Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Geoarchaeological Investigations into Paleoindian Adaptations at the Aucilla River, Northwest Florida

Texas A&M Research Foundation, College Station TX

Investigators

Abstract

Under the direction of Dr. Michael Waters, Ms Jessi Halligan will collect data for her doctoral dissertation. She will conduct a combined archaeological and geological study of the one section of the Aculla River channel in northwestern Florida. Submerged sinkholes within the Aucilla River have yielded some of the richest information available about Paleoindian material culture, with bone and ivory tools complementing more common lithic artifacts. These sites are uniquely able to address ongoing debates in Paleoindian research because dateable organic artifacts, faunal remains, botanical remains, and stone artifacts exist in potentially-intact late Pleistocene contexts. Many of these remains have previously been discovered in submerged secondary context within the river channel, and very little survey has been undertaken in the adjacent cypress swamps. Many diagnostic artifact types lack relative or absolute dates. This project addresses how Paleoindians used the limestone based karst drainage of the Aucilla River during the Pleistocene/Holocene transition (PHT) (approximately 15-10,000 years ago). Ms Halligan will first define the late Pleistocene and Holocene geological record and then create a model of site formation processes in this fluvial system. She will conduct both underwater and terrestrial fieldwork and combine this research with data from four previously-excavated sites in the drainage. Fieldwork will investigate two submerged sinks with Paleoindian artifacts, the Wayne's Sink site (8JE1556/TA287) and the Sloth Hole site (8JE121), and the terrestrial landscape between them. Cores have been collected from both sites to record sediment profiles and establish the geological history of the area. Sub-surface survey of the terrestrial landforms will be performed and excavation several units underwater and on land will be conducted. All data will then be evaluated with archival data from previously-excavated sites in different settings in the drainage basin to create models of site formation and Paleoindian land use. As the first geoarchaeological study specifically aimed at creating a model of site formation processes in karst fluvial systems, this project will greatly enhance knowledge of how, why, and where sites preserve in the rivers of northwestern Florida. The model will help establish where the cultural record has preserved and where it had been disturbed and help define how karstic systems impact archaeology. The analysis of intact material culture will inform upon Paleoindian behavior in the Southeast, which will help address broader questions of Paleoindian settlement, subsistence, and cultural choices. Finally, the research will explicate landform development and change throughout the Holocene in an area actively affected by sea-level rise. This project will contribute both to Florida archaeology and to Paleoindian studies by providing more chronological control and contextual information about a series of important early sites. By modeling a landscape that was well-utilized by people in an area where multiple lines of evidence can be brought to bear upon the topic, it will be possible to understand how at least one group of humans in the past adapted to rapid and potentially-catastrophic climate change.