Crescents are flaked stone tools found throughout western North America that are often associated with waterbodies and projectile points diagnostic of the late Pleistocene and early Holocene, such as the Western Stemmed Tradition. Archaeologists continue to debate the function of crescents and they remain poorly dated outside of the Channel Islands. Here we report a crescent from recent excavations at Connley Cave 6 in central Oregon and provide a first look at associated stratigraphy, radiocarbon ages, and tools. The crescent's age (ca. 9715-9245 cal BP) and associated projectile points are remarkably like the crescent from Little Steamboat Point-1 Rockshelter in Oregon and suggest that people who used Cascade points during the early Holocene also made crescents. This work helps refine the age of crescents and our understanding of their associated toolkits.
AmickDS (2007) Two Great Basin crescents in the steve caligore collection from southeastern Wyoming. Current Research in the Pleistocene24: 71–73.
2.
AmickDS (2024) Chipped-Stone crescents from the terminal Pleistocene–early Holocene of far western North America and the transverse projectile point hypothesis. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory31(4): 2082–2163.
3.
BeckCJonesGT (2009) The Archaeology of the Eastern Nevada Paleoarchaic, Part I: The Sunshine Locality. Anthropological Papers No. 126. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.
4.
BedwellSF (1973) Fort Rock Basin: Prehistory and Environment. Eugene: University of Oregon Press.
5.
BrajeTJErlandsonJMRickTC (2005) Assessing human settlement on the south coast of San Miguel Island, California: The use of 14C dating as a reconnaissance tool. Radiocarbon47(1): 11–19.
ChaseS (2025) Terminal Pleistocene/Early Holocene Lake and Wetland Modeling using GIS in the Fort Rock Basin, South-Central Oregon. Undergraduate Thesis, Department of Anthropology, Willamette University, Salem, Oregon.
8.
ChattersJCHackenbergerSPrentissAM, et al. (2012) The Paleoindian to Archaic transition in the Pacific Northwest: In situ development or ethnic replacement? In: BoussmanCBVierraBJ (eds) From the Pleistocene to the Holocene: Human Organization and Cultural Transformations in Prehistoric North America. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 37–65.
9.
ConnollyTJ (ed) (1999) Newberry Crater: A Ten-thousand-year Record of Human Occupation and Environmental Change in the Basin-Plateau Borderlands. University of Utah Press, Anthropological Papers 121, Salt Lake City.
10.
CowlesJ (1960) Cougar Mountain Cave in South Central Oregon. Rainier, Oregon: John Cowles.
11.
CravenSL (2003) Lithic Variation in Hafted Bifaces at the Lind Coulee Site. Master’s thesis, Washington State University, Pullman.
12.
CressmanLS (1942) Archaeological Researches in the Northern Great Basin. Carnegie Institution of Washington Publication No. 538. Washington D.C.: Carnegie Institution.
13.
DavisEL (1978) The Ancient Californians: Rancholabrean Hunters of the Mojave Lakes Country. Science Series No. 29. Los Angeles, CA: Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.
14.
DavisLGWillisSCMacfarlanSJ (2012) Lithic technology, cultural transmission, and the nature of the far western paleoarchaic/paleoindian co-tradition. In: RhodeDE (eds) Meetings at the Margins: Prehistoric Cultural Interactions in the Intermountain West. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 47–64.
15.
EganJStaffRBlackfordJ (2015) A high-precision age estimate of the Holocene Plinian Eruption of Mount Mazama, Oregon, USA. Holocene25(7): 1054–1067.
16.
ErlandsonJM (2010) CA-SMI-701: A Paleocoastal site on San Miguel Island, California. Current Research in the Pleistocene27: 77–79.
17.
ErlandsonJMBrajeTJGillKM, et al. (2024) A Paleocoastal Western Stemmed Tradition variant from the California Channel Islands. In: McDonoughKNRosencranceRLPrattJE (eds) Current Perspectives on Stemmed and Fluted Technology in the American Far West. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 262–274.
18.
ErlandsonJMGillKMGlassowMA, et al. (2016) Three Paleocoastal lithic sites on Santa Cruz Island. PaleoAmerica2(1): 52–55.
19.
