Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-mp689 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T05:01:45.474Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Differential Temporal and Spatial Preservation of Archaeological Sites in a Great Lakes Coastal Zone

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

William A. Lovis ,
G. William Monaghan ,
Alan F. Arbogast  and
Steven L. Forman
William A. Lovis
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology and MSU Museum, 355 Baker Hall, 655 Auditorium Road, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824-1118 (lovis@msu.edu)
G. William Monaghan
Affiliation:
Mathers Museum/Glenn A. Black Laboratory of Archaeology, 423 North Fess Street, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47408 (gmonagha@indiana.edu)
Alan F. Arbogast
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, 121 Geography Building, 673 Auditorium Road, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824-1117 (dunes@msu.edu)
Steven L. Forman
Affiliation:
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, 2440 Science and Engineering Science, 845 West Taylor Street, University of Illinois Chicago, Chicago, IL 80607-7059 (slf@uic.edu)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Analysis of regional site taphonomy that incorporates depositional and postdepositional histories has become increasingly important in understanding the nature of preserved site populations and the strategies necessary for their discovery. We applied a systematic archival and field strategy directed at understanding such taphonomic processes in the coastal sand dunes of the northern and eastern Lake Michigan basin, and coupled these with a tactically directed program of OSL, 14C, and AMS dating. We demonstrate that long-term geological processes including lake level variation, episodic dune activation and stabilization, and the long-term effects of postglacial isostatic adjustments have markedly affected the potential for preservation of sites in coastal dune contexts over time and across subregions of the basin. Preservation potential for different time periods in coastal dunes is largely not synchronous with that of southern Michigan floodplains, posing substantial inferential problems. The archaeology of coastal dunes specifically, and coastal zones generally, must be used with extreme caution when cast against archaeological data from landforms with different formation processes and histories. While particularly true for the Great Lakes region, these results have implications for regional research broadly.

Resumen

Resumen

El análisis de la tafonomía regional de sitios que incorporan las historias deposicionales y pos-deposicionales se ha vuelto aún más importante en el entendimiento de las características de poblaciones preservadas en su emplazamiento y las estrategias necesarias para su descubrimiento. Aplicamos una estrategia sistemática de gabinete y campo enfocada al entendímiento de dichos procesos tafonómicos en las dunas costeras de la cuenca septentrional y oriental del Lago Michigan. Asimismo combinamos este proceso con otro diseñado tácticamente de dotación por Luminiscencia Estimulada Ópticamente (LEO/OSL), C14 y Espectómetro Acelerado de Masas (EAM/AMS). De este modo, mostramos que los procesos geológicos a largo plazo, incluyendo la variación de nivel del lago, la activación y estabilización episódica de las dunas, y los efectos a largo plazo de ajustes isostáticos pos-glaciales, han influido en la posibilidad de preservar los sitios en los contextos temporales de dunas costeras, a través de las subregiones de la cuenca. La posibilidad de preservar distintos periodos de tiempo en dunas costeras no es sincrónica con la de los llanos aluviales del sur de Michigan, causando graves problemas inferenciales. Específicamente, la arqueología en las dunas costeras, y en las zonas costeras en general, se debe de practicar con mucha precaución cuando se comparan datos arqueológicos de geomorfologías con distintas historias y procesos deformación. Aún cuando estos procesos han dado resultados positivos en la investigación de la región de los Grandes Lagos, es importante recalcar que este tipo de investigación regional se puede aplicar ampliamente a otras regiones.

