Using Micro and Macrobotanical Analyses to Assess Socio-economic Strategies at 48PA551, the McKean Occupation in the Sunlight Basin, Wyoming

Summary

This is an abstract from the "New Multidisciplinary Research at 48PA551: A Middle Archaic (McKean Complex) Site in Northwest Wyoming" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Located in the Absaroka Mountains of northwest Wyoming site 48PA51 is unique for its pithouse, rock pile surrounded by deer skull caps with antlers, abundant hearths and pit features, large number of dart points and groundstone, and substantial faunal assemblage. These features and the artifact assemblages associated suggest a winter-sedentism pattern with increasing social complexity. In order to test hypotheses about Middle-Archaic adaptations, specifically related to plant gathering, processing, and food storage, we examined paleoethnobotanical assemblages recovered during the 2018 excavations from multiple features. We report findings from micro- (starch) and macrobotanical analyses in addition to efforts to identify plant foods used in the past via ethnographic inquiry. These data provide a context within which to evaluate alternative hypotheses about Northwestern Plains socio-economic strategies.

Cite this Record

Using Micro and Macrobotanical Analyses to Assess Socio-economic Strategies at 48PA551, the McKean Occupation in the Sunlight Basin, Wyoming. Nicole Herzog, Liz Dolinar, Anna Marie Prentiss. Presented at The 84th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Albuquerque, NM. 2019 ( tDAR id: 450821)

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 25026