ISOLATION AND ELIMINATION OF SITE FORMING FACTORS AT STRATIGRAPHICALLY COMPLEX LOCALITIES ON THE NORTHERN PLAINS

An array of sedimentological, pedological, biological, and human factors interact to form stratigraphically complex archaeological sites. Sorting through the factors that contribute to site formation can be an onerous task, particularly when certain features can be attributed to more than one site forming process. At the Stampede archaeological site, located in the Cypress Hills of southeastern Alberta, isolation of predominant site forming factors time and sedimentological input, have created opportunities to better understand the consistency of biological and human inputs. In the Greater Forks region of central Saskatchewan, the elimination of historic biological inputs have created opportunities to better understand the consistency of sedimentological, pedological and biological inputs. In both cases, what appear to be complex stratigraphic packages are simplified. Moreover, these simplified stratigraphic complexes at archaeological sites on the northern Plains appear to demonstrate the environmental consistency and re-occupation of certain desirable localities during the middle Holocene.