The Claussen Archaeological Site: Prehistory Of The Flint Hills

On a warm afternoon in May 2000, I was walking along Mill Creek in Wabaunsee County inspecting soils and sediment exposed in a steep stream bank that stands about thirty feet above the creek. It is a common routine for me. Most of my research involves reconstructing the geology, paleoecology, and archaeology of stream valleys, so I look for places where creeks and rivers have cut into their own deposits. These cutbanks are my “windows” into the past

The Evolution of Stream Valleys in the Flint Hills

Introduction: One of my favorite books is Norman Maclean’s semi-autobiographical novel, A River Runs Through It. Maclean was fascinated with Montana’s Big Blackfoot River and streams in general, and he was masterful at weaving them into metaphors. I am also fascinated with rivers but in a different way. For the past forty years I have studied the evolution of individual stream valleys, as well as entire drainage basins, and much of my research has focused on rivers and creeks in the Flint Hills

20,000 Years of Change: Plants, Animals, and People in the Flint Hills

In September 1806, explorer Zebulon Montgomery Pike ventured into what is now Chase County and observed a rugged, rocky landscape he named the Flint Hills. This article explores the transformation of the area through thousands of years

Review of \u3ci\u3e Principles of Geoarchaeology: A North American Perspective\u3c/i\u3e by Michael R. Waters

First published in 1992, this book-now in paper-presents the fundamentals of geoarchaeology, the field of study that applies the concepts and methods of the geosciences to archaeological research. Although a number of good books have been written about this subdiscipline of archaeology, Waters restricts his review to late Quaternary landscapes in North America. Furthermore, he limits his discussion to the field aspects of geoarchaeology. Stratigraphy, site formation processes, and landscape reconstruction are the centerpieces of this study. Readers looking for information about laboratory methods, dating techniques, or the application of geophysics and geochemistry to archaeology must go to other sources. Waters\u27s topical, temporal, and geographical focus is, nonetheless, effective, allowing for detailed discussions of geoarchaeological concepts and field methods that are directly applicable to archaeological research in North America. A broader scope would have diluted his effort

Review of \u3ci\u3e Soils in Archaeological Research\u3c/i\u3e by Vance T. Holliday

When I teach geoarchaeology, I tell students on the first day of class that soils are the canvas for much of the archaeological record. Just as an artist\u27s canvas holds and affects the paint, soils hold archaeological materials, and soil-forming processes strongly influence the preservation and spatial pattern of cultural deposits. Given this close relationship between soils and the material remains of humans, we have long needed a treatise that addresses all aspects of soils from an archaeological perspective. Vance Holliday\u27s latest book, Soils in Archaeological Research, does this and more

Avian Taphonomy at Bluefish Caves, Yukon, Canada

A recent analysis of the mammal bones from Bluefish Caves (northern Yukon Territory, Canada) suggests that modern humans visited the site on several occasions for short-term hunting activities as early as 23,500 calibrated years BP. Here we apply taphonomic methods to the avian remains recovered from the caves. Seventeen genera of birds are identified in the assemblage, including 450 ptarmigan individuals (Lagopus lagopus and Lagopus muta). We discuss paleoenvironmental implications and show that carnivores and birds of prey (e.g., foxes, Snowy Owls) were likely responsible for most of the accumulation and modification of avian remains. Human intervention, however, is reported on one Snow Goose bone and possibly on ptarmigan bones.Une analyse récente des ossements de mammifères des Grottes du Poisson-Bleu (nord du Territoire du Yukon, Canada) suggère que les hommes modernes ont visité le site à plusieurs reprises pour des activités de chasse de courte durée dès 23 500 années calibrées avant le présent. Des méthodes d’analyses taphonomiques sont ici appliquées aux restes aviaires retrouvés dans les grottes. Dix-sept genres d’oiseaux sont identifiés, dont 450 lagopèdes (Lagopus lagopus et Lagopus muta). Nous discutons des implications paléoenvironnementales et suggérons que les carnivores et les oiseaux de proie (comme le renard et le harfang des neiges) sont probablement responsables de la majeure partie de l’accumulation et de la modification des restes aviaires. Une intervention humaine est toutefois signalée sur un os d’oie des neiges et peut-être également sur des restes de lagopède

