Tree-Ring-Radiocarbon Dating at a Late Contact Period Kitkahahki Pawnee Site on the Central Great Plains, Usa

Abstract

This study obtained calendar dates by radiocarbon accelerator mass spectrometry (14C AMS) dating sequential tree-rings of wooden support posts from the buried remains of traditional Kitkahahki Pawnee earthlodges preserved at an archaeological site on the Central Great Plains, USA. The tree-ring segments from the site were dendrochronologically analyzed prior to this study, but the cross-matched site chronology could not be definitively cross-dated and was thus “floating” in time. Our study represents the first floating tree-ring chronology from the Great Plains to be anchored in time by means of independent radiocarbon analysis. Three specimens were analyzed and dated to 1724–1774 CE (82.0% probability), 1774–1794 CE (95.4% probability), and 1800–1820 CE (95.4% probability). These dates correspond to the hypothetical timing of Kitkahahki ethnogensis, the main phase of village growth in the area, and a later reoccupation during a turbulent period in regional history. The results of this study conform to a scenario in which chaotic social conditions correspond to an increase in residential mobility between the core of Pawnee territory and a southern frontier in the Republican River valley.

Tree-Ring-Radiocarbon Dating Paraffin-Conserved Charcoal at the Mississippian Center of Kincaid, Illinois, Usa

“…This is significant as the AMS dating of sequential tree-rings (wiggle-matching) is contributing high-resolution dates to critical archaeological sequences. Wiggle-matching can be used in conjunction with dendrochronological analysis (Manning et al 2010(Manning et al , 2014(Manning et al , 2016Pearson et al 2018Pearson et al , 2020Grabner et al 2021;Kessler et al 2021), and in the context of broader 14 C dating campaigns (Manning et al 2018; to provide high-precision dates for cultural deposits. The pervasiveness of paraffin-treated archaeological charcoal in U.S. museum collections is unknown, but may be widespread, considering the popularity of the method for much of the 20th century.…”

Regional Conflict, Ceramic Senescence, and Pawnee Raw Material Choice in the Late Contact Era

“…Archaeological data suggest that ancestral Pawnee occupied the Loup and Platte River valleys by AD 1500, and Marquette's 1673 map also documents Pawnee in this region (Hyde 1974; O'Shea 1989; Wedel 1936, 1986). By 1777, the Kitkahahki band split from the Chawi and moved to the Republican River valley, establishing the southernmost known Pawnee villages (Hyde 1974:127; Kessler et al 2021). In 1859, the four bands coalesced within a reservation along the Loup River, in part to reduce conflict with Euramerican settlers and to gain federal protection against Lakota Sioux groups.…”

“…Our work investigates clay and temper use at Kitkahahki Town, also known as the Kansas Monument site (14RP1), in north-central Kansas (Figure 2). This site is a fortified Kitkahahki village along the Republican River near the mouth of White Rock Creek (Adair and Hofman 2021; Kessler et al 2021; Roper 2006a). The village's primary occupation dates to approximately AD 1777–1802, with probable brief reoccupation in the following decades until 1831 (Kessler et al 2021).…”

“…This site is a fortified Kitkahahki village along the Republican River near the mouth of White Rock Creek (Adair and Hofman 2021; Kessler et al 2021; Roper 2006a). The village's primary occupation dates to approximately AD 1777–1802, with probable brief reoccupation in the following decades until 1831 (Kessler et al 2021). Other known Kitkahahki villages along the Republican include the Hill site (25WT1) upstream from Kitkahahki Town—which was visited by Zebulon Pike in 1806—and the small, short-lived Bogan site (14GE1) downstream (Roper 2006a).…”

“…Using chronological and historical evidence, Kessler and colleagues (2021:484–485) argue that “groups of Kitkhahki splintered from the main Pawnee settlements in the Loup to establish and reoccupy villages in the Republican valley” during the period AD 1777–1831. This period is one of significant recorded conflict.…”