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Stratigraphy and geoarchaeology of the Red Canyon Rockshelter, Crook County, Wyoming
Author(s) -
Abbott James T.
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
geoarchaeology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.696
H-Index - 44
eISSN - 1520-6548
pISSN - 0883-6353
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1520-6548(199707)12:4<315::aid-gea3>3.0.co;2-3
Subject(s) - geology , aeolian processes , canyon , archaeology , excavation , debris , arid , fluvial , alluvium , quaternary , cave , paleontology , geomorphology , structural basin , geography , oceanography
Excavation of a sandstone rockshelter on the northwestern periphery of the Black Hills uplift in Crook County, Wyoming, revealed a sequence of culture‐bearing deposits at least 5 m thick that span the last 6 millennia. Although archaeological strata are present throughout the sequence, artifact return from the shelter was low, and chemical and micromorphological analyses demonstrate that anthropic alterations of the sediments are limited. This indicates that the shelter served as short‐term, expedient cover for people moving through the area rather than a locus of long‐term habitation. Evolution of the shelter involved a series of massive roof‐collapse episodes that formed internal sediment traps that subsequently infilled with highly stratified gravels, silts, and sands. These deposits are interdigitated with dipping slopewash strata that represent a mixture of exogenic and endogenic sediments. One stratum appears to represent substantial input of eolian dust between approximately 4500 B.P. and 3300 B.P. Although the overall evolution of the shelter is largely a function of intrinsic processes not related directly to climate change, the presence of eolian dust implies that the climate may have been more arid during this time period than at present, although local degradation of the landscape may have actually been responsible. ©1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.