Predictive Modeling of Early Archaic Bolen Site Distribution in Northwestern Florida, USA

Summary

Site visibility has long been an issue for late Pleistocene/early Holocene research in the southeastern United States, partially due to modern forest cover and partially due to large portions of the Southeast having been submerged by more than 80 meters of sea level rise.  However, a large number of Late Paleoindian/Early Archaic Bolen artifacts have been discovered in Jefferson and Taylor counties in northern Florida, including dozens from underwater sites that were inundated post-depositionally. Surface collecting underwater and on land has occurred in this area has also occurred for well over 100 years, which has produced a robust database of site distributions. By using GIS to conduct spatial analysis, we aim to determine what environmental factors led to Bolen site preservation. This model will map out where Bolen points occur in situ to positively weight areas for site preservation and selection and negatively weight extensively collected sites where they have not been found, in order to create a robust model for discovering new Bolen sites. 

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 22441