apparent elevation
indicated on the U.S.G.S. Carson Sink quadrangle map, 15' series, 1951. The
common corner of sections 1, 2, 11, and 12, T24N, R30W, located about one mile
northwest of the cave, which was located by the U.S.G.S. field survey, is
given as 3941 feet. The cave entrance is about 350 feet higher than the sur-
face of Humboldt Lake (3889 feet).
8. This project is scheduled for June, 1970.
9. The depth scale is marked on the west wall of the west alcove.
46
10. The date of 733 B.C.+250 (M-649) is based on carbonized twined bas-
ketry fragments from a burial pit on the Humboldt Lakebed site (NV-Ch-15),
collected in 1956. Another storage pit on the Humboldt Lakebed site is dated
A.D. 1400+60 (UCLA-1071-A, Berger, personal communication, 1968).
Charcoal from an unexcavated housepit at NV-Pe-67 gave a date of A.D.
1630+50 (UCLA-1071-D, Berger, personal communication, 1968). We are reluc-
tant to place too much confidence in the isolated radiocarbon date of 733 B.C.
+250 (M-649), since the only other date from the Humboldt Lakebed site (A.D.
1400) is considerably later.
11. The area that had been covered by rocks B and C, located just inside
the cave portal, should contain evidence of domestic activity preceding the
rockfall, but probably few inhumations, which, one would imagine, would have
been made in the less-used east and west ends of the cave or at the back of the
cave in the crevice between the midden deposit and the cave wall. After the
Event IV rockfall, however, this part of the cave was a dark, out-of-the-way
area; therefore, the duck decoys cached in pit 12 and the inhumation in pit 46
probably post-date the Event IV rockfall (see fig. 7).
47
Explanation of Figures
Figure 1.
Figure 2.
Figure 3.
Figure 4.
Figure 5.
The Great Basin region and Nevada. Danger Cave, in western Utah,
is located a short distance from the Humboldt River Basin in Nevada.
Principal archaeological sites in the Lovelock Sub-Basin, lower
Humboldt River Valley, Nevada. Area of map is inset, lower right.
Geological map of a section of the West Humboldt Range, western
Nevada, from data prepared by R. C. Speed and R. Willden. Lovelock
Cave is situated in unit Jal, a Jurassic limestone outcropping dis-
continuously along the north face of the range.
Simplified schematic diagram of the tectonic development of Lovelock
Cave in limestone unit Jal, West Humboldt Range, Churchill County,
Nevada. The cave chamber is formed between flexed unit Jal and an
unflexed substrate. The cavern is exposed in the fractured hinge
fold. Tertiary colluvium covers the lower part of the limestone unit.
Lovelock Cave, hypothetical development. Event I: The cave is
exposed (as in fig. 4), wavecut, and tufa is deposited. The hatchure
denotes existing layers of tufa. Presumably, the evaporite deposit
is laid down in the cave during this time.
Event II: Massive rock A falls in the west end of the cave; the
cave is open to occupation by terrestrial fauna. Gauno begins to
accumulate; initial human occupation occurs in the west end of the
cave.
Event III:   Principal period of human occupation
beginning circa 2000 B.C. Minor rockfalls, much
local fauna, continuing until A.D. 500.
of Lovelock Cave,
use of the cave by
Event IV: Massive rockfall (seismic activity?) closes part of cave
entrance, restricts access to passage between rocks A, B. and C.
Rockfall between rocks C, F, and G (indicated by dotted line) was
dynamited by guano miners in 1911.
Event V: Rate of deposition of occupational litter in the interior
of the cave is reduced as human occupation shifts to the outer
rockshelter. Interior of the cave used as repository for the dead
(pit 46) and for storage of valuables (decoys, pit 12). "Later
Guano" layer accumulates in the interior of the closed cave.
Event VI: Guano mining, A.D. 1911. Tunnel (indicated by broken
lines) is driven through rockfall. Stipple indicates extent of
removal of "Later Guano" deposit. Note "ramp" left by guano miners.
This feature was excavated by Harrington in 1924.
Figure 6.
Figure 7.
Event VII: Excavations in Lovelock Cave, Nevada by Llewellyn L.
