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Geoarchaeology of the Burntwood Creek Rockshelter (14RW418), Northwest Kansas
Murphy, Laura Renee
Murphy, Laura Renee
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Abstract
The Burntwood Creek rockshelter (14RW418) in northwestern Kansas is a large, amphitheater-shaped alcove formed in the Ogallala Formation, a late Miocene/Pliocene-age lithostratigraphic unit underlying the High Plains surface. The processes of rockshelter formation are ascertained through (1) description of the soils and sediments, (2) analysis of the geometry of sedimentary units, (3) grain-size analysis, and (4) thin-section analysis of a carbonate mass. Stable carbon isotope and phytolith data are used to reconstruct late-Quaternary paleoenvironments, and to explore prehistoric Native American subsistence strategies. Results indicate the rockshelter formed by groundwater sapping, and that a complex plant community existed in or around the rockshelter and changed in composition during the late Holocene. Archaeological excavations exposed a 3 m-thick package of late-Quaternary alluvial and colluvial deposits in front of the shelter. These deposits contain stratified Late Plains Archaic and possibly Late Paleoindian cultural materials. Near the back of the shelter, three buried soils are developed in the upper 1.5 m of colluvium.
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Date
2008-07-31
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University of Kansas
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Keywords
Anthropology, Archaeology, Geography, Geology