Post-Fire Inventories and Hunter-Gatherer Use Intensity as Exemplified at the Caldwell Creek Site (48FR7091), Fremont County, Wyoming

Amanda Burtt1, Laura L. Scheiber1, Samuel Haskell1, Lindsey Simmons1, Justin Bailey1, Emma Wells1, Lawrence Todd2 1Department of Anthropology and William R. Adams Zooarchaeology Laboratory, Indiana University

2Greybull River Sustainable Landscape Ecology Re-defining Hunter-Gatherer Land Use Interpreting the use of mountainous regions by prehistoric and historic hunter-gatherers has been hampered through the years by difficult access, excessive ground vegetation, and wilderness restrictions. With the advent of forest fires that burn thousands of acres and expose hundreds of archaeological sites every summer, our knowledge of campsite structure and extent has grown rapidly. We now know that remote campsites often contain tens of thousands of artifacts that represent a greater commitment to mountain resources and places than previously considered. New recording methodologies have been employed to properly document these sites. We describe here recent efforts to inventory the Caldwell Creek site, which was exposed by the Norton Point fire in 2011. In addition to an overwhelming number of lithics, the fire also revealed numerous diagnostic Mountain Shoshone artifacts.

Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank the 2013 Bighorn Archaeology Field School (Karina, Illya, Jayme, Sara, Addie, Morgan, Ryan, Shannon, Sophie, and Gabriel), the Shoshone National Forest, and Kyle Wright for facilitating this project. Funding was provided by HistoriCorps and the Indiana University Department of Anthropology. The Glenn Black Laboratory of Archaeology offered the use of their photo light box for artifact photography.

79th Annual Society for American Archaeology Meetings, Austin, TX 2014

Interpretations The Caldwell Creek site exemplifies the best and worst aspect of post-fire inventory of high-elevation landscapes. The material record is impressive and diverse, demonstrating intensive and varied residential use. Information on over 20,000 artifacts has been collected – an unprecedented amount of data about hunter-gatherer land use. The quantity of diagnostic Mountain Shoshone artifacts is unusually high, particularly the number of both Desert Side-notch and Cottonwood Triangular projectile points and Intermountain Ware ceramics. Likewise, this site contains one of the highest known numbers of Shoshone knives in various stages of use life as well as unusual artifacts such as grooved mauls, carved bone, and pipestone. On the other hand, the sheer quantity of artifacts visible on the site surface is overwhelming and requires careful consideration about recording techniques and sampling strategies. Sub-surface investigation will double or triple these numbers.

Yellowstone

Caldwell Creek Site

Diagnostic Artifacts

Forest fire perimeters investigated by the authors

Projectile points Desert side-notched Cottonwood triangular

Shoshone knives

Intermountain Ware ceramics Vessel from Eden Farson (48SW304)

Data Collection The Caldwell Creek site encompasses more than 30,000 square meters. The majority of the site was burned by the fire in 2011, exposing what would have been up to several cm sub-surface. In 2013, ground visibility remained close to 100% in the site’s burned areas, revealing a carpet of 1,000s of lithics. The crew maximized time and effort by employing several methodologies and instruments for recording the locations of artifacts.

Reconnaissance Shoulder-to-shoulder survey, focus on tools Cluster Analysis Count the artifacts within clusters across the site Intensive crawl survey Intensive survey in selected areas Excavation Eleven 1x1 meters TOTAL = 26,914 artifacts (and counting…)

Excavations

Surface concentrations of ceramics helped us select three areas for sub-surface investigation. Eleven 1x1 meter units were excavated, in three areas. All artifacts were point-plotted in-situ, and the dirt matrix was sifted through nested 1/8” and 1/16” screens. Further water-screening of the matrix is currently underway. The intrasite variation of artifact distributions illustrates the importance of testing in multiple areas. The single meter designated as Amanda’s unit proved to be the most diverse in artifact distributions, with large numbers of both chipped stone debitage and ceramics as well as worked bone. Feature 1, consisting of six units, contained almost only ceramics. The five units excavated at Feature 32 were dominated by chipped stone, both debitage and tools, but ceramics were also present.

Amanda’s Unit Planview

Size grade representation and metric representation of chipped stone from F32

N

GPS Spatial data: clusters are blue circles, colored dots are different instruments

In-situ photograph of partial ceramic vessel, also shown above to left

28

119

16

251

208

** larger

Site Artifacts Total by Type

n= 4234 n= 1243 n= 7630