The ‘chronological dilemma’ of late Pleistocene fossil remains and human artifacts in cave deposits in the western U.S.: false and real associations explained

Summary

This is an abstract from the "2025 Fryxell Award Symposium: Papers in Honor of David J. Meltzer Part I" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Many cave deposits in the western U.S. are rich in late Pleistocene vertebrate fossils and plant remains preserved in sediments and packrat middens. These caves are usually deep, dry, and located in arid environments where preservation and mummification of organic remains is highest. Many of these same caves were often used by prehistoric peoples for hunting camps, shelters, or ceremonial purposes as evinced by cultural features, artifact assemblages and/or pictographs or petroglyphs on cave walls. Radiocarbon dating can reveal chronological differences between human artifacts and Pleistocene fossils, creating a dilemma for explaining their apparent association. Here I describe several cases of caves with apparent associations of human artifacts with Pleistocene fossils in Texas, Arizona, and Nevada that resulted from either slow sedimentation rates in caves during the Holocene, leaving Pleistocene remains on the surface where human artifacts later accumulated, or mixing of sediments by burrowing rodents. Deliberate associations also are possible and may relate to recognition of ‘ancestral animals’ in bones and fecal remains of species no longer present in the region when human occupation began. Taphonomic consideration of these cave deposits can help resolve this ‘chronological dilemma’ to determine whether these associations are real or false.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• 2025 Fryxell Award Symposium: Papers in Honor of David J. Meltzer Part I

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 51131