February 12, 2025 Monthly Meeting
Time, taphonomy and the Quixotic quest for short term occupation surfaces in Texas archeology
Guest Speaker: Charles Frederick
Abstract: Understanding the geologic processes that create and preserve short-term occupation surfaces has been a theme in my research and contract archeological work for most of my career. I strive to use this knowledge to obtain the best, and clearest archeological opportunities, which facilitate understanding ancient behavior. This talk chronicles the formation of two sites in different geologic settings (one an alluvial site in central Texas, and the other a shell midden on the upper Texas coast) that in the field appear similar, but in fact are probably quite different. Employing new opportunities provided by advances in radiocarbon dating, I explored the age structure of a suite of discrete occupations to better understand site formation processes. The results were not what I anticipated and challenge how we view the formation of coastal shell middens.
Speaker Bio
Charles Frederick is a self-employed geoarchaeologist based in Dublin, TX and research fellow in the Department of Geography and the Environment at the University of Texas at Austin. His work takes him from his home in the cross timbers of rural north-central Texas all over the state and occasionally abroad (loosely defined as “outside of Texas”). When not writing or in the field he can generally be found in his lab which is cloaked as a 1950s dairy barn, where he interrogates unsuspecting dirt samples in hopes of learning all sorts of strange things. Some of which are occasionally useful…