Experimental Archaeology in Range Creek Canyon, Utah
Part of: Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)
This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Experimental Archaeology in Range Creek Canyon, Utah" at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.
Since 2013, staff and students of the Range Creek Field Station (RCFS), eastern Utah, have been studying Fremont farming techniques by conducting actualistic farming experiments. These experiments are designed to understand the costs and benefits of irrigating and storing maize under modern environmental constraints. By farming small plots of maize at the RCFS, we are able to build expectations about what past farmers would have done. One experiment looks at the productivity of maize (yield) depending on amount of water given to each plot. A second experiment measures the costs of irrigation by constructing a simple surface irrigation system using only simple tools available 1,000 years ago to Fremont farmers. A third experiment records the rooting depth of maize plants watered at varying depth. A fourth experiment measures the costs and benefits of constructing small replica storage structures used by the Fremont. The posters in this session will discuss the results of these experiments and how the results inform on the archaeology of Range Creek Canyon and other desert farmers. The topics include actualistic experiments, excavation of historic ditches, changes in rooting depth of heirloom maize varieties, and variability in maize starch when watered different amounts during the growing season.
Other Keywords
Experimental Archaeology •
Fremont •
Water Management and Irrigation •
Human Behavioral Ecology •
Settlement patterns •
Starch granule analysis
Geographic Keywords
United States of America (Country) •
North America (Continent) •
USA (Country) •
Idaho (State / Territory) •
Oregon (State / Territory) •
Wyoming (State / Territory) •
North America: Northern Southwest U.S. •
Arizona (State / Territory) •
Utah (State / Territory) •
Nevada (State / Territory)
Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-5 of 5)
- Documents (5)
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2019 Range Creek Excavation (2021)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Experimental Archaeology in Range Creek Canyon, Utah" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Through excavation methods the staff and students of the Range Creek Field Station looked to explore an indentation formation in a section of Range Creek known as the Cove. The hope was to uncover and explore the possibility of potential precontract irrigation systems. It is known that historic farmers would take advantage of...
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Actualistic Experiments in Archaeology: Farming and Storing Maize in Range Creek Canyon, Utah (2021)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Experimental Archaeology in Range Creek Canyon, Utah" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. At the Range Creek Field Station in east central Utah, researchers have had the unique opportunity to conduct repeated actualistic experiments, under modern environmental constraints, to better understand past human behavior related to farming and storing maize. This poster summarizes the goals, expectations, methods, results, and...
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Experimental Archaeology Applied to Archaeological Investigations in Range Creek Canyon: Emery and Carbon Counties, Utah (2021)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Experimental Archaeology in Range Creek Canyon, Utah" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Archaeological investigations in Range Creek Canyon, in east-central Utah, have led to the identification of 500 prehistoric sites. The majority of sites that can be affiliated are linked to the Fremont Culture, semi-sedentary horticulturalists occupying the region 300–1175 CE. Sites range from long-term habitation sites, artifact...
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Maize: Phenotypic Response to Variable Depth Water Input (2021)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Experimental Archaeology in Range Creek Canyon, Utah" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Prehistoric maize farming has been well-documented in Range Creek Canyon, Utah. Evidence includes numerous corn cobs, maize storage structures, starch on ground stone tools, and pollen and isotopic evidence from sediment cores. Maize farming experiments in Range Creek suggest dry farming would not have been a sustainable option for...
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Starch Granule Size and Morphology as a Proxy for Water Influence on *Zea mays (2021)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Experimental Archaeology in Range Creek Canyon, Utah" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. A wealth of information on regional patterns of human subsistence and plant domestication has been generated from studies on the starch granules of *Zea mays (maize). Very little work, however, has been conducted on how the size and structural attributes of those grains might change if exposed to different environmental contexts...