Two Paleoarchaic Sites along Wind Creek in Riley County, Kansas

Summary

CEMML archaeologists recently identified and tested two closely related Paleoarchaic sites, 14RY8129 and 14RY8130, on the Fort Riley Installation. These sites are positioned on the south side of Wind Creek, which is a minor perennial tributary of Wildcat Creek, and part of the larger Kansas River watershed. Survey and testing at the two sites recovered several fragmentary projectile points diagnostic of the Paleoindian and Early Archaic periods, including a unifacially fluted Clovis point; a possible Hell Gap variant or Milnesand stemmed point; and a side-notched Logan Creek point from the Early Archaic Period. Other artifacts include debitage, biface fragments, and other tools that were recovered from surface and subsurface testing. We explore variability in the proportion and breadth of lithic reduction activities performed at these two sites. We also discuss the relationship between 14RY8129 and 8130 and other Paleoarchaic sites in Kansas and the eastern Plains, as well as why certain locales could have been preferentially selected, based on Late Quaternary and Early Holocene environments, and early hunter-gatherers’ subsistence strategies.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage