Tree-Ring-Radiocarbon Dating at a Contact Period Pawnee Village in North Central Kansas

Time:
Wednesday, December 9, 2020 - 12:00 to 13:00
Access:
public
Room: Affiliation:
Post-Doctoral associate in LTRR and the Physics Department
Contact:
Ramzi Touchan & Ann Lynch
Calendar Status:
confirmed

This study obtained calendar dates by radiocarbon (AMS) dating sequential tree-rings of wooden support posts from the buried remains of traditional Kitkahahki Pawnee earthlodges preserved at an archaeological site on the Central Great Plains, U.S.A. The tree-ring segments from the site were dendrochronologically analyzed prior to this study, but the cross-matched site chronology could not be definitively cross-dated and was thus “floating” in time. Our study represents the first floating tree-ring chronology from the Great Plains to be anchored in time by means of independent radiocarbon analysis. Three specimens were analyzed and dated to 1724-1774 CE (82.0% probability), 1774-1794 CE (95.4% probability) and 1800-1820 CE (95.4% probability). These dates correspond to the hypothetical timing of Kitkahahki ethnogensis, the main phase of village growth in the area, and a later reoccupation during a turbulent period in regional history. The results of this study conform to a scenario in which chaotic social conditions correspond to an increase in residential mobility between the core of Pawnee territory and a southern frontier in the Republican River valley.