Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T18:14:48.931Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Dating Stone Alignments by Luminescence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 January 2017

James K. Feathers ,
Maria Nieves Zedeño ,
Lawrence C. Todd  and
Stephen Aaberg
James K. Feathers
Affiliation:
Luminescence Dating Laboratory, University of Washington, Box 353412, Seattle, WA 98195-3412 ([email protected])
Maria Nieves Zedeño
Affiliation:
Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85711 ([email protected])
Lawrence C. Todd
Affiliation:
University of Texas and Colorado State University, Meeteetse, WY, 82433 ([email protected])
Stephen Aaberg
Affiliation:
Aaberg Cultural Resources Consulting Service, 1216 North 31st St., Billings, MT 59101 ([email protected])
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Stone alignments, including tipi rings and drive lines, are abundant on the northern Plains and adjacent Rocky Mountains, but they have been notoriously difficult to date. This paper applies luminescence dating to sediments directly underneath the rocks to estimate the age of placement of the rock. This is based on the assumption that before the rock was emplaced, turbation processes brought sufficient grains to the surface, where sunlight reset the signal. Single-grain dating of potassium feldspars allowed isolation of these original well-bleached grains, which by now have built up a signal because the rock prevents transfer to the surface. Plotting the number of original well-bleached grains with depth showed that these grains were concentrated just under the rock and decreased with depth. This is what would be predicted if the assumption is true. Dates were derived from several samples from Kutoyis in north central Montana, from Whitewater in eastern Montana, and from several sites in northwestern Wyoming. Many samples from Kutoyis and Wyoming dated to the last 600 years, but some samples from both places were more than 2,000 years old. The Whitewater features also dated to around 2,000 years ago. The ages are consistent with the cultural history of the areas.

Alineamientos de piedra, incluyendo círculos domésticos y estructuras de cacería, abundan en los Grandes Llanos septentrionales y las Montañas Rocallosas, pero son muy difíciles de fechar. Este artículo aplica el fechamiento de luminiscencia a los sedimentos encontrados directamente debajo de las rockas para estimar la fecha en que las rocas de estos rasgos fueron emplazadas en la superficie. Esta técnica se basa en la suposición de que antes de que la rocka fue emplazada, procesos de turbación mobilice suficientes granos hacia la superficie donde la luz del sol modifico la señal original. La datación de granos de feldespato potásico permiten la identificación de estos granos asoleados, los cuales han desarrollado una señal especial debido a que estuvieron cubiertos por una roca durante mucho tiempo. La comparación del número y profundidad de granos asoleados originales reveló que estos granos se concentraron en la superficie cubierta por las rocas y decreceron a major profundidad, así como se explicó en la suposición original. Las fechas se derivaron de varias muestras del sitio Kutoyis en el centro-norte de Montana, del sitio Whitewater en Montana oriental, y de varios otros sitios en el noroeste de Wyoming. Muchas muestras de Kutoyis and Wyoming datan de los últimos 600 años pero algunas muestras provenientes de estos sitios son anteriores a 2000 años de edad. Los rasgos del sitio Whitewater también datan de aproximadamente 2000 años atrás. Las edades son consistentes con la historia cultural regional.

Type
Research Article
Information
Advances in Archaeological Practice , Volume 3 , Issue 4 , November 2015 , pp. 378 - 396
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 2015

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Aaberg, Stephen. A., Eckerle, William P., and Cannon, Kenneth P. 2003 Cree Crossing (24PH3396): The Cultural and Paleoenvironmental Record. Archaeology in Montana 44:1–72.Google Scholar
Aaberg, Stephen A., Hanna, Rebecca R., Crofutt, Chris, Green, Jayme, and Vischer, Marc 2006 Class I Overview of Paleontological and Cultural Resources in Eastern Montana. Aaberg Cultural Resources Consulting Service. Report submitted to Miles City BLM Field. Copies available from Aaberg Cultural Resources Consulting Service, Billings, Montana.Google Scholar
Aitken, Martin J. 1985 Thermoluminescence Dating. Academic Press, London.Google Scholar
Arnold, Lee J., Roberts, Richard G., Galbraith, Rex F., and DeLong, S.B. 2009 A Revised Burial Dose Estimation Procedure for Optical Dating of Young and Modern-Age Sediments. Quaternary Geochronology 4:306–325.Google Scholar
Auclair, Marie, Lamothe, Michel, and Huot, Sebastien 2003 Measurement of Anomalous Fading of Feldspar IRSL Using SAR. Radiation Measurements 37:487–492.Google Scholar
Ballenger, Jesse A. M., Reitze, William, Laluk, N., Zedeño, Maria Nieves, and Murray, J. 2008 Taphonomic Assessment of the Kutoyis Bison Jump, Blackfeet Indian Reservation, Montana. Paper presented at the 73rd Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Vancouver.Google Scholar
Banks, Kimball. M., and J. Signe, Snortland 1995 Every Picture Tells a Story: Historic Images, Tipi Camps, and Archaeology. Plains Anthropologist 40:125–144.Google Scholar
Benedict, James B. 1985 Arapaho Pass: Glacial Geology and Archaeology of the Crest of the Colorado Front Range, Center for Mountain Archaeology Report 3, Ward, Colorado.Google Scholar
Benedict, James B. 2009 A Review of Lichenometric Dating and Its Applications to Archaeology. American Antiquity 74:143–172.Google Scholar
Broadbent, Noel D. 1987 Lichenometry and Archaeology. Research Report No.2, Center for Arctic Cultural Research, University of Umea.Google Scholar
Brumley, John H. 1988 Medicine Wheels on the Northern Plains: A Summary and Appraisal. Archaeological Survey of Alberta Manuscript Series 12. Alberta Cultural and Multiculturalism Historical Resources Division, Edmonton.Google Scholar
Brumley, John H., and Dickerson, K. 2000 Tongue River Dam Project Historical and Archaeological Investigations. Volume I: Archaeological Mitigation at 24BH2317 and the Munson Site Bison Kill (24BH2613). Ethos Consultants, Inc. and Renewable Technologies, Inc. Report submitted to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Great Plains Region. Copies available from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Billings, Montana.Google Scholar
Bush, Daniel A. 2007 Application of Luminescence Dating to the Study of Archaic Age Anthropogenic Mounds from the Lower Mississippi River Valley. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Washington, Seattle.Google Scholar
Buylaert, Jan-Pieter, Jain, Mayank, Murray, Andrew S., Thomsen, Kristina J., Thiel, Christine, and Sohbati, Reza 2012 A Robust Feldspar Luminescence Dating Method for Middle and Late Pleistocene Sediments. Boreas 41:435–451.Google Scholar
Buylaert, Jan-Pieter, Murray, Andrew S., Thomsen, Kristina J., and Jain, Mayank 2009 Testing the Potential of an Elevated Temperature IRSL Signal from K-feldspar. Radiation Measurements 44:560–565.Google Scholar
Crofutt, Chris, and Stephen A., Aaberg 2003 Junction U.S. 191-Whitewater Class III Cultural Resource Survey Results in Phillips County, Montana. Aaberg Cultural Resources Consulting Service. Report submitted to Montana Department of Transportation. Copies available from Aaberg Cultural Resource Consultants, Billings, Montana.Google Scholar
Davis, Leslie B. (editor) 1983 From Microcosm to Macrocosm: Advances in Tipi Ring Investigation and Interpretation. Memoir 19. Plains Anthropologist 28(102):1–377.Google Scholar
Davis, Leslie B. (editor) 1988 Avonlea Yesterday and Today: Archaeology and Prehistory. Saskatchewan Archaeological Society, Saskatoon.Google Scholar
Deaver, Ken 1983 Rings at the Johnson Bison Kille Site (24PH8). Memoir 19. Plains Anthropologist 28:59–70.Google Scholar
Deaver, Ken 1989 Identifying Ring Site Occupations. In Households and Communities: Proceedings of the 21st Annual Chacmool Conference, edited by MacEachern, Scott, Archer, David J.W., and Garvin, Richard D., pp. 256–265. Archaeological Association of the University of Calgary, Calgary.Google Scholar
Dooley, Mathew A. 2004 Long-Term Hunter-Gatherer Land Use in Central North Dakota: An Environmental Analysis. Plains Anthropologist 49:105–127.Google Scholar
Feathers, James K. 2012 Luminescence Dating of Anthropogenic Rock Structures in the Northern Rockies and adjacent High Plains, North America: A Progress Report. Quaternary Geochronology 10:399–405.Google Scholar
Finnigan, J. T. 1982 Tipi Rings and Plains Prehistory: A Reassessment of Their Archaeological Potential. Archaeological Survey of Canada, Paper 108, Ottawa.Google Scholar
Frison, George C. 1978 Prehistoric Hunters of the High Plains. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Frison, George C. 2004 Survival by Hunting: Prehistoric Human Predators and Animal Prey. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Frison, George C., Reher, Charles A., and Walker, Danny N. 1990 Prehistoric Mountain Sheep Hunting in the Central Rocky Mountains of North America. In Hunters of the Recent Past, edited by Davis, Leslie B. and Reeves, Brian O. K., pp. 208–240. Unwin Hyman, London.Google Scholar
Frison, George C., and Todd, Lawrence (editors) 1987 The Horner Site: The Type Site of the Cody Cultural Complex. Academic Press, Orlando.Google Scholar
Galbraith, Rex. F., and Roberts, Richard G. 2012 Statistical Aspects of Equivalent Dose and Error Calculation and Display in OSL Dating: An Overview and Some Recommendations. Quaternary Geochronology 11:1–27.Google Scholar
Gragson, Ted L. 1983 A Preliminary Look at Stone Circle Site Distribution in Montana. In From Microcosm to Macrocosm: Advances in Tipi Ring Investigation and Interpretation, edited by Davis, Leslie B.. Memoir 19, Plains Anthropologist 28:139–145.Google Scholar
Holzer, Assaf, UziAvner, Naomi Porat, and Horwitz, Liora Kolska 2010 Desert Kites in the Negev Desert and Northeast Sinai: Their Function, Chronology and Ecology. Journal of Arid Environments 74:806–817.Google Scholar
Huntley, David. J., and Lamothe, Michel 2001 Ubiquity of Anomalous Fading in K-feldspars and Measurement and Correction for it in Optical Dating. Canadian Journal of Earth Science 38:1093–1106.Google Scholar
Jones, G., Zedeño, Maria Nieves, Reitze, William, Ballenger, Jesse, and Curry, B. 2010 Magnetic Survey at the Kutoyis Bison Kill Site, Montana. Paper presented at the 68th Annual Plains Anthropological Conference, Bismark.Google Scholar
Kehoe, Thomas F. 1960 Stone Tipi rings in North-Central Montana and the Adjacent Portion of Alberta, Canada. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 173:421–473.Google Scholar
Kinneer, Christopher 2007 High Altitude Stone and Wood Structures of Northwestern Wyoming: Examples from the Upper Greybull River Area in the Central Absaroka Mountians. Unpublished Master’s thesis, Department of Anthropology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins.Google Scholar
Kornfeld, Marcel, Frison, George. C., and Larson, M.L. 2010 Prehistoric Hunter-Gatherers of the High Plains and Rockies. 3rd ed. Left Coast Press, Walnut Creek, California.Google Scholar
Morlan, Richard E. 1988 Avonlea and Radiocarbon Dating. In Avonlea Yesterday and Today: Archaeology and Prehistory, edited by Davis, Leslie B., pp. 291–202. Saskatchewan Archaeological Society, Saskatoon.Google Scholar
Munyikwa, Kennedy, Feathers, James K., Rittenour, Tammy, and Shrimpton, Heather K. 2011 Constraining the Chronology of the Late Wisconsinan Retreat of the Laurentide Ice Sheet from Western Canada Using Luminescence Ages of Postglacial Aeolian Dune Sequences. Quaternary Geochronology 6:407–422.Google Scholar
Nelson, Michelle, Gray, Harrison, Johnson, Jack, Rittenour, Tammy, Feathers, James K., and Mahan, Shannon 2015 User Guide for Luminescence Sampling in Archaeological and Geological Contexts. Advances in Archaeological Practice 3:166–177.Google Scholar
Outram, Zoe, Batt, Catherine M., Rhodes, Edward J., and Dockrill, Stephen J. 2010 The Integration of Chronological and Archaeological Information to Date Building Construction: An Example from Shetland, Scotland, UK. Journal of Archaeological Science 37:2821–2830.Google Scholar
Peck, Trevor R. 2011 Light from Ancient Campfires: Archaeological Evidence for Native Lifeways on the Northern Plains. Athabaska University Press, Edmonton.Google Scholar
Porat, Naomi, Rosen, Steven A., Boaretto, Elisabetta, and Avni, Yoav 2006 Dating the Ramat Saharonin Late Neolithic Desert Cult Site. Journal of Archaeological Science 33:1341–1355.Google Scholar
Prescott, John R., and Fox, P. J. 1993 Three-Dimensional Thermoluminescence Spectra of Feldspars. Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics 26, 2245–2254.Google Scholar
