Archaeological trash: Geomorphology and early human occupation in Wyoming

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

The waste products of stone tool making and isolated artifacts found on land surfaces can illuminate aspects of human culture and of landscape evolution even though they lack stratigraphic context. Quartzite artifacts and debris occurring on pediments near Pinedale (Wyoming) include cobbles from which multiple flakes have been removed by percussion. Some of the specimens have been polished and abraded by wind-blown sand. Neither feature is represented in the material excavated at the local Holocene site of Trappers Point. The location of the surface finds in relation to topography and the products of glaciation suggests that occupation in Paleo-Indian or perhaps earlier times was more pervasive in Wyoming than suggested by the few settlement or kill sites on the valley floors. It also shows that relying on sealed sites to date the pattern of human movement across the landscape risks underestimating its antiquity.