Multiple approaches to formation processes: The Pine Spring Site, southwest Wyoming

Abstract

AbstractExcavations in 1964 at the Pine Spring site in southwest Wyoming concluded that the site contains three cultural occupation levels; the earliest allegedly dates to the terminal Pleistocene and is associated with megafauna. However, excavations in 1998 and 2000, and analysis of the stratigraphy, AMS dates, micromorphology, and artifact carbonate isotopes, along with debitage refitting, density, orientation, inclination, burning, and trample damage, could not replicate the 1964 findings. A hiatus in deposition accounts for the highest density of artifacts, and the three original occupations are palimpsests. There is no unequivocal association between evidence of human activity and megafaunal remains. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.