Geoarchaeological Investigations at Bone Bed 1, Bonfire Shelter: Implications for Evidence of Early Paleoindian Site Use

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In the summer of 2018, Texas State University returned to Bone Bed 1 at Bonfire Shelter, a stratified rockshelter in the Lower Pecos Canyonlands of Val Verde County, Texas. Excavations in 2017 and 2018 confirmed the presence of Pleistocene fauna in the potentially earlier than Clovis deposits of Bone Bed 1. However, evidence of cultural activity was limited to the bone breakage patterns observed in the 1960s and 1980s. Previous investigators speculated that geological processes may have impacted the integrity of Bonfire’s archaeological deposits, scouring away cultural material or artificially introducing faunal remains. This paper explores the taphonomic processes associated with Bone Bed 1, reporting the results of intensive geoarchaeological analysis and microartifact sampling conducted during 2017/2018. The results of the 2017 loss on ignition, particle size, and magnetic susceptibility assays have been supplemented with X-ray diffraction, total organic carbon, and stable carbon/nitrogen isotope analyses to deconstruct the depositional environment of Bone Bed 1. Over 80 sediment samples specifically targeting residual lithic debitage associated with large animal butchery and stone tool resharpening were analyzed. This paper contextualizes the presence of faunal remains within Bone Bed 1 and broadly explores the role of rockshelters within Early Paleoindian subsistence strategies.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 25579