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This article was downloaded by: [UOV University of Oviedo] On: 29 October 2014, At: 03:16 Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/uica20 The Geoarchaeology of Lake Michigan Coastal Dunes Christopher L. Hill a a Department of Anthropology and Environmental Studies Program , Boise State University , Boise , Idaho , USA Published online: 02 Apr 2013. To cite this article: Christopher L. Hill (2013) The Geoarchaeology of Lake Michigan Coastal Dunes, The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology, 8:1, 147-148, DOI: 10.1080/15564894.2013.765525 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15564894.2013.765525 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content. This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms- and-conditions

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This article was downloaded by: [UOV University of Oviedo]On: 29 October 2014, At: 03:16Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registeredoffice: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK

The Journal of Island and CoastalArchaeologyPublication details, including instructions for authors andsubscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/uica20

The Geoarchaeology of Lake MichiganCoastal DunesChristopher L. Hill aa Department of Anthropology and Environmental Studies Program ,Boise State University , Boise , Idaho , USAPublished online: 02 Apr 2013.

To cite this article: Christopher L. Hill (2013) The Geoarchaeology of Lake Michigan Coastal Dunes,The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology, 8:1, 147-148, DOI: 10.1080/15564894.2013.765525

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15564894.2013.765525

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the“Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis,our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as tothe accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinionsand views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors,and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Contentshould not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sourcesof information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims,proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever orhowsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arisingout of the use of the Content.

This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Anysubstantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing,systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms &Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions

Page 2: The Geoarchaeology of Lake Michigan Coastal Dunes

Journal of Island & Coastal Archaeology, 8:147–148, 2013Copyright © 2013 Taylor & Francis Group, LLCISSN: 1556-4894 print / 1556-1828 onlineDOI: 10.1080/15564894.2013.765525

The Geoarchaeologyof Lake Michigan CoastalDunesChristopher L. HillDepartment of Anthropology and Environmental Studies Program, Boise State

University, Boise, Idaho, USA

The Geoarchaeology of Lake MichiganCoastal Dunes. By William A. Lovis, Aland F.Arbogast, and G. William Monaghan. Michi-gan State University Press, East Lansing.2012. ISBN 978-1-61186-051-1 (PaperbackUK £24.95, US $39.95), 236pp., 77 illustra-tions.

There is a lot to recommend in thisinterdisciplinary monograph, with its goalof formulating a time-space framework thatconnectsgeological andbiologicalprocessesand human activity to the presence of coastalarchaeological sites. Its significance goes be-yondacontribution to theHolocenegeomor-phic evolution and geoarchaeology of theNorth American Great Lakes. This work ad-dresses a basic and important question: Whatdetermines the patterns of variability ob-served in the archaeological record, humanbehavior, or natural taphonomic processes?The authors have succeeded in demonstrat-ing the value of integrating a thorough un-derstanding of landscape processes with thepatterns of variability in the archaeologicalrecord.

Along the western coastline of Michiganare dunes that in some cases contain arti-facts. This study examines the evolution ofLake Michigan coastal dunes, their age and

Address correspondence to Christopher L. Hill, Department of Anthropology and Environmen-tal Studies Program, Boise State University, 1910 University Drive, Boise, ID 83725, USA. E-mail:[email protected]

long-term cycles of activation and stabiliza-tion, their relationship to lake-level fluctua-tions and post-glacial uplift, and their rele-vance to understanding and interpreting thearchaeological record. In thiscase,processeslinked to sand supply, dune activation, landuplift, and changes in lake-level appear todetermine what archaeological sites are pre-served.

Chapter 1 provides a historic overviewof the study of Lake Michigan dunes, provid-ing a review of how sand supply and soildevelopment might be linked to fluctuat-ing lake levels within the present-day LakeMichigan basin. Chapter 2 has as its focusthe archaeological record in the Lake Michi-gan coastal region. It provides a frameworkof the major archaeological periods and theassociated key geological events, delineat-ing whether the sites are buried or eroded,and their age. Chapter 3 examines the geo-morphic processes associated with coastaldunes. The section on dune formation is a re-minder that many of the ideas and methodsin the text can be applied to other eolian set-tings. The results and ideas developed fromprevious coastal dune research link duneformation to the availability of sands andchanges in lake level, and dune stabilizationto the development of paleosols.

