Identifying and Investigating a Deeply Buried Activity Area at the La Prele Mammoth Site

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Papers in Celebration of Bruce B. Huckell, Part 1" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Between 2014 and 2022 extensive excavations at the La Prele Mammoth site (48CO1401) have identified at least three hearth centered activity areas associated with a subadult Columbian mammoth. The archaeological deposits at the site (ca. 12,940) are found at least three meters below modern ground surface making it difficult to identify additional activity areas and site boundaries using traditional testing techniques. To better understand the site’s extent, we placed nearly 200 augers across the site terrace resulting in the identification and excavation of a fourth activity area more than 30 meters from the previously known site extent. This new area, Block E, continues to inform our understanding of the Pleistocene occupation at La Prele including addressing questions about mobility, subsistence, and social organization. Finally, this study shows the efficacy of auger surveys for targeted testing of deep deposits on known archaeological sites.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Papers in Celebration of Bruce B. Huckell, Part 1   •
• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 52369