GEOARCHAEOLOGY: AN INSEPARABLE COMPONENT IN THE RECOVERY AND ANALYSIS OF BURIED ARCHAEOLGICAL DATA

The events resulting from the confirmation of extinct animals in unquestionable association with human artifacts at the Folsom site in New Mexico in the late 1920s was a strong wake-up call for North American archaeologists and ultimately resulted in Paleoindian studies becoming a permanent and important part of North American archaeology. Paleoindian data are recovered in geologic contexts, poorly understood by most archaeologists, and this resulted in the latter group turning to geologists for answers. This in turn spawned projects by geologists to better understand the events of the late Pleistocene and Holocene periods and is now included under the umbrella term of geoarchaeology. There have been many landmark studies in geoarchaeology resulting from the invetigations of Paleoindian sites. Prominent among the geologists involved were Kirk Bryan, Ernst Antevs, John Hack, Luna Leopold, John P. Miller John Moss, C. Vance Haynes Jr., and Vance Holliday. Paleoindian sites, among many others, include Finley in Wyoming, Lindenmeier in Colorado, Tule Springs in Nevada, and Plainview in Texas. To me, however, the crowning achievement was the Hell Gap site in southeast Wyoming that provided a chronological sequence of Paleoindian occupations separated by sterile levels and supported by diagnostic artifacts and radiometric dates. Joining the more recent group of geoarchaeologists are John Albanese, James C. Miller, Rolfe Mandel, and Judson Finley. A strong future for geoarchaeology is well assured.