Modeling Proglacial Shore Lines of Glacial Lake Agassiz Around Prehistoric Quarries in Northern Minnesota

Author(s): Andrew Anklam; Dan Wendt

Year: 2018

Summary

Since 2009 the Knife Lake siltstone quarries in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness of Minnesota U.S. quarry district have been the focus of archaeological and geoarchaeological research. A recent survey conducted in 2014 and 2015 identified several relic beach features at varying elevations above the current water line of Knife Lake. GIS was used to model and predict these proglacial lake shoreline features to better understand the procurement patterns of Knife Lake siltstone, a prominent lithic material in Minnesota. It is believed that these beachlines were formed by successive phases of a proglacial lake and may relate to an eastern extension of glacial Lake Agassiz during the Late Paleoindian period when several of the Knife Lake quarries were active.

Using the elevation of relic beach features identified by survey, several different inundation maps were made using GIS to visualize the Knife Lake area during each of the different phases of the hypothesized proglacial lake. The maps were made using LiDAR data freely available from the Minnesota Geospatial office. These maps are being used to help archaeologists better understand the potential distribution of archaeological sites on relic beaches at an unexpected distance from the present extent of Knife Lake.

Cite this Record

Modeling Proglacial Shore Lines of Glacial Lake Agassiz Around Prehistoric Quarries in Northern Minnesota. Andrew Anklam, Dan Wendt. Presented at The 82nd Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Washington, DC. 2018 ( tDAR id: 442807)

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

Spatial Coverage

min long: -103.975; min lat: 36.598 ; max long: -80.42; max lat: 48.922 ;

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 20016