New Multidisciplinary Research at 48PA551: A Middle Archaic (McKean Complex) Site in Northwest Wyoming

Part of: Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "New Multidisciplinary Research at 48PA551: A Middle Archaic (McKean Complex) Site in Northwest Wyoming," at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This poster symposium presents results of new research at 48PA551, a Middle Archaic (McKean Complex) site in the Sunlight Basin of NW Wyoming. The Middle Archaic is recognized as a time of continent wide cultural innovation and experimentation that included the appearance of villages and sedentism to ritualized behavior and complex earthwork construction. Within the Rocky Mountain region, the Middle Archaic is poorly understood though scholars have long recognized it as time of cultural diversity. Posters in this symposium illustrate multi-disciplinary research designed to assess alternative models of McKean Complex socio-economic adaptations. Specific studies focus on geophysical investigations, dating and stratigraphy, lithic technological organization, paleoethnobotany, and faunal analyses.

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  • Documents (6)

Documents
  • Archaic Period Obsidian Use in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem: The 48PA551 Assemblage in Regional Context (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Lawrence Todd. Rachel Reckin.

    This is an abstract from the "New Multidisciplinary Research at 48PA551: A Middle Archaic (McKean Complex) Site in Northwest Wyoming" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In comparison to other Archaic sites in the eastern portions of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE), the Dead Indian Creek site (48PA551) has an unusually high number of obsidian projectile points (N=29). Geochemical source characterization of 23 of the 48PA551 obsidian points...

  • Connecting Lithic Technology to Socio-economic Organization at Site 48PA551 (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Emma Vance. Ethan Ryan. Anna Marie Prentiss.

    This is an abstract from the "New Multidisciplinary Research at 48PA551: A Middle Archaic (McKean Complex) Site in Northwest Wyoming" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The well-known Middle Archaic site, 48PA551, in northwestern Wyoming, was originally described as a single McKean Complex occupation. New data from 2018 now suggests the possibility of two occupations. This provides the opportunity to consider the connection between the organization...

  • Know Before You Dig: Using Comparative Geophysical Exploration and Ground-Truthing for Surgical Excavation (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Ethan Ryan.

    This is an abstract from the "New Multidisciplinary Research at 48PA551: A Middle Archaic (McKean Complex) Site in Northwest Wyoming" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This poster presents the results of geophysical exploration and excavation from new research at 48PA551, a Middle Archaic (McKean Complex) site in the Sunlight Basin of NW Wyoming. In the field season of 2017, total field magnetic survey was conducted at the site to identify and...

  • The McKean Complex Occupation in the Sunlight Basin, Northwest Wyoming: An Updated Assessment of Cultural and Geological Stratigraphy at Site 48PA551 (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Kelsi Kaviani. Anna Marie Prentiss. Emma Vance. Ethan Ryan. Haley O'Brien.

    This is an abstract from the "New Multidisciplinary Research at 48PA551: A Middle Archaic (McKean Complex) Site in Northwest Wyoming" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Site 48PA551 is a widely recognized winter camp originally dated to Middle Archaic (McKean Complex) period. Original investigators described the McKean occupation as a singular unit within a 30-90 cm thick sedimentary stratum beginning at the ground surface. Original radiocarbon dating...

  • Re-examining Site 48PA551 in Sunlight Basin, Northwest Wyoming: The Faunal Remains from the 2018 Field Season (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Haley O'Brien. Anna Marie Prentiss. Ethan Ryan. Emma Vance.

    This is an abstract from the "New Multidisciplinary Research at 48PA551: A Middle Archaic (McKean Complex) Site in Northwest Wyoming" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Site 48PA551, located in the Sunlight Basin of Northwest Wyoming, is widely accepted as a winter camp dated to the Middle Archaic period. In the original excavation, researchers initially identified one consistent occupation layer, dated to ca. 3800-4400 radiocarbon years B.P and...

  • Using Micro and Macrobotanical Analyses to Assess Socio-economic Strategies at 48PA551, the McKean Occupation in the Sunlight Basin, Wyoming (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Nicole Herzog. Liz Dolinar. Anna Marie Prentiss.

    This is an abstract from the "New Multidisciplinary Research at 48PA551: A Middle Archaic (McKean Complex) Site in Northwest Wyoming" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Located in the Absaroka Mountains of northwest Wyoming site 48PA51 is unique for its pithouse, rock pile surrounded by deer skull caps with antlers, abundant hearths and pit features, large number of dart points and groundstone, and substantial faunal assemblage. These features and the...