Wednesday, September 1, 2010

NORTH CREEK SHELTER: ESCALANTE VALLEY, SOUTHERN UTAH


North Creek Shelter is a deep, multi-component site on the northern Colorado Plateau in southern Utah containing evidence of human occupation from 10,000 years ago to the present. Use was intensive during the Paleoarchaic, Early Archaic, and Formative (Fremont and Anasazi) periods.

The current basal date of 9960 ± 30 rcybp (see date Table) is the earliest evidence of human presence on the Colorado Plateau and only Danger Cave and Smith Creek Cave are earlier in Utah. In addition, fine-grained basal sediments containing artifacts and faunal remains accumulated rapidly in the lower levels and hold great potential for documenting human – climate relationships during the Late Pleistocene/Early Holocene transition. Research crews directed by Joel Janetski of the BYU Department of Anthropology are working here to increase understanding of the deep human history of the region.

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