Hell Gap Versus High Plains: A Comparison of Site-Specific and Regional Paleoindian Chronologies

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Hell Gap at 60: Myth? Reality? What Has It Taught Us?" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In the 1960s, the Hell Gap site in eastern Wyoming produced at least eight archaeological cultural complexes that spanned almost the entire Paleoindian period, becoming the key chronological site for Plains Paleoindian archaeology and beyond. High resolution spatial and chronological data spanning this occupational sequence were collected over more than a decade of field investigations. Recent analysis of these data by Pelton resulted in the publication of an updated Paleoindian chronology for Hell Gap. In 2016-2018, using distinct methods, Grund independently produced a High Plains Paleoindian chronology by compiling, vetting, and synthesizing radiocarbon dates from the region. This poster reports the results of our joint effort to compare, contrast, and synthesize these two projects’ results in terms of age, precision, age range, and other factors. We discuss the benefits and challenges of comparing site-specific and regional chronologies.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)   •
• Hell Gap at 60: Myth? Reality? What Has It Taught Us?

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 23549