Exploring Land Usage at Tannehill State Park: Giving Artifacts a Context through Watershed Mapping

Summary

Tannehill Historical State Park encompasses a resource rich environment that has supported human settlement for thousands of years. Dozens of possible sites have been identified across the park’s landscape, but few are thoroughly investigated, leaving a gap in current understanding of settlement patterns and land usage in prehistoric times. Josselyn Site 2G, a large surface collection, is one site where little is known. It holds projectile points indicative of the Middle Archaic, Late Archaic, Early Woodland, and Middle Woodland Periods, indicating regular site usage of the area over of thousands of years. Little was found under the surface at this site, indicating disturbance of the artifacts from their original location, likely caused by erosion or water runoff. This project uses existing site information in conjunction with remote sensing to help expand knowledge of land use and site locations at Tannehill State Park. Digital elevation models are used to map watershed in the region, with the goal of locating the possible original context of the artifacts collected at Josselyn 2G, as well as identifying other possible site locations. It holds the potential to greatly enhance our understanding of long term landscape usage as well as human adaption within the landscape.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

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

Keywords

Spatial Coverage