GEOARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS OF DUNE FORMATION AND ARTIFACT DEPOSITION AT BARBER CREEK (31PT259)

Barber Creek (31PT259) is located in the Coastal Plain region of eastern North Carolina. Relict eolian landforms, much like the one on which the archaeological site is situated, are ubiquitous throughout the southeastern United States and appear to provide optimal conditions for the stratigraphic preservation of archaeological and geological deposits that can be used to interpret early cultural and environmental histories in the southeast.

Several lines of evidence were used in this study, including artifact analysis, sedimentology and geomorphology, ground penetrating radar (GPR), and a suite of radiocarbon and OSL dates to create a chronology for the formation and occupation of the landform. The lowermost sediments identified in the 140-cm profile consist of medium sand interlaced with lenses of fine lamellae and primarily represent fluvial deposition that occurred during the late Pleistocene. The depositional environment transitions from fluvial to eolian in the early Holocene, resulting in a 1-meter thick drape of lamellae-free medium sand that is finer and less well sorted than the underlying fluvial deposits. Diagnostic artifacts, indicative of the hunter-gatherers of the Early Archaic (10,000-8000 BP) were recovered in the basal levels of these eolian deposits. Low artifact frequencies and a lack of significant anthropogenic disturbance suggest this occupation was initially ephemeral; however, sedimentary and archaeological evidence implies intensification of human occupation on the landform over time. A lens of relatively undisturbed, artifact free sediments suggests that there is an increase in eolian sedimentation concomitant with a decrease in human occupation that appears to coincide with a middle Holocene shift to cooler, more arid conditions between 7,000 to 5,000 BP. Finally, sometime before 2,400 BP, human occupation of this now relict dune again intensified and continued into the Historic period.

This study suggests that sediments can be viewed as artifacts of human activity, and analysis of sedimentary deposits can be correlated with archaeological deposits to distinguish buried living surfaces. Additionally, geological and archaeological evidence can be correlated to identify periods of environmental change and to further our understanding of how humans in the past adapted to those changes.