| Abstract |
This article demonstrates the importance of geoarchaeological investigations as part of rock art recording and research. The Wold Rock Art District, Wyoming (48JO4513), situated along a short reach of the Middle Fork of the Powder River, contains a suite of rare, contemporaneous, white-painted stenciled human hands and associated paintings. Most are accessible from the present ground surface, but others are stranded as much as 4 m high. Geoarchaeological studies reveal that by about 3,800 years ago the Kaycee alluvium formed a floodplain as much as 8 m higher than the current channel and provided the surface from which the now-stranded images were executed. Beginning about 1,600 years ago, incision and lateral migration of the channel removed the Kaycee terrace within the district. Four hundred years ago upland deposition (alluvial fan, slopewash, debris flows and mass wasting) restored access to many panels. The geoarchaeology suggests that the hand stencils may pre-date the introduction of bow-and-arrow technology. Along with superimpositions, the geoarchaeological data enable construction of a relative chronology of imagery in the district. The investigations further document major landscape changes over the last several thousand years and a complex pattern of indigenous use of the area. |
, William P. Eckerle , Spencer R. Pelton 