Reimann, Tony, Thomsen, Kristina J., Jain, Mayank, Murray, Andrew S., and Frechen, Manfred 2012 Single-Grain Dating of Young Sediments Using the pIRIR Signal from Feldspar. Quaternary Geochronology 11:28–41.Google Scholar
Reiser, M. 2010 Tree-Rings, Historic Documents, and Interpreting Past Landuse and Environments in the Upper Greybull River Watershed, Northwestern Wyoming. Unpublished Master’s thesis, Department of Anthropology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins.Google Scholar
Rink, William Jack, and Bartoll, J. 2005 Dating the Geometric Nasca Lines in the Peruvian Desert. Antiquity 79:390–401.Google Scholar
Smith, Craig S., McNees, Lance M., and Reust, Thomas P. 1995 Site Structure of Two Buried Stone Circle Sites, Southern Wyoming. Plains Anthropologist 40:5–21.Google Scholar
Sohbati, Reza, Murray, Andrew S., Jain, Mayank, Buylaert, Jan-Pieter, and Thomsen, Kristina J. 2011 Investigating the Resetting of OSL Signals in Rock Surfaces. Geochronometria 38:249–258.Google Scholar
Späth, C. 1989 Domestic Stone Circle Sites in Wyoming, Wyoming State Historical Preservation Office. Report submitted to the U.S. Department of the Interior and National Park Service. Copies available from Wyoming State Historic Preservation Office, Cheyenne.Google Scholar
Vafiadou, Asimina, Murray, Andrew S., and Liritzis, Ioannis 2007 Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) Dating Investigations of Rock and Underlying Soil from Three Case Studies. Journal of Archaeological Science 34:1659–1669.Google Scholar
Vickers, Roderick J., and Peck, T. 2009 Identifying the Prehistoric Blackfoot: Approaches to Nitsitapii (Blackfoot) Cultural History. In Painting the Past with a Broad Brush: Papers in Honor of James Valliere Wright, edited by Keenlyside, David and Pilon, Jean-Luc, pp. 473–497. Canadian Museum of Civilization Mercury Series Paper 170, Gatineau, Canada.Google Scholar
von Wedell, Christopher R. 2011 Methods of Dating Glass Beads from Protohistoric Sites in the South Platte River Basin, Colorado, Colorado State University. Unpublished Master’s Thesis, Department of Anthropology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins.Google Scholar
White, E. M. 1998 Soil Changes Beneath Stone in Mosaics and Tipi Rings. Plains Anthropologist 43:419–420.Google Scholar
Wintle, Ann G., and Murray, Andrew S. 2006 A Review of Quartz Optically Stimulated Luminescence Characteristics and Their Relevance in Single-Aliquot Regeneration Dating Protocols. Radiation Measurements 41:369–391.Google Scholar
Wolf, J. K. 2007 Stone Circle Sites in Wyoming: Historic Context Study, Wyoming State Historic Preservation Office, Cheyenne.Google Scholar
Zedeño, Maria Nieves., Ballenger, Jesse, and Murray, John R. 2014 Landscape Engineering and Organizational Complexity among Late Prehistoric Bison Hunters of the Northwestern Plains. Current Anthropology 55:23–58.Google Scholar
Zedeño, Maria Nieves, Ballenger, Jesse, Reitze, William, and Laluk, Nicholas 2010 The Kutoyis Bison Hunting Locality, Two Medicine River, Blackfeet Indian Reservation, Glacier County, Montana: Final Report of the Kutoyis Archaeological Project (KAP), 2007–2009. Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology, School of Anthropology, University of Arizona, Tucson. Copies available from the School of Anthropology, University of Arizona.Google Scholar
Zedeño, Maria Nieves., Ballenger, Jesse, Reitze, William, Laluk, Nicholas, and Jones, Robert 2008 Preliminary Report (2007), Kutoyis Archaeological Project (KAP), Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology, the University of Arizona, Tucson. Copies available from the School of Anthropology, University of Arizona.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Feathers et al. supplementary material

Supplementary Table S1

Download Feathers et al. supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 101.2 KB
Supplementary material: PDF

Feathers et al. supplementary material

Supplementary Table S2

Download Feathers et al. supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 36 KB
Supplementary material: PDF

Feathers et al. supplementary material

Supplementary Table S3

Download Feathers et al. supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 53.4 KB
Supplementary material: PDF

Feathers et al. supplementary material

Supplementary Table S4

Download Feathers et al. supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 49.9 KB
Supplementary material: PDF

Feathers et al. supplementary material

Supplemental Text

Download Feathers et al. supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 32 KB