GEOMORPHIC HISTORY AND SITE FORMATION AT THE MEMORIAL PARK SITE, WEST BRANCH SUSQUEHANNA RIVER, LOCK HAVEN, PENNSYLVANIA

The Memorial Park Site is a deeply stratified, multicomponent prehistoric site on a Holocene terrace of the West Branch Susquehanna River in central Pennsylvania. Archaeological excavations and laboratory analyses revealed silt loam to loam overbank and point bar sediments, punctuated by seven buried soils spanning a time interval of 7090-1480 yrs B.P. Changes in the buried surficial environments and soils were the result of the late Pleistocene to Holocene channel dynamics of the West Branch and the formation three landforms: the evolving Port Huron terrace, an abandoned channel remnant, and a natural levee. The eastward migration of the meander channel resulted in lateral and vertical variability in the distinctness of the buried soils. Older, more stable geomorphic surfaces prevailed on the western portion of the site, defining the Port Huron terrace, consisting of a complex of buried soils consisting of a fragipan Btx horizon superimposed over one or more weakly developed soils. The Port Huron terrace was the primary focus of occupation beginning in the Middle Archaic and continuing through the Late Archaic. The fragipan is believed to be associated with desiccation and a mid-Holocene period of climatic dryness. Younger, less stable geomorphic surfaces characterize the eastern portions of the site and define the abandoned channel remnant and the natural levee. These landforms are characterized with thin, diffuse Ab horizons associated with weak B horizons and C horizons. At the far eastern portion of the site buried Bt horizons are in the form of lamellae. The natural levee and channel remnant were not intensively used until the Terminal Archaic when these landforms afforded elevated, stable loci for human activity. The upper two buried soils extend across the entire site and are contained evidence of Terminal Archaic and Woodland occupations. These soils formed in sediments that blanketed the terrace-channel-levee topography.