Archaeological research at North Creek Shelter in southern Utah has uncovered the earliest known evidences of human presence on the Colorado Plateau in western North America. The National Science Foundation is providing support to bring together researchers from four institutions - Brigham Young University, University of Utah, University of Washington, and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas - to investigate remains left by hunters and gatherers who found shelter here over 10,000 years ago. Specialists in sedimentology, ancient environments, botany, and animal bone identification are combining talents to learn as much as possible from this site. North Creek Shelter's unique geological position has resulted in rapid deposition of silty sands that have sealed in multiple occupation levels containing ancient artifacts. These rare circumstances are enabling archaeologists to tease out changes in human strategies from the close of the Pleistocene into the more recent past.
Dr. Joel C. Janetski (Brigham Young University) will continue to direct the project in 2008. The work began in 2004 as part of a field school for archaeology students, and he has returned each year to continue the research with able assistance from graduate and undergraduate students from BYU and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. The NSF support will make 2008 the longest field season to date and will make meeting the project objectives possible.
The intellectual merit of the research derives from site data that bear on several research topics: 1) the timing of human arrival in the arid west, 2) contrast between Paleoarchaic (prior to 9000 years ago) and Early Archaic (between 8000 and 9000 years ago) lifeways, 3) and reconstructing climatic/environments for these early periods. Importantly the archaeology will help us understand how people confronted the challenges of changing climates.
As noted, the site is the oldest on the Colorado Plateau, but a possibility exists that earlier levels will be found. These lowest levels have no parallels for human lifeway on the Colorado Plateau, but the data gathered will be used to test existing models of Paleoarchaic and Early Archaic strategies for the nearby Great Basin. Studies of pack rat nests in southeast Utah suggest trees such as Douglas fir and quaking aspen grew in places well over a thousand feet lower in elevation than today suggesting a cooler and wetter climate 10,000 years ago. The North Creek Shelter project will test those findings by the identification of charcoal left from cooking fires as well as plant and animal remains. In addition, oxygen isotope analysis of deer and/or mountain sheep tooth enamel from multiple levels will contribute to understanding ancient climates by comparing temperature fluctuations through time.
In addition to opening a window into the deep human history of this region, North Creek Shelter research provides broader impacts as the project has already provided and will continue to provide unique teaching opportunities. All field crew members are undergraduate or graduate students in archaeology. Their training will be enriched by working with specialists from several disciplines, not to mention seeing how to approach deeply stratified archaeological sites. A minimum of three masters theses will be written on the project, and students will contribute to journal articles reporting aspects of the research.