Type
Report
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 77 , Issue 3 , July 2012 , pp. 591 - 608
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Aitken, Martin J. 1998 An Introduction to Optical Dating. Oxford University Press, London.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arbogast, Alan F. 2009 Sand Dunes in Michigan. In Michigan: Geography and Geology, edited by R. J. Schaetzl, J. T. Darden, and D. Brandt, pp. 274–287. Pearson Custom Publishers, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.Google Scholar
Arbogast, Alan F., Hansen, Edward C., and Van Oort, Martin D. 2002 Reconstructing the Geomorphic Evolution of Large Coastal Dunes along the Southeastern Shore of Lake Michigan. Geomorphology 46:241–255.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arbogast, Alan F., Schaetzl, Randall J., Hupy, Joseph P., and Hansen, Edward C. 2004 The Holland Paleosol: An Informal Pedostratigraphic Unit in the Coastal Dunes of Southeastern Lake Michigan. The Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 14:1385–1400.Google Scholar
Arbogast, Alan F., Bigsby, Michael E., DeVisser, Mark H., Langley, Shaun A., Hanson, Paul R., Daly, Trevor A., and Young, Aaron R. 2010 Reconstructing the Age of Coastal Sand Dunes along the Northwestern Shore of Lake Huron in Lower Michigan: Paleoenvironmental Implications and Regional Comparisons. Aeolian Research 2:83–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Argyilan, Erin P., Forman, Steven L., Johnston, John W., and Wilcox, Douglas A.. 2005 Optically Stimulated Luminescence Dating of Late Holocene Raised Strandplain Sequences Adjacent to Lakes Michigan and Superior, Upper Peninsula, Michigan, USA. Quaternary Research 63:122–135.Google Scholar
Baedke, Steve J., and Thompson, Todd A. 2000 A 4,700 Year Record of Lake Level and Isostasy for Lake Michigan. Journal of Great Lakes Research 26:416–426.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brose, David S. 1970 The Archaeology of Summer Island: Changing Settlement Systems in Northern Lake Michigan. Anthropological Papers No. 41. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cantwell, Anne-Marie, and Wall, Diana diZerega 2003 Unearthing Gotham, The Archaeology of New York City. Yale University Press, New Haven, Connecticut.Google Scholar
Clark, James A., Hendriks, Mark, Timmermans, Thomas J., Struck, Calvin, and Hilverda, Kenneth J. 1994 Glacial Isostatic Deformation of the Great Lakes Region. Geological Society of America Bulletin 106(1): 19–31.Google Scholar
Coordinating Committee on Great Lakes Basin Hydraulic and Hydrologic Data (CCGLB) 2001 Apparent Vertical Movement Over the Great Lakes–Revisited. Geodetic Survey Division, Natural Resources Canada. Ottawa, Ontario.Google Scholar
Farrand, William R. 1990 Geological Observations on 20SA620. In The Bridgeport Township Site, Archaeological Investigation at 20SA620, Saginaw County, Michigan, edited by J. M. O’Shea and M. Shott, pp. 45–58. Anthropological Papers No. 81. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Faught, Michael K. 2004 The Underwater Archaeology of Paleolandscapes, Apalachee Bay, Florida. American Antiquity 69:275–289.Google Scholar
Faught, Michael K., and Donoghue, Joseph F. 1997 Marine Inundated Archaeological Sites and Paleofluvial Systems: Examples from a Karst Controlled Continental Shelf Setting in the Apalachee Bay, Northeastern Gulf of Mexico. Geoarchaeology 12:417–458.Google Scholar
Fitting, James E. 1967 The Camp of The Careful Indian: An Upper Great Lakes Chipping Station. Papers of the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts, and Letters LII (Part II: Social Science): 237–242.Google Scholar
Hajic, Edwin R. 1990 Late Pleistocene and Holocene Landscape Evolution, Depositional Subsystems, and Stratigraphy in the Lower Illinois River Valley and Adjacent Central Mississippi River Valley. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Geology, University of Illinois, Urbana.Google Scholar
Hansen, Edward C, Fisher, Timothy G., Arbogast, Alan F., and Bateman, Mark 2010 Geomorphic History of Low-Perched, Transgressive Dune Complexes along the Southeastern Shore of Lake Michigan. Aeolian Research 1:111–127.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hough, Jack L. 1958 Geology of the Great Lakes. University of Illinois Press, Urbana.Google Scholar
Larsen, Curtis E. 1985 Lake Level, Uplift, and Outlet Incision, the Nipissing and Algoma Great Lakes. In Quaternary Evolution of the Great Lakes, edited by P.F. Karrow and P.E. Calkin, pp. 63–78. Special Paper 30. Geological Association of Canada, St. John’s, Newfoundland.Google Scholar
Larsen, Curtis E. 1987 Geological History of Glacial Lake Algonquin and the Upper Great Lakes. Bulletin 1801. U.S. Geological Survey, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Leverett, Frank, and Taylor, Frank B. 1915 The Pleistocene of Indiana and Michigan and the History of the Great Lakes. Monograph 53. U.S. Geological Survey, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Lewis, R. Barry 2000 Sea-Level Rise and Subsidence Effects on Gulf Coast Archaeological Site Distributions. American Antiquity 65:525–541.Google Scholar
Loope, Walter L., and Arbogast, Alan F. 2000 Dominance of an 150-year Cycle of Sand-supply Change in Late Holocene Dune-building along the Eastern Shore of Lake Michigan. Quaternary Research 54:414–422.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lovis, William A. 1973 Late Woodland Cultural Dynamics in the Northern Lower Peninsula of Michigan. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Michigan State University, East Lansing.Google Scholar
