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Prehistoric settlement and landscape change on alluvial fans in the upper Mississippi river valley
Author(s) -
Stafford C. Russell,
Leigh David S.,
Asch David L.
Publication year - 1992
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.3340070402
Subject(s) - aggradation , overbank , geology , alluvial fan , sedimentary depositional environment , holocene , woodland , landform , archaeology , fluvial , vegetation (pathology) , floodplain , paleontology , sedimentary rock , geography , ecology , structural basin , biology , medicine , cartography , pathology
Geoarchaeological studies of alluvial fans in the northern Sny Bottom (Upper Mississippi River valley) focused on distal fan lobe processes, the effects of small‐scale landscape change on prehistoric locational decisions, and the resulting structure of the archaeological record. Aerial imagery together with coring and trenching of paleochannels on distal lobes found that frequent channel avulsion (1) produced abrupt landform/habitat changes and (2) shifted the primary loci of sediment deposition on fans through time. Analysis of wood charcoal from prehistoric occupations indicates that vegetation succession during post‐avulsion overbank aggradation along a new channel was characterized by a shift from Fraxinus ‐dominated to mesophytic forest. Results also indicate that use of fans by Early Woodland (ca. 2550–2100 B.P.) and other foragers centered on portions along active channels. Shifting depositional loci on fans led to surfaces and depositional units of varying age, and hence a complex stratigraphic record of Holocene occupations.