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Rattlesnake Cave is located on the western shore of Lake Abert in the northern Great Basin of southeast Oregon, one of hundreds of archaeological sites in the Lake Abert/Chewaucan Basin. The site was dug by collectors in the 1950s, and recovered materials were donated to the Fort Rock Valley Historical Society and Homestead Museum in the early 1990s. We analyze 77 artifacts in the assemblage, which includes cordage, basketry, moccasins, as well as wood, bone, and stone tools. We report new radiocarbon (14C) dates for the site, and the results of energy dispersive x-ray fluorescence (EDXRF) on one basalt and nine obsidian bifaces, matching their chemical signatures to regional geologic sources. We discuss the place of Rattlesnake Cave in the broader context of the northern Great Basin while demonstrating how museum collections may contribute to addressing anthropological research questions.

Adovasio et al. (1986) described Early Holocene basketry from the northern Great Basin as "simple twined and undecorated." Cressman (1986) reported the presence of decorated basketry during the Early Holocene, which he characterized as a "climax of cultural development" in the Fort Rock Basin in Oregon. These contrasting interpretations are the product of relatively small basketry assemblages reliably dated to the Early Holocene from this area, as well as the questionable recovery context of some critical specimens. We report on the direct AMS dating of a number of basketry specimens central to this issue. Early Holocene basketry from the northern Great Basin does include decorated and complex structures; however, since most of the dated specimens fall toward the end of the Early Holocene, the evidence presented here does not provide definitive closure to the issue.

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