Utilizing Micromorphology to Identify Past Landscape Modification and the Construction of a Middle Woodland Geometric Enclosure in Central Kentucky

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Future of Geoarchaeology: Student Research and Insights" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The growing use of soil micromorphology has allowed geoarchaeologists to better understand landscape use and modification by people in the past. By identifying the effects that anthropogenic activities have on pedogenesis and the alteration of sediment deposition at the microscopic scale, archaeologists can better relate the processes seen in macro-level bulk analyses of archaeological features with what is visible in such features at the microscopic level. Moreover, micromorphological studies has consistently provided information on human activities and post depositional processes that are not discernable at the macro-scale. We employmicromorphological studies of several contexts associated with the pre-construction and construction contexts of the eastern Bogie Circle, a Middle Woodland (ca. 300 BCE-500 CE)earthen enclosure in Central Kentucky. By analyzing slides from the buried A-horizon beneath the enclosure’s embankment, and slides that are comprised of B- and C-horizon deposits within the enclosure’s embankment fills, we work to better understand what was taking place at the site before and during construction of this monument. We then integrate our findings within the broader context of the landform the enclosure was constructed on and analyses of sediment and soil analyses from a bulk column collected from the embankment.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• The Future of Geoarchaeology: Student Research and Insights

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 54068