Hunchback Shelter (42BE751) is a small rockshelter in the northern Mineral Mountains, located less than 10 km. from one of the major obsidian sources in the eastern Great Basin. Excavation of the site yielded a large flaked lithic assemblage associated with occupations dating from the Late Archaic to the post Formative Late Prehistoric period. The data suggest that the shelter functioned as a seasonal campsite that was heavily oriented toward biface production throughout its long occupational history. Based primarily on flaked lithics and secondarily on other lines of evidence, we hypothesize that the flaked stone tools and debitage associated with the Fremont occupations may represent the work of independent, part-time craft specialists.

The Hunchback Shelter (42BE751), located in the southeastern Great Basin, yielded a considerable amount of data on the prehistoric use of the site. Located adjacent to the Wild Horse Canyon and Schoo Mine obsidian sources, evidence indicates that Hunchback Shelter functioned as a camp where Archaic to Formative (Fremont) knappers produced both bifaces and expedient flake cores. The intent of these procurement visits appears to have shifted over time. Furthermore, the Fremont visits appear to be consistent with comparative evidence from Five Finger Ridge, a major Fremont village. These findings have important implications for understanding the relationship between procurement behavior and settlement structure, and the relative importance of biface versus core technologies during the Fremont period.