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Geoarchaeology of the Water Canyon Paleoindian site, west‐central New Mexico
Author(s) -
Holliday Vance T.,
DelloRusso Robert D.,
Mentzer Susan M.
Publication year - 2019
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/gea.21765
Subject(s) - canyon , geology , alluvial fan , projectile point , archaeology , pleistocene , geoarchaeology , alluvium , wetland , deposition (geology) , stratum , paleontology , geomorphology , geography , sediment , sedimentary rock , ecology , biology
Water Canyon is a rare buried, multicomponent, stratified Paleoindian site in west‐central New Mexico. This paper presents a geoarchaeological assessment of the site as part of a broader interdisciplinary investigation of its paleoenvironmental history and archaeology. The archaeology is associated with ancient wetland deposits (Stratum 6) within an alluvial fan. The fan formed initially through the late Pleistocene. Formation of the fan stopped and wetland deposition began ~11,310 14 C yr BP (~13,170 cal yr BP). Stratum 6 evolved via wetland deposition and cut‐and‐fill cycles. The bulk of Stratum 6 dates <10,300 14 C yr BP (<12,200 cal yr BP). One, or possibly two, beds of bison bone, likely processing‐stations, were found on the margin of the paleowetland and date to ~9,200 14 C yr BP (~10,400 cal yr BP) (lower bone bed) and ~8,200 14 C yr BP (~9,150 cal yr BP) (upper bone bed). Farther out in the paleo‐wetland a probable kill site was discovered with an in situ Eden projectile point dated to at least ~8,955 14 C yr BP (~10,070 cal yr BP). The wetland landscape returned to an alluvial fan system <8,000 14 C yr BP (<8,900 cal yr BP) with two more cycles of fan deposition by ~6,500 cal yr.