Prehistoric Settlement Along the Eastern Margin of Rogers Dry Lake, Western Mojave Desert, California. Brian F. Byrd, Drew Pallette, and Carol Serr, with contributions by Susan Smith and R. Scott Anderson (Pollen Analysis), Jean Hudson (Vertebrate Remains), Margaret Newman (Immunological Analysis), Thomas Origer and M. Steven Shackley (Obsidian Studies), Lisa Klug and Virginia S. Popper (Paleoethnobotanical Analysis). San Diego: Brian F. Mooney Associates Anthropological Technical Series 2,1994, ix + 192 pp., 58 figs., 66 tables, $25.00 (paper).

This study is focused on the desert areas of California and Nevada. The ranges of the western pond turtle and the desert tortoise overlap in portions of this region so that specific attention is directed to these two species in the first part of this paper. Similar archaeological problems may exist in other areas where species ranges overlap (e.g., Hohokam sites in Arizona).

Faunal analysts should be aware that both turtle and tortoise remains can occur at archaeological sites in areas where their ranges overlap or where there is a possibility that these animals, or objects derived from them, were exchanged. Environmental and cultural interpretations that are based in part on faunal remains should consider that while turtle and tortoise elements may be confused, ecological requirements and seasonal availability generally are very different for the two reptilian genera.

The second part of this paper narrows the focus to the desert tortoise, the remains of which are present in many sites in the southwestern Great Basin and adjacent eastern areas (Tables 1-3; Fig. 1). The major portion of the ethnographic literature search and the synthetic discussion is focused on this animal.

Tabular slabs of porphyritic hornblende andesite from Elephant Mountain were shaped into aboriginal milling stones and pestles and carried to living and processing locations in the Mojave River region. The milling-implement quarry at Elephant Mountain, first described by Nuez in 1819, was identified archaeologically and subsequently studied. Worked slabs of andesite, broken and discarded preforms, andesite debitage, and hammerstone quarrying and production tools characterize the archaeological deposit at the quarry. Production technology differs somewhat from that employed at other milling-implement quarries. It is proposed that the long-term retention of the abrasive quality of the Elephant Mountain stone made it especially useful for milling. Milling stones from the Hinkley site, about 15 mi. upstream on the Mojave River, originated at Elephant Mountain, as demonstrated by thin-section petrography. Certain lines of evidence suggest that the Elephant Mountain stone may have been exploited as early as 3,500 B.P., that it may have been used by groups expressing or influenced by material culture traits of the Lower Colorado River region, and that the quarry may not be unique in the region. Sourcing of milling implements to their quarry has the potential to add to our understanding of regional prehistoric economic and social networks.