Loud (after Grosscup 1960, fig. 2). Note the lateral extent of
lots 9 and 38.  The location of lots 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 15, 20, 21,
and 24 were omitted on all known maps of the cave prepared by Loud.
Event VIII: Excavations in Lovelock Cave, Nevada in 1924 by M. R.
Harrington and L. L. Loud, sponsored by the Museum of the American
Indian, Heye Foundation, New York. Cache pits recognized by
Harrington are indicated by dots, burials by squares.
Figure 9.
Figure 10.
Figure 11.
Figure 12.
Event IX: Excavations in Lovelock Cave, Nevada, 1968-1969, by Uni-
-versity of California field parties supervised by R. F. Heizer and
L. K. Napton. Grid orientation is magnetic north. The principal
datums (UCB-A; UCB-B) are indicated. Contour interval is one foot.
Interpretive isometric projection of Lovelock Cave indicating approx-
imate location of major rocks A-H, test units of 1968-69, and other
features of importance. The drawing is not to scale.
Lovelock Cave, Nevada (NV-Ch-18), "LX" area and massive rock C.
Grid location NSO/W35 is indicated under rock C.
Lovelock Cave, Nevada (NV-Ch-18),cross section, grid unit NSO/W40
and rock C. The sketch depicts the "hinge-effect" fracture of rock
C, which detached from the cave roof and rests on the underlying
midden debris. The approximate of the outer rockshelter deposit,
excavated by Harrington in 1924, is indicated in the upper right
corner.
Figure 13. (See Explanation of Plates, pl. 12.)
Figure 14.
Figure 15.
Figure 16.
Lovelock Cave, Nevada (NV-Ch-18), location NSO/W35. Graphic pro-
jection of radiocarbon date determinations plotted against chronology
and stratigraphy. The exponential curve indicates that a sample of
organic debris from 30 inches below the surface in this part of the
cave might date circa 1600 B.C.
Lovelock Cave, Nevada (NV-Ch-18), section showing pits 9 and 10.
(Loud and Harrington 1929, fig. 3). The sketch depicts, in an
idealized cross-section, the north profile of the midden deposit
near massive rock E.
Lovelock Cave, Nevada (NV-Ch-18), "LX" area, NSO/W30, west and north
profiles, showing location and shape of empty cache pit No. 49
(feature No. 1).
Figure 8.
Figure 17.
Lovelock Cave, Nevada (NV-Ch-18), unit NSO/W35, hardpacked"floor"
on the surface of the Older Guano layer, depth 41 to 43 inches.
Figure 18.
Lovelock Cave, Nevada (NV-Ch-18),
view west. Note the relationship
vice and the slope under rock B.
"AN" area, SlO/W50, unit profile,
of the "Entrance" coprolite cre-
Figure 19. Lovelock Cave, Nevada (NV-Ch-18), "AN" area, SlO/W50, north profile.
Figure 20.
Figure 21.
Figure 22.
Figure 23.
Lovelock Cave, Nevada (NV-Ch-18), "WA" area, SlO/W95, upper level,
stratigraphic profile. View north, surface to 18 inches below the
surface. Bulrush seed from Layer III provided a radiocarbon date
of A.D. 1430+95 I-4672).
Lovelock Cave, Nevada (NV-Ch-18), "EE" area, N25/E25, contact of
tufa layer and evaporite stratum. View east.
Lovelock Cave, Nevada (NV-Ch-18). Reported or observed occurrences
of white evaporite deposit, showing source of samples used in chemi-
cal analyses.
Lovelock Cave, Nevada (NV-Ch-18). Stratigraphic schematic profile
of cave deposit with cross sections of test units and sources of radio-
carbon samples collected between 1948 and 1969. The "culture-chrono-
logy" of the cave, as proposed by Grosscup (1960) and Loud and Harring-
ton (1929) is indicated on the left hand side of the diagram.
50
IDAHO
HOGUP
CAVE*
iER
E
CALIFORNIA
0    50    100
SCALE IN MILES
N EVAD A
Figure 1. Location of Lovelock Cave (NV-Ch-18), Nevada
51
LOVELOCK SUB- BASIN
HUMBOLDT RIVER BASIN SURVEY
HUMBOLDT, PERSHING a CHURCHILL COUNTIES, NEVADA
+         8   ,       ___
SCALE I 9  "76o1
1X )P SHING CO
C,
2
-JA.
o        Sub-8osru Boundouy
ax~~~~~~~~Y
E    m    Wolersfte  Boudovz
_I
HUMBOLDT CO.-
PtERSHING CO
/1  IV       Cl
PERSHING CO.
