GEOARCHAEOLOGY OF THE TANNERS CREEK SECTION OF THE OHIO RIVER FLOODPLAIN NEAR LAWRENCEBURG, DEARBORN COUNTY, INDIANA

This study was made as part of a geoarchaeological assessment of the landscape context of prehistoric cultural materials recovered from four archaeological sites on the Ohio River floodplain between Tanners Creek and Wilson Creek near Lawrenceburg, Dearborn County, Indiana. Preformed as part of a Phase II archaeological evaluation of these sites, the goal of this study was to build an understanding of the physical contexts of the sites by examining the depositional history of the late Quaternary landforms that comprise the floodplain in the study area. The Ohio River and the Great Miami River were found to be the two main geomorphological controlling factors in the development of this landscape. Results include a landscape reconstruction that identifies the types of alluvial landforms present in the floodplain, their relative ages from near modern to the late Pleistocene, and the landscape context of these sites while incorporating or expanding on other regional and local studies of a similar nature.