Geoarchaeology of the Coffey Site, Northeastern Kansas: Implications for Finding the Material Remains of Paleoamericans in the Eastern Plains, USA

Author(s): Rolfe Mandel

Year: 2017

Summary

The Coffey site in the Big Blue River valley of northeastern Kansas is best known for its stratified Middle Archaic components. However, recent investigations at the site recorded stratified Late and Middle Paleoindian cultural deposits and what may be an Early Paleoindian or Pre-Clovis component in the late member of the Severance Formation, a Wisconsinan-age lithostratigraphic unit that occurs as a remnant beneath the T-1 terrace of the Blue River. The late member of the Severance Formation appears to span Marine Isotope Stage 2 and records valley activity just prior to and during cool and dry conditions that coincide with the accumulation of Peoria Loess and related eolian sand on the T-2 terrace and upland landscapes. This paper addresses the stratigraphic context of the Paleoindian components in the Severance Formation at the Coffey site and considers the potential for pre-Clovis cultural deposits in the Severance at Coffey and elsewhere in the Eastern Plains of the U.S.

Cite this Record

Geoarchaeology of the Coffey Site, Northeastern Kansas: Implications for Finding the Material Remains of Paleoamericans in the Eastern Plains, USA. Rolfe Mandel. Presented at The 81st Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Vancouver, British Columbia. 2017 ( tDAR id: 430743)

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Keywords

Spatial Coverage

min long: -113.95; min lat: 30.751 ; max long: -97.163; max lat: 48.865 ;

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 17671