Addressing Taphonomic Complications in the Use of Archaeological Radiocarbon Assemblages as Population Proxies: A Case Study in the Bonneville Basin

Abstract:

One of the imperatives driving reconstructions of past demography is the desire to analyze the impacts of past climate changes on human populations. An increasingly popular tool is the analysis of archaeological radiocarbon record, but the very paleoclimate changes that are of interest also have geomorphic effects – and the consequent erosive and depositional processes figure in the archaeological record as taphonomic agents. Taphonomic effects have the potential to mask some population responses and exaggerate others, as the relative frequencies of archaeological radiocarbon dates from different periods can be structured not only by population but by these confounding factors. Here we use coupled geomorphic and archaeological data to assess the effects of local taphonomy in the Bonneville Basin, drawing on the relative frequencies of terminal Pleistocene and Holocene landforms to assess the likelihood of survival of archaeological material of different ages and to correct population estimates according.