Abstract:The case recently made by Madsen and Berry (1975) for human abandonment of the entire eastern Great Basin between approximately 3200 and 1500 B.P. is critically reviewed. The stratigraphic and radiocarbon data on which their argument is based are shown to be inadequate to support it.
“…The majority of dated samples are from the front and central portions of the outer chamber along the central north-south axis of the site. Aikens rejected several of the most out-of-sequence dates (Aikens 1970:12–13), while conceding that some chronological overlap between closely associated strata was the result of minor, undetected stratigraphic mixing (Aikens 1976). Due to radiocarbon dating limitations at the time, all of these dates are on large bulk samples, often from material collected throughout an entire 2.31 m 2 (25 ft 2 ) excavation unit within a given stratum.…”
Section: Summary Of Previous Dating Effortsmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…However, multiple out of sequence dates, sometimes off by as much as 4,000 years from bracketing strata, led to a complex stratigraphic interpretation classifying the site's 16 strata into four temporal units (Aikens 1970). Subsequent dating efforts reported more anomalous dates further complicating interpretation of the cave's stratigraphic sequence (Table 1; Aikens 1976; Berry 1976; Madsen and Berry 1975; Mullen 1997). Figure 1. Location of Hogup Cave, Utah, at base of the Hogup Mountains in the Bonneville Basin.…”
The remarkable finds from the trans-Holocene archaeological record excavated at Hogup Cave, Utah, helped define our understanding of Great Basin prehistory. However, many scholars doubt the integrity of the site's depositional sequence and resulting chronological interpretations. To resolve these concerns, we produce several Bayesian chronological models combining 14 new radiocarbon dates with the results of past dating efforts. We first present an examination of the excavation and previously derived dates, finding that several of the most anomalous dates can be accounted for by details in the excavation's field notes. We then report our new dates and construct an initial Bayesian chronological model to serve as a framework for three increasingly complex models synthesizing old and new dates from the site. The best-supported model divides the site's stratigraphy into four occupational phases: Strata 1 through 7 (9790 to 6490 cal B.P.), Stratum 8 (5840 to 3330 cal B.P.), Strata 9 and 10 (2870 to 2760 cal B.P.), and Strata 11 through 16 (2610 to 360 cal B.P.). This result raises several questions to direct future research and dating efforts at Hogup Cave and serves as a model for reevaluating complex stratigraphic sequences in western North America and beyond.
“…The majority of dated samples are from the front and central portions of the outer chamber along the central north-south axis of the site. Aikens rejected several of the most out-of-sequence dates (Aikens 1970:12–13), while conceding that some chronological overlap between closely associated strata was the result of minor, undetected stratigraphic mixing (Aikens 1976). Due to radiocarbon dating limitations at the time, all of these dates are on large bulk samples, often from material collected throughout an entire 2.31 m 2 (25 ft 2 ) excavation unit within a given stratum.…”
Section: Summary Of Previous Dating Effortsmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…However, multiple out of sequence dates, sometimes off by as much as 4,000 years from bracketing strata, led to a complex stratigraphic interpretation classifying the site's 16 strata into four temporal units (Aikens 1970). Subsequent dating efforts reported more anomalous dates further complicating interpretation of the cave's stratigraphic sequence (Table 1; Aikens 1976; Berry 1976; Madsen and Berry 1975; Mullen 1997). Figure 1. Location of Hogup Cave, Utah, at base of the Hogup Mountains in the Bonneville Basin.…”
The remarkable finds from the trans-Holocene archaeological record excavated at Hogup Cave, Utah, helped define our understanding of Great Basin prehistory. However, many scholars doubt the integrity of the site's depositional sequence and resulting chronological interpretations. To resolve these concerns, we produce several Bayesian chronological models combining 14 new radiocarbon dates with the results of past dating efforts. We first present an examination of the excavation and previously derived dates, finding that several of the most anomalous dates can be accounted for by details in the excavation's field notes. We then report our new dates and construct an initial Bayesian chronological model to serve as a framework for three increasingly complex models synthesizing old and new dates from the site. The best-supported model divides the site's stratigraphy into four occupational phases: Strata 1 through 7 (9790 to 6490 cal B.P.), Stratum 8 (5840 to 3330 cal B.P.), Strata 9 and 10 (2870 to 2760 cal B.P.), and Strata 11 through 16 (2610 to 360 cal B.P.). This result raises several questions to direct future research and dating efforts at Hogup Cave and serves as a model for reevaluating complex stratigraphic sequences in western North America and beyond.
“…A significant element in the arguments supporting such a view are interpretations of 14 C dates and associated cultural materials in a series of caves and rock shelter contexts. A critique of this view notes that the use of 14 C values for such purpose is usually very problematical in part due to the differential availability of datable materials from closely spaced levels in sites and the high cost of obtaining sufficient 14 C analyses to permit the secure documentation of any such hiatus context (Aikens 1976).…”
When introduced almost five decades ago, radiocarbon (14C) dating provided New World archaeologists with a common chronometric scale that transcended the countless site-specific and regional schemes that had been developed by four generations of field researchers employing a wide array of criteria for distinguishing relative chronological phases. A topic of long standing interest in New World studies where 14C values have played an especially critical role is the temporal framework for the initial peopling of the New World. Other important issues where 14C results have been of particular importance include the origins and development of New World agriculture and the determination of the relationship between the western and Mayan calendars. It has been suggested that the great success of 14C was an important factor in redirecting the focus of American archaeological scholarship in the 1960s from chronology building to theory building, led to a noticeable improvement in US archaeological field methods, and provided a major catalyst that moved American archaeologists increasingly to direct attention to analytical and statistical approaches in the manipulation and evaluation of archaeological data.
“…It is evident that changes in the local environment at Hogup Cave brought about changes in the role the site played in the subsistence-settle ment round of people who visited it over the past 8500 years (1,2,38). It is of interest, in view of past debate about the effects of Altithermal heat and drought on Great Basin peoples, that human occupation at Hogup Cave remained stable throughout that period, with no sign of an Altither mal abandonment.…”
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