LATE PLEISTOCENE AND EARLY HOLOCENE SEDIMENTS, SOILS, AND HUMAN OCCUPATIONS ALONG WILDHORSE CREEK IN THE ARBUCKLE MOUNTAINS OF SOUTH-CENTRAL OKLAHOMA.

Abstract

The focal area of this study is Wildhorse Creek, a tributary of the Washita River in south-central Oklahoma where an avocational archaeologist, Roger Hamilton, has been collecting lithic tools and debitage for the past 20+ years. Thanks to Roger’s meticulous recording of the provenience of his finds, Wildhorse Creek presents a great opportunity to further archaeological knowledge of Paleoindigenous and Early Archaic groups occupying the Southern Plains, as well as the differential preservation conditions affecting the landforms in which the sites these groups left behind can be found. The results of these investigations evidence a continuous occupation of Wildhorse Creek dating back at least 11,000 radiocarbon years before present (rcybp), as well as the presence of buried landforms of equivalent time depth with the potential to house intact archaeological deposits. Geoarchaeological analyses performed also provide evidence in support of multiple major climatic events on the Southern Plains, including the Late Pleistocene Younger-Dryas cooling event, and the Middle Holocene Altithermal drought period. Lastly, buried soil dates obtained along Wildhorse Creek demonstrate the presence of three known paleosols (Black Mat, Caddo, Delaware), as well as a fourth, new, Middle Holocene paleosol we’ve termed the Wildhorse Paleosol which appears to bracket the Calf Creek Horizon.