CHURCHILL CO.
IHURCNILL CO.
LOCATION MAP
Figure 2. Lovelock Sub-Basin, Nevada, showing location
of Lovelock Cave and the Humboldt Lakebed site (NV-Ch-15)
-
a I
I
I
4
52
Figure 3: Geology of the vicinity of Lovelock Cave (NV-Ch-18),
Nevada, showing portion of the West Humboldt Range.
(Data from Speed and Willden n.d.).
Figure 4: Structural geology of Lovelock Cave. Interpretation
by the author, based on observations made by R.C. Speed.
S
N
FLEX
JURASSIC (JAL)
53
Figure 5: Lovelock Cave, Events I and II. Cave chamber exposed,
wave erosion; tufa layers formed. _______ = Existing tufa
Figure 5: Event II. Rock A detached from cave ceiling, Older
Guano deposition, initial occupation.         -        Ocai
'?2 .  = Occupation
/ \ '% = Guano deposi t
9                9               9    9          1
9       .9        9       9      9'              *     ,
9     9        9
9    9           9.
.99                        9,                  9      4
S * p*
'9                      p             ,
p        *                                   I
     S                         99'                    I'
I                     I      *
4
' ,
*                 9               99     9
*     p                9
*                 9                    0
9     9
9          9       99         9
*           9     V    .   *      ,
9           9               9
*        9    9             9   4     99
9        9                          9       9    -
*   9          99           9
9  9       9       9  9                 9  9
Figure 6:
occupation
Lovelock Cave, Event III. Principal period of human
of cave, beginning circa 2000 B.C. Rockfalls occur.
- - ---= Main occupation
Figure 6: Lovelock Cave, Event IV. Massive rockfall, rocks
B,C,D,E,G. Rock indicated by dotted line blasted by
guano miners in 1911.                 -   Rock rubble
54
55
Figure 7: Lovelock Cave, Event V, circa A.D. 500. Human
occupation shifts to outer rockshelter. "Later Guano"
accumulates in interior of cave.
= Occupation
Figure 7:   Event VI, A.D. 1911.   Guano miners construct tunnel
(indicated by dotted lines). Major part of cave deposit mined for
guano.  Note "ramp" left by miners.                     = Guano area
excavations
Figure 8. Lovelock Cave, Event VII. A.D. 1912, Excavations in
cave by L.L. Loud (after Grosscup 1960, Figure 2). Note
the lateral extent of lots near entrance rockfall.
Figure 8. Lovelock Cave, Event VIII. A.D. 1924. Excavations in
cave by M.R. Harrington and L.L. Loud. Cache pits recognized by
Harrington are indicated by black dots.        0 = Cache pits
l
57
I,-     ELEVATION
+        GRID U NIT CORI
A     ~REFERENCE POI
^      ~DAT UM
- -{ ROCK FALL
CONTOUR INTERVAL ONE FOOT
0   5   10     20
SCAL E -F EET
C AV E
(NV-Ch-18)
LEGE ND
NER
IINT
LOVE LO CK
58
/ -P
K.0'-tiS/.: Io
J   Kl'7
VII~~~~~
lb-:o X  r
'  /1-,/l~sl    1-11'
1,           1~          ! '',
l~~~ 7;S~~ -        lJ
Figure 10: Lovelock Cave, interpretation to illustrate
stratigraphy and relation of cave features.
iq    ---   -           - ---  -                                                                           -I%-         -%    - W - op- 01- -0
 -   f     f                                               I
it~~~~~~~~~~,i
W
-4
F
XIk
Nx
Figure 11: Lovelock Cave, NSO/W35; NSO/W40.
I
1      /
jI
JI
h i
1i -,%  .7^ r
"Oe
-1
ppp--
711
I  .,
411.1, . .
; O..
;
 to
i.
