Chemical Analysis of Deposits at Rodgers Shelter, Missouri

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Abstract
While chemical analyses of deposits from archaeological sites have often used phosphorus as an indicator of past human activity, there is little agreement on which type of phosphorus test is most useful for particular problem orientations. This paper evaluates the utility of tests for total phorphorus, available phosphorus, and organic matter in stratified cultural deposits at Rodgers Shelter, Missouri. Total phosphorus correlates highly with faunal debris density and seems to be most useful for internal site structure investigation. Available phosphorus appears to be associated with natural soil development as well as intensity of past human activity, and should be a good indicator of potential and actual subsurface cultural horizons. Organic matter is found to have lower correlation with cultural debris densities than does phosphorus. In addition, debris density and phosphorus distributions allow the formulation of hypotheses concerning natural mixing of cultural materials at the site andthe development of subsurface soil horizons

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