Dataset Information

Reassessing the chronology of the archaeological site of Anzick.

ABSTRACT: Found in 1968, the archaeological site of Anzick, Montana, contains the only known Clovis burial. Here, the partial remains of a male infant, Anzick-1, were found in association with a Clovis assemblage of over 100 lithic and osseous artifacts-all red-stained with ochre. The incomplete, unstained cranium of an unassociated, geologically younger individual, Anzick-2, was also recovered. Previous chronometric work has shown an age difference between Anzick-1 and the Clovis assemblage (represented by dates from two antler rod samples). This discrepancy has led to much speculation, with some discounting Anzick-1 as Clovis. To resolve this issue, we present the results of a comprehensive radiocarbon dating program that utilized different pretreatment methods on osseous material from the site. Through this comparative approach, we obtained a robust chronometric dataset that suggests that Anzick-1 is temporally coeval with the dated antler rods. This implies that the individual is indeed temporally associated with the Clovis assemblage.

SUBMITTER: Becerra-Valdivia L

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6142201 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Reassessing the chronology of the archaeological site of Anzick.

Becerra-Valdivia Lorena L Waters Michael R MR Stafford Thomas W TW Anzick Sarah L SL Comeskey Daniel D Devièse Thibaut T Higham Thomas T

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20180618 27

Found in 1968, the archaeological site of Anzick, Montana, contains the only known Clovis burial. Here, the partial remains of a male infant, Anzick-1, were found in association with a Clovis assemblage of over 100 lithic and osseous artifacts-all red-stained with ochre. The incomplete, unstained cranium of an unassociated, geologically younger individual, Anzick-2, was also recovered. Previous chronometric work has shown an age difference between Anzick-1 and the Clovis assemblage (represented ...[more]

PMID: 29915063

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Project description:Hilly regions around the world are one of the most vulnerable places for inhabitation, where landslides represent a permanent threat for their population. In some particular cases, in the past, due to their topographic features, areas affected by massive landslides served a real opportunity for the location of strategic and fortified settlements. In this study, we have extended a previous approach of correlation between landslides and archaeological heritage, adding 14 new representative case studies of landslided hillforts, a new period with landslided hillforts, and a new typology of relationship (landslided tumuli) for establishing relative chronologies for landslide inventories. The landslide mapping presented here supplements a previous inventory, which now has 1211 landslides, and it is based on the interpretation of high-resolution DEMs, geomorphometric derivatives, remote sensing images, and field validation. For one of the most characteristic sites (Băiceni settlement, Iaşi County), we used Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT) to assess the geometry of the compound and complex landslides. The current approach allowed us to acquire a more accurate relative chronology of landslide activity during the Holocene and Upper Pleistocene, and more importantly, to establish the pattern of landslides evolution in the Moldavian Plateau, North-Eastern Romania. The relict landslides are Lateglacial and Lower Holocene, the old landslides are post-Holocene Climatic Optimum and pre-Medieval, while the recent landslides are post-Medieval. The landslide magnitude decreased continuously, the new events being retrogressive reactivations of earlier events scarps and landslide bodies (as shown by the ERT data). Further studies on absolute dating will improve the relative chronology. Still, while not all the landslides can be dated, the methodology that we describe can be applied to increase the spatial density of the relative chronology. The presented approach can be used in other regions all over the world to establish the relative age of landslide inventories when archaeological topography can be related to landslide topography.

Dataset Information

Reassessing the chronology of the archaeological site of Anzick.

Publications

Reassessing the chronology of the archaeological site of Anzick.

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