2.16
,
11
60
i
Six fe et
C
Hard packed
0
91
NV'Ch-1 8
Figure 12: Lovelock Cave (NV-Ch-18) NSO/W40 and rock C, view
west showing hinge displacement of rock C, which is resting
on midden deposit.
pool'
Midden
Guano
Midden
Midden
"Floor"
Guano
Midden
Insects
A.D. 40 ( I-4629) -6"
660 B*C* (I-4630) -19"
2030 B.C. (I-4631) -361*
2320 B.C. (1-4632) -43"
2570 B.C. (I-4633) -60"
2480 B.C. (I-4634) -64"
Figure 13: Lovelock Cave (NV-Ch-18) NSO/W35, depth 6-64",
general stratigraphy and radiocarbon determinations.
61
I
I
62
Figure 14: Graph of radiocarbon determinations,
NSO/W35, Lovelock Cave, Nevada
63
w             - - E
I
i
0
Scale in feet
3
Figure 15. Lovelock Cave section showing Pits 9 and 10
(From Loud and Harrington 1929, Fig. 3)
4
A    a                  a                                     A
I
64
Figure 16: Lovelock Cave, NSO/W30, 1968 test unit.
Figure 17:
Lovelock Cave, NS0/W35, plan view, hard packed
surface of Older Guano, depth 41-43't.
65
Figure 18: Lovelock Cave, SlO/W50, west profile showing
excavations in 1968.
Figure 19:
Lovelock Cave, SlO/W50, plan view,
excavations of 1968-69.
a1)
u
Cu
4-4
II
Cu'
U
0
11
,-
.,,
0
Cl)
0
0
T4
3)
a)
-,4
'H
'H
0
cn
a)
co
'0
I
0
0
0
ri
0
coJ                      0
Q)                     En~
o-                      b
Cl)
Q)
-0
0
I,
U,
-od
c0
- to
Cl)
Lovelock Cave, WA area, SIO/W95, west profile.
66
j
I
11
I
I
1
4
1
I
) V-
7
f
c
c
p
V-
N
p
I
I
I
I
1
4
4
1
)I
I
Ii
Figure 20:
Figure 21: Lovelock Cave, N25/E25, contact of tufa and
evaporite stratum.
Figure 22: Lovelock Cave, occurrence of evaporite stratum,
plan view. Samples obtained from sites indicated by dots.
I l
?,<0'~~~~~~~~~~~~
'%
IA       I
1439
Stones
-Aso'h
1811
% Grass-.- A
AD 268
gusheNs%
4811
AD 300
7211        AD 120
I
4uj"J-L-


M.-
I
Later
I
0
I
-   .0    I  I
6
ft
~ -      -1^
Now~
0
. , *I
66,0   a . oA
*'a#
.   ,  ,   ;.,fo   .
lb
a ll    0
'O  .:,   J,   6,  a
0
II Later
I I I
Transition
IV
Transition
V 01 der
VI 01 der
A
531 BC
2740 BC
2498 BC
I
2630 BC
r I
00,
7z,.-,Oo,
4F
dr
or/ /'
A
I
I
9611
I
I
1450 BC
12011
A
id
I
I
SIO/W50
NSO/W55
S35/W70
SIO/W95 S40/W85
LOT 15
Dl 805
Harrington
1420 BC
4054 BC
69
Explanation of Illustrations
(Photographs by L.K. Napton, unless otherwise credited)
Plate 1   Lovelock Cave and West Humboldt Range, Nevada, looking southwest
from the Humboldt lakebed toward the cave formation, which is visi-
ble in the center of the photograph. Five distinct wavecut terraces
are discernible on the mountain slope above the cave. The vegeta-
tion in the foreground (Atriplex and Distichlis) is typical of the
lakebed area at present.   The elevation of the peak, left center,
is 4770 feet.
Plate 2   Lovelock Cave and the West Humboldt Range, Nevada, looking west to-
ward Lovelock Cave from the Humboldt lakebed site (NV-Ch-15),
photograph taken in 1924 by Mark R. Harrington. The vegetal cover
aspect was significantly different than it is at present. Note the
large stand of reeds (Phragmites communis) (below center), no longer
extant in this vicinity.   The Lovelock Cave formation is visible,
left center.   (Photograph courtesy of Dr. F. J. Dockstader, Museum
of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, New York.)