ErlandsonJMKennetDJIngramBL, et al. (1996) An archaeological and paleontological chronology for Daisy Cave (CA-SMI-261), San Miguel Island, California. Radiocarbon38(2): 355–373.
20.
ErlandsonJMRickTCBrajeTJ, et al. (2011) Paleoindian seafaring, maritime technologies, and coastal foraging on California’s Channel Islands. Science331(6021): 1181–1185.
21.
FreidelDE (1994) Paleolake shorelines and lake level chronology of the Fort Rock Basin, Oregon. In: AikensCMJenkinsDJ (eds) Archaeological Researches in the Northern Great Basin: Fort Rock Archaeology Since Cressman. Eugene: University of Oregon Anthropological Papers, 21–40.
22.
GraysonDK (1979) Mount Mazama, climatic change, and Fort Rock Basin archaeofaunas. In: SheetsPDGraysonDK (eds) In Volcanic Activity and Human Ecology. New York: Academic Press, 427–457.
23.
HlebechukAMcDonoughKNRosencranceRL (2023) Cultural Chronology and Late Holocene Features in Connley Cave 6, Oregon. Poster presented at 86th Great Basin Anthropological Conference, Bend, Oregon.
24.
HolcombJAMcDonoughKNRosencranceRL, et al. (2023) Frost action during the Younger Dryas inferred from soil micromorphology at Connley Cave 5, Oregon. PaleoAmerica9(4): 289–303.
25.
JamaldinSA (2018) Terminal Pleistocene/Early Holocene Cave Use in Oregon’s Fort Rock Basin: An Examination of Western Stemmed Tradition Projectile Point Assemblages from Fort Rock Cave, Cougar Mountain Cave, and the Connley Caves. Master’s Thesis, Department of Anthropology, University of Nevada, Reno.
26.
JazwaCSZoellnerA (2024) Middle Holocene residential mobility in western Santa Rosa Island, California. Quaternary International689–690: 16–29.
27.
JenkinsDLHolcombJAMcDonoughKN (2017) Current research at the Connley Caves (35LK50): Late Pleistocene/early Holocene Western Stemmed Tradition occupations in the Fort Rock Basin, Oregon. PaleoAmerica3(2): 188–192.
28.
JenningsJD (1957) Danger Cave. Anthropological Papers No. 27. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.
29.
JewNPAinisAFEndzweigPE, et al. (2015) Chipped stone crescents from America’s Far West: Descriptive and geochemical analyses from the northern Great Basin. North American Archaeologist36(2): 119–140.
30.
LenziMR (2015) An Experimental Program to Evaluate Proposed Functions of Crescents from the Western United States. Master’s thesis, University of Nevada, Reno.
31.
LeonhardyFCRiceDG (1970) A Proposed Typology for the Lower Snake River Region, Southeastern Washington. Available from: Washington State Historic Preservation Office.
32.
MadsenDBSchmittDNPageDJ (2015) The Paleoarchaic Occupation of the Old River Bed Delta. University of Utah Press, Anthropological Papers 128, Salt Lake City.
33.
McDonoughKN (2019) Middle Holocene menus: Dietary reconstruction from coprolites at the Connley Caves, Oregon, USA. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences11: 5963–5982.
34.
McDonoughKNGavinDGRosencranceRL, et al. (2024) Multi-proxy paleoenvironmental data from Paulina Marsh inform human-environmental dynamics in the northern Great Basin, U.S.A. Quaternary Science Advances14: 100184.
35.
McDonoughKNKennedyJLRosencranceRL, et al. (2022) Expanding Paleoindian diet breadth: Paleoethnobotany of Connley Cave 5, Oregon, USA. American Antiquity87(2): 303–332.
36.
MentzerSM (2014) Microarchaeological approaches to the identification and interpretation of combustion features in prehistoric archaeological sites. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory21(3): 616–668.
37.
MinckleyTAWhitlockCBartleinPJ (2007) Vegetation, fire, and climate history of the northwestern Great Basin during the last 14,000 years. Quaternary Science Reviews26(17–18): 2167–2184.
38.
MossMLErlandsonJM (2013) Waterfowl and lunate crescents in western North America: The archaeology of the pacific flyway. Journal of World Prehistory26: 173–211.
39.
