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• types have been reported as surface finds by Baker et al. (1980), Buckles <br />(1971), Carpenter et al. (1976), Conner et al. (1980), Hibbets et al. <br />(1979), Huscher (1939), Hurst (1942), Martin (1977), Reed and Scott <br />(1,980), Steward (1933), Stucky (1977), and Worming ton and Lister (1956). <br />Western Archaic Tradition <br />The transition from the Paleo-Indian to the Archaic stage reflects a <br />shift in the availability of food resources brought about by climatic <br />changes at the end of the Pleistocene epoch. The beginning of the Holo- <br />cene marks the extinction of the megafauna and a shift in the aboriginal <br />subsistence pattern from one based upon the hunting of large mammals to <br />one more dependent upon small mammal hunting and the gathering of a wider <br />variety of plant materials. Maturing plant resources were exploited on a <br />seasonal basis, and sites therefore tend to be small, probably visited on <br />• a yearly round. <br />The western variation of this tradition may have appeared in the <br />Great Basin as early as 9500 B.C. at Danger Cave in western Utah (Jennings <br />1957); it is positively identified in Zone II (8000-7000 B.C.) at Danger <br />Cave. Referred to as the Western Archaic or Desert Culture, this tradition <br />is characterized by slab milling stones, fine-twined basketry and netting, <br />bone awls, and small corner-notched projectile points. It was restricted <br />to the Great Basin until the Altithermal, when variations of this tradi- <br />tion began to encroach upon former strongholds of the Big Game Hunters <br />and the Old Cordillera traditions to the east and north, respectively. <br />Reed and Scott (1980: 35) refer to the Desert Archaic as a technocomplex <br />which includes "all sites in the arid and semiarid west that reflect an <br />Archaic lifestyle based on a seasonally migratory hunting and gathering <br />of modern fauna and flora." No time period is assigned this technocomplex, <br />which may have been extant until the Pro to historic. <br />. The early to middle Archaic is represented by McKean Complex points <br />14 <br />