Late Quaternary Site Formation Processes and Archaeological Site Preservation Potential of the Lower Aucilla River, Florida

Summary

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

For more than four decades the lower Aucilla River in northwest Florida has been recognized for its impressive late Pleistocene archaeological site preservation and its potential to further our understanding of Americas earliest indigenous inhabitants. Within the mid-channel collapse sinkholes of this river, dozens of late Pleistocene archaeological sites lie inundated in both surficial and buried contexts. However, only three of these sites have been thoroughly investigated, including the 14,550-year-old Page-Ladson site. While it has been demonstrated that dateable late Pleistocene deposits containing in situ archaeological material are present within the mid channel sinkholes of the Aucilla River, the extent of these deposits and the late Pleistocene site preservation potential for much of the lower Aucilla River still remains unknown. This paper discusses recent research focused on the geoarchaeological investigation of seven mid-channel sinkholes within the lower Aucilla River through sediment coring, geoarchaeological excavation, and high-precision radiocarbon dating.

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): 38862.0