Experimental Study of Hunter-Gatherer Base Camp Taphonomy in the Southern Appalachian Highlands

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

An experiment was undertaken to explore contextual and materials taphonomy initiated at the time of hunter-gatherer base camp abandonment in the southern Appalachian highlands. Acting out a fictional ethnography inspired by southeastern ethnohistorical accounts, twelve humans, accompanied by two dogs, made stone tools, and processed subsistence items and deposited the remains in various contexts on an experimental site. Activities and deposits were mapped, and a motion-activated camera monitored scavenger activity for four weeks. Five years later the site was excavated. Smaller items had moved considerable distances, and most subsistence remains, especially bones of white-tailed deer, had been removed from the site by scavengers. This experiment reveals that precise reconstructions of human diets based on surface deposits are untenable.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38528.0