Relative Dating of Classic Vernal Fremont Rock Art in Cub Creek, Dinosaur National Monument

Summary

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

Located in Utah’s northern Uinta Basin, the Cub Creek area of Dinosaur National Monument contains examples of Fremont pithouses, upland roasting features, diverse artifact assemblages, and panels of Classic-Vernal-style Fremont rock art. The Classic Vernal rock art style is characterized by geometric patterns, animals, and heavily stylized anthropomorphic figures in both petroglyph and pictographic formats. Using a robust record of 41 radiocarbon ages, the Fremont pithouses in Cub Creek were built and occupied around 750-1050 CE. Understanding the correlation of the Cub Creek rock art to the dates of pithouse construction could contribute to the understanding of emergent leadership within Fremont society, especially if these results are replicable to other regional pithouse and rock art sites. With the eventual goal of developing an absolute chronology, in this poster I use relative dating methods to create a timeline that compares the window of pithouse construction in the Cub Creek area of Dinosaur National Monument with the creation of local Classic Vernal rock art. These results have implications for the age and meaning of other rock art and pithouse sites found in the northern Uinta Basin, as well as for the emergence of leadership in transitional agricultural societies.

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): 26174