Test Excavations at Painted Cave, Pershing County, Nevada

Nevada Cultural Resource Series Technical Report #5

Test excavations were conducted at Painted Cave in the summer of 1978. The small rockshelter lies east of Lovelock and is located in the shadscale vegetation zone of northwestern Nevada. The archaeological record in the general region has been studied over the past half century and, as a result, the accumulated information offers a background for formulating cultural resource evaluations. In addition to buried cultural materials, the rockshelter also contains a number of pictographs on the walls.

The site has been damaged by vandals, and stream erosion poses a threat to the deposits. Consequently, the project was undertaken not only to provide a record of the rock art and of the cultural deposits on the floor, but also to determine if enough scientific potential exists at present to warrant future research.

Several discrete firehearths and an occupational/living floor were revealed by the archaeological excavation; small finds largely consisted of chipped stone artifacts and pigment stones. Analysis of faunal remains, palynological data and the cultural record, indicates that the site was a seasonally-occupied camp from which the inhabitants exploited multiple resources in the vicinity. Bifacial point styles and radiocarbon dates indicate a late prehistoric period of occupation.

The work just completed shows that the site possesses considerable potential for future scientific studies and a protective monitoring plan has now been implemented.