OzbunTLFaganJL (2010) Cascade projectile point technology. Journal of Northwest Anthropology44: 1–22.
40.
ReimerPJAustinWENBardE, et al. (2020) The IntCal20 Northern Hemisphere radiocarbon age calibration curve (0–55 cal kBP). Radiocarbon62(4): 725–757.
41.
RickTCErlandsonJMJewJP, et al. (2013) Archaeological survey, paleogeography, and the search for late Pleistocene Paleocoastal peoples of Santa Rosa Island, California. Journal of Field Archaeology38(4): 324–331.
42.
RogersAIzziS (2016) Two unusually large crescentics from eastern California. Proceedings of the Society for California Archaeology30: 301–308.
43.
RohrbaughC (1967) Connley Cave 6 Excavation Field Notes. Document on file, University of Oregon Museum of Natural and Cultural History, Eugene.
44.
RosencranceRLDukeDHoskinsA (2024a) Western Stemmed Tradition projectile point chronology in the Intermountain West. In: McDonoughKNRosencranceRLPrattJE (eds) Current Perspectives on Stemmed and Fluted Technology in the American Far West. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 21–58.
45.
RosencranceRLMcDonoughKNHolcombJA, et al. (2022) Dating and analysis of western stemmed toolkits from the legacy collection of Connley Cave 4, Oregon. PaleoAmerica8(3): 264–284.
46.
RosencranceRLMcDonoughKNSmithGM, et al. (2024b) Bayesian Analysis of Haskett projectile point radiocarbon dates in the Intermountain West. PaleoAmerica10(2–3): 132–155.
47.
RosencranceRLSmithGSJenkinsDL, et al. (2019) Reinvestigating Cougar Mountain Cave: New perspectives on stratigraphy, chronology, and a Younger Dryas occupation in the northern Great Basin. American Antiquity84(3): 559–573.
48.
SanchezGMErlandsonJMTripcevichN (2017) Quantifying the association of chipped stone crescents with wetlands and paleoshorelines of western North America. North American Archaeologist38(2): 107–137.
49.
SmithGM (2022) In the Shadow of the Steamboat: A Natural and Cultural History of North Warner Valley, Oregon. Anthropological Papers No. 137. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.
50.
SmithGMBarkerP (2017) The terminal Pleistocene/early Holocene record in the northwestern Great Basin: What we know, what we don’t know, and how we may be wrong. PaleoAmerica3(1): 13–47.
51.
SmithGMCareyPAMiddletonES, et al. (2012) Cascade points in the northern Great Basin: A radiocarbon-dated foliate point assemblage from Warner Valley, Oregon. North American Archaeologist33(1): 13–34.
52.
SmithGMDukeDJenkinsDL, et al. (2020) The Western Stemmed Tradition: Problems and prospects in Paleoindian archaeology in the Intermountain West. PaleoAmerica6(1): 23–42.
53.
SmithGMPatteeDDFinleyJB, et al. (2014) A flaked stone crescent from a stratified, radiocarbon-dated site in the northern Great Basin. North American Archaeologist35(3): 257–276.
54.
SmithGMRosencranceRLSaperSG, et al. (2024) The Western Stemmed Tradition components of Last Supper Cave, Nevada. PaleoAmerica10(2–3): 226–245.
55.
TadlockWL (1966) Certain crescentic stone objects as a time marker in the western United States. American Antiquity31: 662–675.
56.
TerlepMLHolenSR (2008) Two chipped-stone crescents from eastern Colorado. Current Research in the Pleistocene25: 148–150.
57.
TuneJWFoxJM (2020) A crescent biface from southeastern Utah. PaleoAmerica6(2): 204–206.
58.
WarrenCN (1967) The San Dieguito Complex: A review and hypothesis. American Antiquity32(2): 168–185.
59.
WigandPEDavidR (2002) Great Basin vegetation history and aquatic systems: The last 150,000 years. Great Basin aquatic systems history. Smithsonian Contributions to the Earth Sciences33: 309–368.
60.
WristonTA (2003) The Weed Lake Ditch Site: An Early Holocene Occupation on the Shore of Pluvial Lake Malheur, Harney Basin, Oregon. Master’s thesis, University of Nevada, Reno.
