Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology

Marine-shell beads have been recovered from numerous archaeological sites throughout the Intermountain West. Direct radiocarbon determinations and typological cross-dating indicate that groups conveyed beads long distances inland throughout the Holocene. Because the oxygen and carbon isotopic signatures of Callianax (previously Olivella) sp. snail shells reflect local sea surface temperature, researchers over the past 15 years have started to assign beads to source regions (stretches of the coast from which people collected shells). We report radiocarbon and stable isotope data for a Callianax biplicata bead from Oregonís Hawksy Walksy Valley, the only bead that has been recovered from this archaeologically important region. These data indicate that the bead was conveyed ~400 km. inland at 480ñ285 cal B.P. from somewhere along the Oregon or northern California coasts. We place these results within the context of other provenance studies of beads in the northern Great Basin to add to our understanding of how, when, and from where coastal producers conveyed shell beads to inland consumers.