Quaternary Chronostratigraphy and Archaeology of Big Bone Lick, Kentucky, USA

Summary

Big Bone Lick in northern Kentucky has been a critical site in the historical development of North American Quaternary vertebrate paleontology and archaeology since the 1700s. Solid-sediment cores, stream profile excavations, vertebrate paleontology, archaeology, accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon and optically stimulated luminescence dating, and stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analyses were undertaken to address the lack of a modern study of the Quaternary chronostratigraphy and to provide a framework for past and future paleontological, geoarcheological and paleoenvironmental studies at BBL and elsewhere throughout the US Midwest. Three major geomorphic surfaces are recognized at BBL, which represent significant periods of floodplain aggradation, since the Last Glacial Maximum. These date to the Early Woodfordian Tazewell (25-19 ka), the Late Woodfordian Cary (14-12 ka), and the Late Holocene (5 ka to the present). Unconformities suggest that significant periods of degradation occurred during the transitions between cold and dry to warm and moist climates from the Older Dryas to Bølling Oscillation and again from the Younger Dryas to the Holocene Climatic Optimum. Increased anthropogenic activities since ~5 ka led to increased soil erosion and floodplain aggradation. Stable isotopes demonstrate that the landscape was dominated by C3 vegetation since the Last Glacial Maximum.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

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