Plate 3   Lovelock Cave, Nevada (NV-Ch-18), in Jurassic limestone unit Jal.
Note the foliation of the unit. Wave erosion produced by Lake
Lahontan is visible on the formation, to the left of center.    The
remains of the guano miners' dump, composed of material mined from
the cave in 1911, are visible below the mouth of the cave. The West
Alcove area of the cave is situated behind a rockfall, to the right
of the cave portal.
Plate 4   Members of the University of California, Berkeley, field session in
archaeology (Anthropology 196-B) reposing on rock H (the location of
UCB datum B) during excavation of Lovelock Cave, spring 1969.    Left
to right:  Dr. Albert Elsasser, David Clement, Professor R. F. Heizer,
Gary Encinas, Monica Ley, Suzanne DeAtley, Ethel Chang, Jennifer
Scharetg, Mark Estis. (Photograph courtesy Dr. F. H. Stross.)
Plate 5   Lovelock Cave, Nevada (NV-Ch-18), eroded face of hinge fold in lime-
stone unit Jal.  Note massive, detached lithic unit in upper right
corner of the photograph. Beneath this rock unit is the north portal
of the West Alcove.   Rock A is situated below center, right, and rock
I is in the lower center.   The ancient Indian entrance to the cave
(the source of the Lovelock Cave "Entrance" coprolites) is to the
left, lower center. (Photograph courtesy Dr. F. H. Stross.)
Plate 6    Mr. Llewellyn L. Loud photographed with the remarkable find of 11 duck
decoys from Pit 12, Lovelock Cave, Nevada.    (Compare Loud and Harring-
ton 1929, pl. 7.)   This picture, taken by Mark Harrington in 1924, is
one of the few existing photographs of Mr. Loud. (Photograph courtesy
Dr. F. J. Dockstader, Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation,
New York.)
Plate 7    Photograph identified "Deposit under large rock, Lot 15" taken in
Lovelock Cave, Nevada, by Mark R. Harrington in 1924. Note the pro-
fusion of basketry, poles, vegetal debris, and artifacts. The area is
under the edge of rock A, approximate grid location S35/W80. (Photo-
graph courtesy Dr. F. J. Dockstader, Museum of the American Indian,
Heye Foundation, New York.)
Plate 8   Lovelock Cave, Nevada (NV-Ch-18), in 1965, looking from the end of the
guano miners tunnel toward the west end of the cave, both the tufa
layers and smoke-stained ceiling. Part of the Jal. limestone hinge
fold is visible in the cave ceiling. The large rock situated below
center is located in grid unit S5/W15.
Plate 9   Lovelock Cave, Nevada (NV-Ch-18), cave midden.     West end of cave and
west crevice, prior to excavation, April 1969. Professor R. F. Heizer
stands at the outfall of the west crevice. The base of massive rock
A is visible, upper right. The area of Harrington's Lot 15 is in the
lower left of this view.
Plate 10  Lovelock Cave, Nevada (NV-Ch-18), west end of the cave, excavations
of 1969, in same view as Plate 9. Electrical apparatus and ventilat-
ing equipment is visible near grid unit S40/W85, in the process of
excavation.
Plate 11  Lovelock Cave, Nevada (NV-Ch-18), "LX" area, grid location NSO/W35,
photographed during excavations, 1969. Note stratification of deposit
under massive rock C. Rock D is visible, lower left. Note smoke
stain on the underside of rock C, which rests on rock F.
Plate 12   Lovelock Cave, Nevada (NV-Ch-18), grid location NSO/W35, west and north
profiles.   Length of rod, three feet.   At the top of the slate is the
first occupation midden layer, with successive alternating cultural and
detrital strata. The Older Guano layer is visible at the base of the
profile. (See Figures 13 and 16 for details of this section.) (Photo-
graph by John Carroll.)
(Figure 13)  Lovelock Cave, Nevada (NV-Ch-18) NSO/W35, north
profile. Surface is base of rock C (85.7 feet),
base is 90.0 feet, in reference to UCB datum A.
The strata are underlain by the white evaporite
deposit (not shown in p1. 12).