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Christopher L. Hill

The dynamics of lake-level variation,post-glacial rebound, and Upper Great Lakesenvironmentalchangeduring theMiddleandLate Holocene are examined in chapter 4.It summarizes our current understanding ofglacial advance and the various fluctuationsin the lake levels. These are linked to the con-cept of a hinge-line separating a region to thenorth where uplift preserves dune-beach se-quences and a region to the south where ero-sion dominates. The largest most significanttransgression during the Holocene in the up-per Great Lakes is the Nipissing phase datedto about 5,000 years ago, followed by low-water levels after 4,000 years ago associatedwith erosion of the outlet channel. Around2,000 years ago, post-glacial rebound sepa-rated the Lake Superior and Lake Michigan-Huron basins. After 2,000 years ago, fluctu-ations in lake levels are linked to cool/wetLittle Ice Age and warm/dry Medieval Warmclimates. Uplift to the north of the hinge lineaccounts for the preservation of dunes in aseries of dune sets with older dunes inlandand younger dunes closer to the youngerbeaches,whilesubsidencesouthof thehingeline has led to the destruction of older coastaldunes. These factors are crucial to under-standing the locations and preservation of ar-chaeological sites in these settings describedin chapter 5.

Archaeological site formation is the fo-cus of chapter 6, where a model of landscapeevolution is proposed based on the chronol-ogyofdune formation, thehinge line separat-ing subsidence and uplift, and the locationsofarchaeological sites. In this “lagmodel” thesupply of sand for dunes in the northern partof the Lake Michigan basin started around3,000 years ago after the Nipissing trans-gression, while the second period of dunedevelopment occurs after the developmentof the Holland Paleosol around 1,000 yearsago. Buried or stratified dune archaeologicalsites are associated with the Archaic datingto about 5,300 years ago, the Laurel Middleor InitialWoodlanddating fromabout2,500–1,700 years ago, and archaeological compo-nents dating from 1,000 to700 years ago.The

absence of preserved sites dating from 5,300to 2,500 and 1,700 to 1,000 years ago mightbest be explained by site formational tapho-nomic processes, not by changing patternsof human use of resources. Chapter 7 uses aspecific case study to illustrate the ways thisinformation can be applied to managementand land-use planning. The underlying mes-sage is that good management and land-usepolicies can follow from an understanding oflandscape dynamics and its consequence toarchaeological resources.

There are three appendices providingdetailed information on methods (dating,fieldand labprocedures), listsof radiocarbonand optical stimulating luminescence (OSL)dates, and descriptions of the sample locales.These descriptions and the accompanyingmaps, photographs, and stratigraphic sec-tions are quite nice and perhaps could havebeenusefully incorporated into themain textas part of chapter 5.

As a regional study, this work providesa convincing argument that Lake Michigancoastal dunes are relatively young, datingfromabout3,500 to2,500years ago (after theNipissing high stage) and about 1,000 yearsago. There appears to be a time-lag responseof dune growth after intervals of higher lakelevels. Dune activity is associated with lowerlake intervals which can be linked to thepreservation of buried or stratified archae-ological sites. As a geoarchaeological study,this work is a very fine illustration of howunderstanding the physical processes andspace-time dynamics of a landscape is invalu-able for evaluating the long-term record ofpast human activities. In addition to provid-ing data on dune formation processes, ages,and potential for archaeological site preser-vation for the Great Lakes region, this studydemonstrates the importance of applying aninterdisciplinary approach to interpret land-scapes and archaeological visibility and vari-ability. It is an excellent demonstration of thenecessityofapplyingan integrated interdisci-plinary approach to interpret the processesthat form the archaeological record and toguide land-use policy.

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