New Archaeobotanical Data from the Late Pleistocene Occupations of McDonald Creek

Summary

This is an abstract from the "McDonald Creek and Blair Lakes: Late Pleistocene-Holocene Human Activity in the Tanana Flats of Central Alaska" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

What can archaeobotany tell us about past landscapes and human behavior at McDonald Creek during the Late Pleistocene? Since 2016, systematic charcoal and phytolith sampling has been performed at McDonald Creek with the following aims: (1) reconstruct the ligneous vegetation and investigate firewood management practices, and (2) test the potential of phytolith analysis to provide not only paleoenvironmental, but also paleoeconomic data. The results obtained so far on charcoal and phytolith assemblages from component 1 (Bölling/Alleröd interstadial, just after 14,000 ky BP) and 2 (Younger Dryas, around 12,600 ky BP) indicate that the occupations took place within a similar shrub-tundra landscape, while pronounced taxonomic choices operated in favor of willow (*Salix spp.) for fuel. The phytolith morphotypes identified at McDonald Creek are coherent with the ones found in similar environments. However, some assemblages are characterized by abnormally high proportions of “platelet” and “jigsaw puzzle” morphotypes, indicating a deliberate input of angiosperm leaf material, which could have taken place only during the summer, maybe in order to fulfil specific hearth functions. Thus, our results have important environmental, seasonal, and behavioral implications that are discussed in this poster in light of current archaeological and ethnoarchaeological data.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• McDonald Creek and Blair Lakes: Late Pleistocene-Holocene Human Activity in the Tanana Flats of Central Alaska

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 32024