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winds to amplify or hasten the firing process. Slope and valley winds are the product of local conditions
of topography, where differential heating and cooling causes air movement. Generalized local wind
patterns include upslope (3 to 8 mi. per hour) and upvalley winds (10 to 15 mi. per hour) beginning in late
morning, and reaching their peak in the afternoon, as the gradual heating of the landforms cause the
warmer air to rise. Conversely, downvalley (5 to 10 mi. per hour) and downslope winds (2 to 5 mi. per
hour) begin a few hours after dark, as the cooling air sinks (National Interagecy Fire Center [NIFC]
1994).

Broad Spectrum and Seasonality
Within the FAR matrix of LAN-2464, a partially carbonized manzanita berry was recovered.
There has not been ethnographic mention of the berries being roasted in ovens, suggesting rather that
manzanita (which currently grows on the north-facing side of the same ridgeline) may have been part of
the fuelwood, which has also been noted in other oven contexts (King 1993; Puseman and Dexter 2005;
Strudwick and Sturm 1996). Taphonomic scenarios aside, the find provides indication of the possible
season of use for the feature. Manzanita fruit usually ripens from late February to mid-May, which
overlaps the time that yucca matures to the point that it was processed in earth ovens.
The yucca harvest characteristics have been thoroughly discussed in the literature (Bean and
Saubel 1973; Earle et al. 1995; Hudson and Blackburn 1981; King and Blackburn 1978; King et al. 1974;
Milburn 1998b; Wessel 1986). The yucca basal heart (bola) could theoretically be harvested year-round,
but was most desirable in early spring, when it was green, before producing stalks and flowers (which
were harvested a little later, depending on weather and altitude, April through early June to mid-July). At
the pre-florescent point in its lifecycle, the mature yucca has stored a considerable amount of starch for
the energy to flower. The resulting flower stalk may reach 8 ft. in height and produces seeds in a small
fruit. Prior to that development, the plant has slowly matured over six to 10 years. A yucca will sprout its
flower stalk only once; as the plant finishes the reproductive cycle, it drops its seeds and dies (Powell and
Mackie 1966). Within a circumscribed population of yucca, only a selection will be mature enough to
flower in a given year, and a thorough harvesting of stalks or even green bolas could locally depress the
reproductive rate.
While yucca was certainly an important food item, it should not be overestimated. Diversification
of subsistence activities, notes Colson (1979:22), “is probably the most effective device utilized by
hunter-gatherers … for preventing weather vagaries or other adverse conditions from plunging them into
famine… Specialization, in the light of human history, is a dangerous phenomenon.” In fact, at Rowher
Flats village complex (LAN-856, -857, etc.), Wessel and McIntyre (1986) recorded 51 separate food
plants that appear to have part of the Tataviam nutritional regime.
Although spring was devoted to the yucca harvest, clearly other items supplemented the diet.
Summer was most likely focused on seed and berry gathering, autumn primarily the acorn and pinyon
harvest, and the winter diet drew from food stores, supplemented with game (Earle et al. 1995). Notes
McIntyre (1979: 57), the unpredictability of the annual round, in terms of perishability and gatherability,
required “precise knowledge of … availability so as to obtain a maximum resource return as well as to
avoid competition from various insects, birds, and animals for these foods.”
Even within earth oven features themselves, material evidence of bulbs, roots, and corms, such as
Lotus procumbens (California broom), or brodiaea (Dichelostemma pulchellum), has been encountered,
indicating that these food items also were roasted (Balls 1962; Earle et al. 1995; Hudson and Blackburn
1981; King 1993). There may be indication, moreover, that in certain contexts, the aforementioned
species could have been relied upon to fulfill a shortfall of the yucca harvest, perhaps even roasted
exclusively in a given oven. Although earth ovens are primarily for roasting vegetal materials, it is not
unheard of to add meat to the process, whether by convention or by convenience (Hudson and Blackburn
1981; Strudwick and Sturm 1996). The presence of two small pieces of faunal material suggests that
perhaps the contents of earth ovens themselves need to be examined more closely.

SCA Proceedings, Volume 22 (2009) Vance, p. 12