The Allen Site: A Paleoindian Camp in Southwestern Nebraska

Ch 8: Archaeology of the All en Site

1 0 9 This chapter introduces the third section of this report, focusing on the fieldwork carried out at the Allen site. The following chapter examines the spatial structure of the site, as a basis for understanding how the Allen site locality was used and/or reused. With this as background, chapters 10 though 12 present analyses of the flaked stone assemblage, other artifacts and features, and unmodified animal bone. Fieldwork at the Allen Site Fieldwork at the Allen site was carried out over three years, from 1947 to 1949. As Davis (chapter 2) and Holder and Wike (1949) note, the site was initially discovered in 1947 by a paleontological field party from the Nebraska State Museum under the direction of Alan Graffham, following a calamitous flood in the Lime Creek Valley. This party carried out limited excavations and returned its collections to Lincoln. Recognizing that the Allen site, along with Lime Creek and Red Smoke, was almost certainly very old, C. Bertrand Schultz, then director of the museum, organized a crew under the direction of Preston Holder for extensive excavations in 1948. Following this season, which produced the bulk of the available collection, a small crew under Schultz himself returned to the site in 1949 as it began to go under the rising waters of Harry Strunk Lake. Documentation of these three excavations varies greatly, as did the field techniques used in each; this chapter therefore discusses each of them separately. Figure 8.1 identifies the areas excavated in each of the three years. The 1948 excavations are documented in particular detail by Preston Holder’s field notes, provided by Joyce Wike and presently archived at the University of Nebraska State Museum. Chapter 8 ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE ALLEN SITE Introduction, Fieldwork, and Provenience Data Douglas B. Bamforth Figure 8.1 Excavated area at the Allen site, showing the extent of excavation in 1947, 1948, and 1949. 110 / Chapter 8 The 1947 Excavations Fieldworkers in the 1947 party identified the Allen site in the freshly exposed deposits above Medicine Creek and carried out a small test of these deposits, recovering a fairly extensive collection of archaeological material and producing a sketch map of the site location. However, the available notes on this work record neither the details of this excavation nor the specific vertical provenience of any of the artifacts in the collection, problems that Holder (field notes, July 20, 1948) noted the next year. However, in clearing their back dirt and consulting with laborers who had assisted in the 1947 work, Holder was able to reconstruct the general excavation strategy used and to map the extent of the excavation fairly precisely. As he puts it, the 1948 crew “found Graffham’s old back-fill and slump and began clearing it away. He had badger-holed in under the terrace along an irregular face . . . apparently depending on roof-fall and caving to give him artifacts—independent confirmation on part of man who worked with him (present as current cleaning up) proved this theory correct” (field notes, July 23, 1948). On clearing and mapping the 1947 excavations, Holder writes “excavated back-fill from 1947 exploratory pit. . . . Very irregular, much pitting below excavation floor, also undercutting of bank. Pit as found extended six feet into the terrace along a 20 foot face forming an irregular curve horizontally and vertically” (field notes, July 26, 1948). Holder’s data indicate that the 1947 excavation covered an area of approximately 100 ft2 (9.5 m2 ). Holder’s (field notes, July 26, 1948) sketch maps of the 1947 excavation area suggest that this first season of work probably exposed the complete Paleoindian Figure 8.2 Excavations at the Allen site in 1948, view to the south. (Courtesy of the Bureau of Reclamation.) Archaeology of the Allen Site / 111 stratigraphic sequence at the site; artifacts in the 1947 collection thus probably date throughout the site’s occupation. However, the upper limits of the 1947 trench are unclear, and there is no way of determining this for certain at present. This is unfortunate, because the field techniques used in 1947 make it impossible to determine the vertical provenience of any of the material recovered that year. The 1948 Excavations Operations under Holder proceeded far more meticulously than those in 1947 (Figures 8.2–8.3) and are documented in field notes and other records and in his own description of the fieldwork, written for a never...