Dry Creek Revisited: New Excavations, Radiocarbon Dates, and Site Formation Inform on the Peopling of Eastern Beringia
The multicomponent Dry Creek site, located in the Nenana Valley, central Alaska, is arguably one of the most important archaeological sites in Beringia. Original work in the 1970s identified two separate cultural layers, called Components 1 and 2, thought to date to the terminal Pleistocene and sugg...
Published in: | American Antiquity |
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.7183/0002-7316.80.4.671 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0002731600003735 |
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crcambridgeupr:10.7183/0002-7316.80.4.671 2024-04-28T08:41:31+00:00 Dry Creek Revisited: New Excavations, Radiocarbon Dates, and Site Formation Inform on the Peopling of Eastern Beringia Graf, Kelly E. DiPietro, Lyndsay M. Krasinski, Kathryn E. Gore, Angela K. Smith, Heather L. Culleton, Brendan J. Kennett, Douglas J. Rhode, David 2015 http://dx.doi.org/10.7183/0002-7316.80.4.671 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0002731600003735 en eng Cambridge University Press (CUP) https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms American Antiquity volume 80, issue 4, page 671-694 ISSN 0002-7316 2325-5064 Museology Archeology Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous) History journal-article 2015 crcambridgeupr https://doi.org/10.7183/0002-7316.80.4.671 2024-04-09T06:55:49Z The multicomponent Dry Creek site, located in the Nenana Valley, central Alaska, is arguably one of the most important archaeological sites in Beringia. Original work in the 1970s identified two separate cultural layers, called Components 1 and 2, thought to date to the terminal Pleistocene and suggesting that the site was visited by Upper Paleolithic huntergatherers between about 13,000 and 12,000 calendar years before present (cal B.P.). The oldest of these became the typeassemblage for the Nenana complex. Recently, some have questioned the geoarchaeological integrity of the site's early deposits, suggesting that the separated cultural layers resulted from natural postdepositional disturbances. In 2011, we revisited Dry Creek to independently assess the site's age and formation. Here we present our findings and reaffirm original interpretations of clear separation of two terminal Pleistocene cultural occupations. For the first time, we report direct radiocarbon dates on cultural features associated with both occupation zones, one dating to 13,485-13,305 and the other to 11,060-10,590 cal B.P. Article in Journal/Newspaper Alaska Beringia Cambridge University Press American Antiquity 80 4 671 694 |
institution |
Open Polar |
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Cambridge University Press |
op_collection_id |
crcambridgeupr |
language |
English |
topic |
Museology Archeology Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous) History |
spellingShingle |
Museology Archeology Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous) History Graf, Kelly E. DiPietro, Lyndsay M. Krasinski, Kathryn E. Gore, Angela K. Smith, Heather L. Culleton, Brendan J. Kennett, Douglas J. Rhode, David Dry Creek Revisited: New Excavations, Radiocarbon Dates, and Site Formation Inform on the Peopling of Eastern Beringia |
topic_facet |
Museology Archeology Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous) History |
description |
The multicomponent Dry Creek site, located in the Nenana Valley, central Alaska, is arguably one of the most important archaeological sites in Beringia. Original work in the 1970s identified two separate cultural layers, called Components 1 and 2, thought to date to the terminal Pleistocene and suggesting that the site was visited by Upper Paleolithic huntergatherers between about 13,000 and 12,000 calendar years before present (cal B.P.). The oldest of these became the typeassemblage for the Nenana complex. Recently, some have questioned the geoarchaeological integrity of the site's early deposits, suggesting that the separated cultural layers resulted from natural postdepositional disturbances. In 2011, we revisited Dry Creek to independently assess the site's age and formation. Here we present our findings and reaffirm original interpretations of clear separation of two terminal Pleistocene cultural occupations. For the first time, we report direct radiocarbon dates on cultural features associated with both occupation zones, one dating to 13,485-13,305 and the other to 11,060-10,590 cal B.P. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Graf, Kelly E. DiPietro, Lyndsay M. Krasinski, Kathryn E. Gore, Angela K. Smith, Heather L. Culleton, Brendan J. Kennett, Douglas J. Rhode, David |
author_facet |
Graf, Kelly E. DiPietro, Lyndsay M. Krasinski, Kathryn E. Gore, Angela K. Smith, Heather L. Culleton, Brendan J. Kennett, Douglas J. Rhode, David |
author_sort |
Graf, Kelly E. |
title |
Dry Creek Revisited: New Excavations, Radiocarbon Dates, and Site Formation Inform on the Peopling of Eastern Beringia |
title_short |
Dry Creek Revisited: New Excavations, Radiocarbon Dates, and Site Formation Inform on the Peopling of Eastern Beringia |
title_full |
Dry Creek Revisited: New Excavations, Radiocarbon Dates, and Site Formation Inform on the Peopling of Eastern Beringia |
title_fullStr |
Dry Creek Revisited: New Excavations, Radiocarbon Dates, and Site Formation Inform on the Peopling of Eastern Beringia |
title_full_unstemmed |
Dry Creek Revisited: New Excavations, Radiocarbon Dates, and Site Formation Inform on the Peopling of Eastern Beringia |
title_sort |
dry creek revisited: new excavations, radiocarbon dates, and site formation inform on the peopling of eastern beringia |
publisher |
Cambridge University Press (CUP) |
publishDate |
2015 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.7183/0002-7316.80.4.671 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0002731600003735 |
genre |
Alaska Beringia |
genre_facet |
Alaska Beringia |
op_source |
American Antiquity volume 80, issue 4, page 671-694 ISSN 0002-7316 2325-5064 |
op_rights |
https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.7183/0002-7316.80.4.671 |
container_title |
American Antiquity |
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80 |
container_issue |
4 |
container_start_page |
671 |
op_container_end_page |
694 |
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1797571733071331328 |