The first occurrence of a toxodont (Mammalia, Notoungulata) in the United States

This is the publisher's version, also available electronically from http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02724634.2012.711405#.U1qJK4UvDGJ.Toxodonts were a group of large-sized notoungulates of South American origin. They were diverse and widespread in South America in deposits ranging in age from late Oligocene to late Pleistocene. Sparse remains have been found from the Pleistocene of isolated regions of Central America. All of the Central American specimens have been referred to the genus Mixotoxodon (Van Frank, 1950). They were not previously known north of the southern Mexican states of Michoacan and Veracruz, except for an unconfirmed report of an occurrence in Tamaulipas (Arroyo-Cabrales et al., 2010). Here we report the occurrence of a single toxodont tooth, a left upper third molar, from late Pleistocene deposits in Harris County, Texas (30◦N). This is the first record of toxodonts, or any notoungulate, in the United States and extends the geographic range of this group 1600 km north of their previously known localities at Hihuitlán, Michoacan (18◦52' 3"0 N, 103◦24' 14 "W) and La Estribera, Veracruz (18◦07 '01.27" N, 94◦53 '15.59W) (Polaco et al., 2004) to latitude 30◦N

Systematic Approach to Identifying Deeply Buried Archeological Deposits

This project is designed to assist cultural resource specialists involved in Nebraska Department of Transportation (NDOT) and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) project planning and development. The goal was to develop Geographic Information System (GIS) data layers that spatially delineate different landform-sediment assemblages (LSAs) and depict the associated geologic potential for buried cultural deposits in select watersheds in Nebraska. The Nebraska Buried Sites GIS resource will allow planners and cultural resource specialists to determine whether future project areas are likely to be free of deeply buried sites or whether subsurface exploration is necessary

The Honey Creek Member: A New Holocene Alluvial Stratigraphic Unit in the Midwest

This paper describes the type locality and type section for the Honey Creek Member, a stratigraphic unit first recognized in the Honey Creek drainage in southeastern Nebraska. The alluvial chronology for Honey Creek basin is similar to the regional chronology of streams in the Midwest, and all of the formal members of the DeForest Formation occur in the basin. However, the lithology of one unit, the Honey Creek Member, does not correlate with any of the formally recognized members of the DeForest Formation. The Honey Creek Member is composed of grayish brown silt loam overbank facies coarsening downward to a gravelly loam channel facies with prominent, large-scale cross-bedding. At its type locality, aggradation of the Honey Creek Member occurred from ca. 3700 14C yrs. B.P. to ca. 600 14C yrs. B.P. Paleochannels preserved within the unit suggest that aggradation was interrupted by at least two episodes of channel entrenchment and filling. The Honey Creek Member is significant because it has been identified within many basins across the eastern Plains. Recognition and detailed mapping of this unit facilitates our understanding of fluvial behavior during the late Holocene

Using the factors of soil formation to assess stable carbon isotope disequilibrium in late Pleistocene (MIS 3) buried soils of the Great Plains, North America

The stable carbon isotope composition of both soil organic matter (SOM) and pedogenic carbonate are widely used as paleoenvironmental proxies. This study utilizes δ13C analyses to reconstruct bioclimatic change from a series of buried soils in the central Great Plains of North America that developed between ca. 44–24 ka. Results revealed a paradoxical isotopic disequilibrium between the isotopic composition of bulk SOM (δ13CSOM) and pedogenic carbonate (δ13Ccarb). Specifically, Δ13C values are 0.1 to 6.3 per mil greater than the highest expected equilibrium value of 17 per mil in the Bk horizons. In contrast, Δ13C values are 0.1 to 4.8 per mil lower than the lowest expected equilibrium value of 14 per mil in the Ak horizons. A soil-forming factor approach was utilized to establish multiple working hypotheses regarding the influence of climate, vegetation, parent material, and time on the observed isotopic disequilibrium. Of the various hypotheses presented, we suggest that the following most likely explain the observed isotopic disequilibrium. The greater-than-expected Δ13C values in the Bk horizons most likely reflects seasonal bias in pedogenic carbonate formation, resulting in an apparent C4-biased signal. The lower-than-expected Δ13C values in the Ak horizons remains perplexing. The most likely explanation is that detrital carbonate contributions affected the δ13Ccarb record or that the δ13Ccarb and δ13CSOM records are asynchronous. Overall, it appears that different factors have affected the δ13CSOM and δ13Ccarb records independently and therefore results of this study highlight the importance of assessing pedogenic carbonates for isotopic equilibrium as well as the need to understand past environmental conditions (i.e., soil-forming factors) when interpreting isotopic trends