Covering a large swath of the American West, the Great Basin, centered in Nevada and including parts of California, Utah, and Oregon, is named for the unusual fact that none of its rivers or streams flow into the sea.
This fascinating illustrated journey through deep time is the definitive environmental and human history of this beautiful and little traveled region, home to Death Valley, the Great Salt Lake, Lake Tahoe, and the Bonneville Salt Flats. Donald K. Grayson synthesizes what we now know about the past 25,000 years in the Great Basin--its climate, lakes, glaciers, plants, animals, and people--based on information gleaned from the region's exquisite natural archives in such repositories as lake cores, packrat middens, tree rings, and archaeological sites.
Donald K. Grayson is Professor of Anthropology and Adjunct Professor at the Quaternary Research Center, University of Washington. He is the author of "The Desert's Past", the previous edition of his Great Basin prehistory, and "The Establishment of Human Antiquity", an American Library Association "Best Book of the Year."
Well supported by photographs, maps, and tables, along with detailed chapter notes and extensive references.
- Choice
"A perfect guide for students, scholars, travelers, and general readers alike, the book weaves together history, archaeology, botany, geology, biogeography, and other disciplines into one compelling panorama across a truly unique American landscape."
- The Birdbooker Report
"This fascinating illustrated journey through deep time is the definitive environmental and human history of this beautiful and little traveled region, home to Death Valley, the Great Salt Lake, Lake Tahoe, and the Bonneville Salt Flats."
- Scienceblogs.com/The Guardian
"All palaeoscientists working in the region will want this book because it brings in so much new material and includes so many new interpretations. This is a grand synthesis and it represents a major revision written in an engaging style that teaches on every level."
- Steven R. Simms, author of "Ancient Peoples of the Great Basin and the Colorado Plateau"