Robert Heizer excavated Leonard Rockshelter (26Pe14) in western Nevada more than 70 years ago. He described stratified cultural deposits spanning the Holocene. He also reported obsidian flakes purportedly associated with late Pleistocene sediments, suggesting that human use extended even farther back in time. Because Heizer never produced a final report, Leonard Rockshelter faded into obscurity despite the possibility that it might contain a Clovis Era or older occupation. That possibility prompted our team of researchers from the University of Nevada, Reno and Desert Research Institute to return to the site in 2018 and 2019. We relocated the excavation block from which Heizer both recovered the flakes and obtained a late Pleistocene date on nearby sediments. We minimally excavated undisturbed deposits to rerecord and redate the strata. As an independent means of evaluating Heizer's findings, we also directly dated 12 organic artifacts housed at the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology. Our work demonstrates that people did not visit Leonard Rockshelter during the late Pleistocene. Rather, they first visited the site immediately following the Younger Dryas (12,900–11,700 cal BP) and sporadically used the shelter, mostly to store gear, throughout the Holocene.

70 多年前，Robert Heizer 在内华达州西部挖掘了 Leonard Rockshelter (26Pe14)。他描述了跨越全新世的分层文化沉积物。他还报告了据称与晚更新世沉积物有关的黑曜石薄片，这表明人类对黑曜石的使用可以追溯到更早的时期。由于 Heizer 从未制作过最终报告，伦纳德·洛克谢尔特尽管可能包含克洛维斯时代或更早的职业，但逐渐变得默默无闻。这种可能性促使我们来自内华达大学、里诺和沙漠研究所的研究人员团队于 2018 年和 2019 年返回该地点。我们重新定位了海泽从其中回收薄片并获得附近沉积物晚更新世日期的挖掘块。我们对未受干扰的沉积物进行了最低限度的挖掘，以重新记录和重新划分地层。作为评估 Heizer 发现的独立手段，我们还直接确定了收藏在 Phoebe A. Hearst 人类学博物馆的 12 件有机文物的年代。我们的工作表明，在更新世晚期，人们没有访问 Leonard Rockshelter。相反，他们首先在新仙女木（12,900–11,700 cal BP）之后立即访问了该地点，并在整个全新世零星地使用了避难所，主要用于存放装备。