The Alluvial Geochronology of Pharo Village and Implications for Cycles of Site Occupation and Abandonment

Summary

The results of geoarchaeological investigations at Pharo Village, a Fremont hamlet situated on an alluvial fan in central Utah, are reported in order to reveal how changes in alluvial dynamics contributed to the rise of Fremont farming there as well as the site’s eventual abandonment. Cutbanks along Pharo Creek, the meandering stream adjacent to Pharo Village, were mapped and sampled during fieldwork. Field and subsequent laboratory analysis allowed reconstruction of the alluvial geochronology at the site. Carbon samples from mapped sections and buried paleosols were radiocarbon dated and correlated to additional dates generated from the site’s archaeological collection housed at the Natural History Museum of Utah, both from hearths and artifact typologies. Buried soils examined in mapped sections indicate a period of stability on the landform where Pharo Village is located, and could explain when and why the Fremont utilized this and similar locations. The relationship of a high energy flood deposit above the buried soil sections contributes to the discussion concerning site abandonment. From these data, interpretations are made regarding the contributions of local alluvial shifts to the overall termination of Pharo Village occupations, and related hypotheses are posited concerning the end of the Fremont Complex around 600 BP.

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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