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Disturbance to Surface Lithic Components of Archaeological Sites by Drill Seeding
Author
Bryan, Neal M.
Anderson, Val Jo
Fugal, Rachel A.
Publisher
Society for Range Management
Publication Year
2011-03-01
Body

Federally funded range improvement treatments in the United States require that land managers consider the treatment’s impacts to archaeological sites. Pending archaeological clearance can result in the postponement or exclusion of effective seeding practices, which in turn can result in poor seed establishment, increased weeds, recurrent fire, accelerated soil erosion, and damage to cultural sites. Less intensive requirements would help relieve time restrictions, but less-conspicuous sites might be missed. We quantified the displacement and damage that lithic artifacts would incur if missed in an inventory and subsequently subjected to drill seeding treatments. We subjected chert, quartzite, and obsidian materials to impact by a rangeland drill and a no-till drill on sandy and silty soils. Soil texture was the most important factor in perpendicular lithic movement. In the silty soil, lithics were displaced perpendicular to the direction of the drill nearly twice as far as in the sandy soil (7.8 cm +/- 0.9 SE vs. 4.1 cm +/- 0.6 SE, P < 0.01). No experimental factor showed a difference in absolute displacement (mean = 15 cm). Damage to lithics was infrequent (25%) and minor with no experimental factor showing statistical significance. Approximately 30% of lithics were buried by treatments. In the sandy soil, the rangeland drill buried lithics 6.5 mm +/- 1.6 SE deep, on average, which was twice as deep as the no-till drill in the sandy soil (3.0 mm +/- 0.9 SE) and four times as deep as both drills in the silty soil (1.5 mm 60.5 SE; =50.03). Minimal effects of drill seeding on lithics suggest that drill seeding could proceed with less- intensive archaeological surveys. The Rangeland Ecology & Management archives are made available by the Society for Range Management and the University of Arizona Libraries. Contact lbry-journals@email.arizona.edu for further information. Migrated from OJS platform August 2020

Language
en
Resource Type
Text
Document Type
Journal Issue/Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
10.2111/REM-D-09-00069.1
Additional Information
Bryan, N. M., Anderson, V. J., & Fugal, R. A. (2011). Disturbance to surface lithic components of archaeological sites by drill seeding. Rangeland Ecology & Management, 64(2), 171-177.
ISSN
0022-409X
OAI Identifier
oai:repository.arizona.edu:10150/642855
Journal Volume
64
Journal Number
2
Journal Pages
171-177
Collection
Rangeland Ecology & Management (REM)
Journal Name
Rangeland Ecology & Management
Keywords
archaeological clearance
drill seeding impacts
lithic scatters
provenance
revegetation