Lovis, William A. 1990a Curatorial Considerations for Systematic Research Collections: AMS Dating a Curated Ceramic Assemblage. American Antiquity 55:382–387.Google Scholar
Lovis, William A. 1990b Site Formation Processes and the Organization of Space at the Stratified Late Woodland O’Neil Site. In The Woodland Tradition in the Western Great Lakes: Papers Presented to Elden Johnson, edited by G. Gibbon, Chapter 12, pp. 195–211. Publications in Anthropology No 4. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis.Google Scholar
Lovis, William A. 2004 Backyards, Scrapyards, and the Taphonomy of Riverine Urban Environments: Bay City as a Case Study. In An Upper Great Lakes Archaeological Odyssey: Essays in Honor of Charles E. Cleland, edited by W. A. Lovis, pp. 127–149. Cranbrook Institute of Science. Wayne State University Press, Detroit, Michigan.Google Scholar
Lovis, William A., Rajnovich, Grace, and Bartley, Aryn 1998 Exploratory Cluster Analysis, Temporal Change, and the Woodland Ceramics of the Portage Site at L’Arbre Croche. In Papers in Honor of Ronald J. Mason, guest edited by R. Birmingham and C. Cleland. The Wisconsin Archeologist 79(1):89–112.Google Scholar
Lovis, William A., Arbogast, Alan F. and William Monaghan, G. 2009 Geoarchaeology and Taphonomy of Lake Michigan Coastal Dunes: Activation, Stabilization, Cycling and Archaeological Site Formation Processes. Report submitted to the Environmental Section, Michigan Department of Transportation (Contract IDS 2006-0034-Z1). Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan. (Appendix B tables available at http://liveweb.archive.org/ http://www.geo.msu.edu/qlrg/LovisetalQLRGtable 1.pdf; accessed June 30, 2011)Google Scholar
Lovis, William A., Arbogast, Alan F., and William Monaghan, G. 2012 The Geoarchaeology of Lake Michigan Coastal Dunes. Environmental Research Series No. 2. Michigan Department of Transportation, Michigan State University Press, East Lansing, in press.Google Scholar
Mainville, André, and Craymer, Michael R. 2005 Present-day Tilting of the Great Lakes Region based on Water Level Gauges. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 117:1070–1080.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Monaghan, G. William, Egan-Bruhy, Kathryn C., Hambacher, Michael J., Hayes, Daniel R., Kolb, Michael F., Peterson, Staffan, Robertson, James A., and Shaffer, Nelson R. 2006 The Minnesota Deep Test Protocol Project. http://www.mnmodel.dot.state.mn.us/pages/DeepTest-Protocol.html, accessed June 30, 2011.Google Scholar
Monaghan, G. William, and Hayes, Daniel R. 1998 Millennial-Scale Patterns to Middle-to-Late Holocene Alluviation in the Great Lakes and Mid Atlantic Regions, USA . Geological Society of America. Programs with Abstracts, 30:7.Google Scholar
Monaghan, G. William, and Hayes, Daniel R. 2001 Archaeological Site Burial: A Model for Site Formation within Middle-To-Late Holocene Alluvial Settings of the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic Regions, USA. http://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2001AM/finalprogram/abstract_26888.htm, accessed June 30, 2011.Google Scholar
Monaghan, G. William, and Lovis, William A. 2005 Modeling Archaeological Site Burial in Southern Michigan: A Geoarchaeological Synthesis. Environmental Research Series No. 1. Michigan Department of Transportation, Michigan State University Press, East Lansing.Google Scholar
O’Shea, John M., and Meadows, Guy A. 2009 Evidence for Early Hunters Beneath the Great Lakes. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 106(25):10120–10123.Google Scholar
Richner, Jeffrey J. 1973 Depositional History and Tool Industries at the Winter Site: A Lake Forest Middle Woodland Cultural Manifestation. Unpublished Master’s thesis, Department of Anthropology, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo.Google Scholar
Rick, Torben C, Erlandson, Jon M., and Vellanoweth, René L. 2006 Taphonomy and Site Formation on California’s Channel Islands. Geoarchaeology, 21(6): 567–589.Google Scholar
Schrotenboer, Bradley R., and Arbogast, Alan F. 2010 Locating Alternative Sand Sources to Coastal Sand Dunes for Michigan’s Foundry Industry: A Geographical Approach. Applied Geography 30:697–719.Google Scholar
Sella, Giovanni F, Stein, Seth, Dixon, Timothy H., Craymer, Michael R., James, Thomas S., Mazzotti, Stephane, and Dokka, Roy K. 2007 Observation of Glacial Isostatic Adjustment in “Stable” North America with GPS. Geophysical Research Letters 34, L02306:1–6.Google Scholar
Snyder, Frank S. 1985 A Spatial and Temporal Analysis of the Sleeping Bear Dunes complex, Michigan (A Contribution to the Geomorphology of Perched Dunes in Humid Continental Regions). Ph.D. dissertation. Department of Geology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.Google Scholar
Stuiver, Minz, Reimer, Paula J., and Reimer, Ron W. 2006 CALIB Radiocarbon Calibration v. 5.0.2. Quaternary Isotope Laboratory, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington.Google Scholar
Stuiver, Minz, Reimer, Paula J., and Reimer, Ron W. 2011 CALIB Radiocarbon Calibration v. 6.0.1. The 14CHRONO Centre for Climate, the Environment, and Chronology, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, United Kingdom.Google Scholar
Thompson, Todd A., Baedke, Steve J. and Johnston, John W. 2004 Geomorphic Expression of Late Holocene Lake Levels and Paleowinds in the Upper Great Lakes. In The Geology and Geomorphology of Lake Michigan’s Coast, edited by E. C. Hansen. Michigan Academician 35:355–371.Google Scholar
Wintle, Ann G., and Murray, Andrews S. 2006 A Review of Quartz Optically Stimulated Luminescence Characteristics and Their Relevance in Single-Aliquot Regeneration Dating Protocols. Radiation Measurements 41:369–391.Google Scholar