Incorporating Soil Micromorphology into First American Research: A Tale of Two Sites

Summary

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

Over the past several decades, the application of soil and sediment micromorphology in geoarchaeology has flourished, especially outside of the Americas. Despite widespread acceptance and use of various micromorphological techniques by our European counterparts, a similar fluorescence has yet to occur among geoarchaeologists who are focused on the early archaeological record in the Americas. Here, we demonstrate the utility of soil micromorphology at two Paleoindian sites: Bluefish Caves in the Yukon Territory of Canada and the Genevieve Lykes Duncan (GLD) site in the Chihuahuan Desert of Southwest Texas. The Bluefish Caves site consists of four rockshelters preserving loess and colluvium, and GLD is an open-air site with stratified cultural deposits in alluvium. In addition to being in dissimilar geomorphic and bioclimatic setting, the sites have different paleoclimatic histories. Here, we show how soil micromorphology can address issues of stratigraphic integrity, evaluate site formation processes, and aid in paleoenvironmental reconstructions. We suggest that the future of First American research should consider incorporating micromorphological analyses into geoarchaeological research designs.

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): 40304.0