Geoarchaeology of the Kansas River basin, central Great Plains

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The Kansas River basin, largely related to water-resource projects, the quantity of archaeologic and geomorphic data available has tripled. Through an integration of both types of information, we are now able to achieve a basinwide perspective of basin archaeology and geomorphology. Moreover, given the geographic range of the basin, from its headwaters in the semiarid High Plains to the more mesic lower portion of the basin in the deciduous forest-tallgrass prairie mosaic, the Kansas River drainage is an ideal laboratory for tracking the influence of a broad range of environmental variables on prehistoric human adaptations. Our purpose is to articulate (1) the relations among prehistoric groups of this large drainage basin based on the distribution of archaeological evidence; and (2) the relation between the archaeological evidence and ongoing geomorphic processes, particularly erosion and deposition, that affect their preservation, distribution, and detection. In recent years archaeologists have recognized that the preserved record of past cultural activities is evidence of—with variable degrees of accuracy—both the articulation of human groups and their environment and the effects of post-occupational processes on the material remains of those activities (SchifFer, 1976; Binford, 1977, 1981; Binford and Bertram, 1977; Wood and Johnson, 1978). The data base is not inherited in pristine condition, however; the archaeological record is an imperfect mirror of past cultural activities that formed vulnerable, “fossil” configurations, which in turn are frequently flawed by a variety of postdepositional processes, cultural and natural in origin. These must be recognized, and the extent of their influence on