Goodson Shelter: Recent Excavations at a Newly Discovered Deeply Stratified Rockshelter in Northeastern Oklahoma.

Summary

Goodson Shelter was discovered by an amateur artifact collector and was first brought to our attention in 2012. The site is an approximately 20 x 7 meter eroded sandstone rockshelter situated about 5 meters above a small tributary. Work in 2013 and 2014 consisted of excavation of a 1x7 meter trench running from outside the dripline to the back wall of the shelter. Deposits are approximately 2 meters deep, and appear to be largely stratigraphically intact. Over 300 projectile points/preforms and tools were recovered from the test trench, and include fluted, Clovis-like bifaces, conical blade core fragments, and large blades from the lowest stratigraphic level. Overlying and stratigraphically distinct from this lower level are points ranging from late Paleoindian, Early-Middle-and Late Archaic, and Woodland time periods. Numerous bone, shell, and antler artifacts and tools were also recovered. Ongoing work at the site focuses on geoarchaeological analysis to resolve formation and chronological issues, analysis of stone tool technology and point morphology (with the immediate goal of determining the cultural affiliation of the fluted biface assemblage from the basal stratigraphic unit), and continued excavation.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• The Frison Institute/Geoarchaeology Interest Group Symposium: Archaeology and Geoarchaeology of Rockshelters and Caves

Keywords

Spatial Coverage