John Blong

JOHN BLONG, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington, was approved funding in October 2021 to aid research on “Assessing Sexual Division of Labor in the Terminal Pleistocene and Early Holocene Great Basin through Steroid Analysis of Human Coprolites.” The archaeological record indicated that hunter-gatherers in the terminal Pleistocene and early Holocene Great Basin consumed a diverse diet, and many of the food items represented in the archaeological record have low energetic return for time invested in harvesting. This pattern goes against predictions from human behavioral ecology theory. One hypothesis explaining this pattern is that low-return resources reflect different foraging goals by men and women i.e., sexual division of labor. To test this hypothesis, this study applied gas chromatography/mass spectrometry sex steroid analysis to 32 terminal Pleistocene and early Holocene coprolites from the Paisley Caves to assess differences in dietary intake by sex and compare this data to sexual division of labor models. This study is ongoing, but initial results from fifteen of the samples indicate that coprolites do not have concentrations of sex steroid biomarkers in detectible amounts. This contrasts with compounds such a fecal biomarkers which are present in detectable amounts. These initial results suggest that there may be taphonomic issues impacting the preservation of sex steroids in early coprolites from the Paisley Caves.