Preliminary Geoarcheological Reconnaissance in Badlands National Park, South Dakota

Preliminary geoarcheological investigations were conducted in Badlands National Park, South Dakota, in August of 1997. The purpose of the research was to establish an initial stratigraphic and geomorphic context for archeological materials within the park. This was accomplished by large-scale surface reconnaissance and intensive data collection at a number of representative study sections. The reconnaissance focused on identifying major geomorphic landsurfaces extant in the park area. These include: the Upper Prairie surface and Badlands Wall; the Lower Prairie surface and Sage Creek Basin; Pleistocene Cheyenne River Terraces; and the early Pleistocene/late Tertiary surface. Individual study sections were located at representative examples of late Pleistocene and Holocene sedimentary depositional environments within each of the various landsurfaces. These included sod tables, which are eroded and often isolated bodies of reworked alluvial and colluvial sediments, alluvial lag deposits, eolian loess mantles, alluvial terraces, and alluvial fans. A preliminary geochronologic framework for the various depositional environments was provided by the procurement of conventional and AMS radiocarbon age determinations. These data, along with temporal/spatial information obtained from existing archeological site records, were used to develop general predictive statements about archeological and geological relationships in the park area.