MULTIPLE PALEOINDIAN OCCUPATIONS OF A WETLAND ENVIRONMENT IN DOOR PENINSULA, WISCONSIN: HUMAN ADAPTIVE RESPONSES TO LAKE-LEVEL CHANGES

The Fabry Farm site (47Dr107), located near the shore of Green Bay (of Lake Michigan) in Door Peninsula, Wisconsin, is a multi-component site that includes three Paleoindian components. Artifacts were collected and analyzed from 197 hand-dug units (2 x 2 m) excavated over four field seasons. Ten backhoe trenches were dug at the site to reconstruct the stratigraphy and several of these were sampled for pollen and plant macrofossil analysis and for OSL and radiocarbon dating. Unfortunately, dateable organics were not found in association with artifacts and OSL ages provided spurious results. Stratigraphic correlations were made from archaeological excavation units to adjacent back-hoe trenches for which ¹⁴C ages were obtained.

Three Paleoindian occupations, stratigraphically separated, but by an unknown duration, were present at the site. The two oldest Paleoindian components included intact chipping stations and areas along the western site boundary contained water-worn artifacts. However, these components lacked diagnostic artifacts, precluding cultural identification. The youngest Paleoindian component is identified as Agate Basin (dated elsewhere to 10,000 – 9,000 ¹⁴C yr BP). Lithic implements from all of these components exhibit wood-working micro-wear. These Paleoindians camped at the site during the transgression to and during the still stand of glacial Lake Algonquin.

The Paleoindian components are contained in sandy foreshore/shoreface deposits stratigraphically above lacustrine rhythmites, which in turn overlie organic horizons dated between 10,980 and 10,420 ¹⁴C yr BP. The stratigraphic sequence formed during the transgression to the glacial Lake Algonquin beach complex. These organic layers contain pollen and plant macrofossils of Picea mariana (black spruce), Abies balsamea (balsam fir), Sphagnum sp. (peat moss), Potentilla sp. (cinquefoil), Carex spp. (sedge), and Potamogeton filiformis (slender-leaved pondweed), which are indicative of a spruce-sedge parkland environment. In summary, the archaeology, stratigraphy and paleoecology of the Fabry Farm site indicate that the Paleoindian adaptive strategy for habitation sites and resource use included recently deglaciated wetland/shoreline environments.