The geoarchaeology of the Little Missouri Badlands : the late Quaternary stratigraphic and paleoenvironmental context of the archaeological record

Abstract

Geoarchaeological studies undertaken in the South Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park in the Little Missouri Badlands of western North Dakota provide a geological and environmental framework for the interpretation of the archaeological record. Within this framework, archaeological materials are viewed not as static objects, but as interactive components of a hi-ahl-v dynamic natural environment. An archaeological survey of 4840 ha provides evidence for prehistoric utilization of the region from Paleoindian through Late Prehistoric times, however the material remains associated with this utilization are highly skewed in time and place. Probable factors behind this incomplete data base are revealed through late Quaternary stratigraphic and pedologic investigations. Lowland landforrns are comprised primarily of fluvial and slopewash sediments of Holocene age. In the tributary valleys, as many as four depositional terraces are present, ranging in age from 7000 B.P. to present, while in the valley of the Little Missouri River, extant alluvial sediments were deposited almost entirely within the last 400 years. Upland landfonns contain a much longer stratigraphic sequence, comprised primarily of eolian loess deposition going back over 12,000 years. The stratigraphic and pedologic data are integrated with stable carbon isotope analysis in a reconstruction of the late Quaternary geomorphic and paleoenvironmental history of the badlands region.