Open Air Site Formation in Low Deposition Environments

Summary

Studies of intra-camp spatial organization and activity area patterning in open air camps often result in significant insights into forager behavior and social organization, but the complex spatial patterning in artifact distribution that can occur from the combination of long-term habitation, repeated habitation of the same area (due to reoccupations or to natural and/or cultural bounded space), and natural formation processes can be difficult to disentangle. A first step in doing so, however, is clarifying the effects of natural processes. Here we focus on the role that natural formation processes played in producing the spatial distribution of artifacts seen at the Mountaineer Folsom site. The site is in a low deposition environment, with less than 50 cm of Aeolian sediments deposited on the site since its occupation 10,450 years ago. As such, natural mechanisms such as cryoturbation, bioturbation, burning, treefall, and trampling play a significant role in altering original artifact associations. Furthermore the characteristics of the natural bedrock geology of the site are critical for understanding how Folsom foragers constructed the habitations structures.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• Open Air Camps of the Terminal Pleistocene and Early Holocene: Intra-Camp Spatial Organization, Activity Areas, and Technology

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 16111