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Flake Dispersal Experiments: Noncultural Transformation of the Archaeological Record

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Peter M. Bowers ,
Robson Bonnichsen  and
David M. Hoch
Peter M. Bowers
Affiliation:
Arctic Resource Area, Bureau of Land Management, P.O. Box 1150, Fairbanks, AK 99701
Robson Bonnichsen
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology and Institute for Quaternary Studies, University of Maine, Orono, ME 04469
David M. Hoch
Affiliation:
Peratrovich and Nottingham, Inc., 1506 W, 36th Avenue, Anchorage, AK 99503
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Abstract

Time lapse studies of frost action effects on arctic and subarctic surficial archaeological sites have been conducted from 1973 to the present. Test plots of experimentally produced flakes were constructed in 1973 in the Tangle Lakes Region of the Central Alaska Range and subsequently remapped and photographed in 1974, 1976, and 1980. Similar test plots were laid out in the arctic foothills province of the Brooks Range. Observations made during the study period include: (1) flake displacements of as much as 20 cm/yr; (2) average minimum movement is 4 cm/yr; and (3) upslope movements were observed, suggesting that slope is not the primary factor in flake displacements. Frost heave, needle ice and, possibly, wind appear to be the dominant forces responsible for dispersals. It is argued that these and other natural processes can restructure the archaeological record into patterns that easily can be mistaken for those produced by human activity.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 48 , Issue 3 , July 1983 , pp. 553 - 572
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1983

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