71
Plate 13 Lovelock Cave, Nevada (NV-Ch-18), NSO/W35, possible occupation level
or "floor," depth 41-43 inches (see fig. 13), macerated vegetal fiber
("quid") (UCB 58:1302) in situ in the occupational level (see fig. 17)
in the Older Guano layer, age circa 2000 B.C.
Plate 14  Lovelock Cave, Nevada (NV-Ch-18), west alcove, test excavations of
1968. The restricted occupation space on the top of rock A is demon-
strated in this photograph. View looking south, into the alcove,
grid location approximately SIO/W95.
Plate 15  Lovelock Cave, Nevada (NV-Ch-18), west alcove, grid location Sl0/W95,
depth six inches. Gun parts found in midden. Left to right: bullet
mold, mainspring, tang screw, sear and bridle of percussion lock
(photograph by R.F. Heizer).
Plate 16  Lovlock Cave, Nevada (NV-Ch-18), west alcove, S15/W100, depth 48
inches, Feature 6. Bulrush parcel containing feathers, in situ
against the rear wall of the alcove. Note the carrying handle (lower
right). (Photograph by John Carroll.)
Plate 17  Stillwater National Wildlife Refuge, near Fallon, Nevada, on the
Truckee River. Photograph taken in 1952, showing aquatic vegetation
in large, shallow lake typical of the Humboldt-Carson Sink wetlands
in well-watered years. Looking east-northeast toward the Stillwater
Range.   (Photograph courtesy L. Worden, Manager, Stillwater Wildlife
Refuge.)
Plate 18  Stillwater National Wildlife Refuge, near Fallon, Nevada.    Millers
Channel, August, 1952. Note the very dense, high stands of cattail
(Typha latifolia) and roundstem bulrush (Scirpus acutus).    This
aspect is probably similar to conditions at Humboldt Lake (located
some 25 miles north of this area) prior to dewatering in 1915. (Pho-
tograph courtesy of L. Worden, Manager, Stillwater National Wildlife
Refuge.)
Plate 19  Humboldt Lake, Nevada, as it appeared in 1868, probably in July. This
is the earliest photograph of the lake known to the authors. View is
south-southeast from the vicinity of the present site of Toulon,
Nevada, looking toward Lovelock Cave, located in the right middle
distance at the foot of the West Humboldt Range. The wet plate nega-
tive from which this reproduction was made is believed to be one of a
series taken by photographers who documented the eastward progress of
construction of the Central Pacific Railroad, built by indentured
Chinese laborers. The townsite of Lovelock was reached in August,
1868, and the station was named "Lovelock's" in honor of George Love-
lock, who donated land for the station. (Photograph courtesy Nevada
Historical Society and Southern Pacific Railway.)
Plate 20 Humboldt Lake, as it appeared in late May or early June, during the
floods of February-June, 1952. This remarkable oblique aerial photo-
graph (view north-northeast) shows the natural dam (foreground) and
the drain channel cut in 1915. The lake reached flood stage in spite
of the fact that a large amount of water passed through the drain
channel, which was deepened in 1915, and inundated the flatlands below
(west of) the natural dam.   In prehistoric times, of course, prior to
deepening of the drain channel, flooding would have been far more
extensive. The flooded area of the Humboldt Lakebed site (NV-Ch-15),
is visible in the upper right center. Lovelock Cave formation is
located in the upper right center. The West Humboldt Range flanks
the lake on the right, and the fringe of the Carson Sink and the Still-
water Mountains appear on the upper right skyline. (Photograph courtesy
of Nevada State Fish and Game Commission.)
73
Plate 1
Plate 2
74
Plate 3
Plate 4
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79
Plate 17
Plate 18
80
Plate 19
Plate 20
81
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AAnt        American Antiquity
DRI         Desert Research Institute
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GSA         Geological Society of America
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IJAL        International Journal of American Linguistics
ISUM        Idaho State University Museum
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JM          Journal of Mammalogy
KAS         Kroeber Anthropological Society
-SP         Special Papers
MAIHF       Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation
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NASR        Nevada Archaeological Survey Reporter
NMA         New Mexico Anthropologist
SAA         Society for American Archaeology
-M          Memoir
UC          University of California
-AR          Anthropological Records
-ASR         Archaeological Survey Reports
-PAAE        American Archaeology and Ethnology
-PZ          Zoology
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