Fremont archaeology

The results of geoarchaeological  investigations at Pharo Village, a Fremont hamlet situated on a large alluvial fan in central Utah, are discussed in order to reveal ways in which landform dynamics contributed to the rise of Fremont occupation there as well as to the site's eventual abandonment.  Cutbanks along Pharo Creek, the stream adjacent to Pharo Village, were mapped and sampled during fieldwork in 2013.  Field and subsequent laboratory analysis resulted in reconstruction of the alluvial geochronology of the stream and geomorphological history of its adjacent landforms.  Carbon samples from mapped strata and buried paleosols were radiocarbon dated and correlated to additional dates generated from the site's archaeological component housed at the Natural History Museum of Utah (NHMU). Projectile points in the NHMU collection were also analyzed in order to further refine when site occupations occurred.  Redating of the site indicate Pharo Village had three periods of occupation, with two of three site abandonments correlating with regional drought events. Buried soils in mapped sections indicate a period of stability on the landform where Pharo Village is located prior to and likely during the site's occupation, suggesting landform stability encouraged Fremont use of the site. The final abandonment of the site ca. 600 cal BP occurred before or during a transition to a more active geomorphic environment marked by flooding and considerable deposition.  This abandonment is also consistent with the general temporal span for the cessation of Fremont lifeways in the region and a major regional megadrought.

This study reports on the employment of multiple geophysical survey methods at a Fremont habitation site in Utah Valley, called Wolf Village. The preliminary geophysical surveys and later ground-truthing of geophysical anomalies revealed the effectiveness of these methods in indicating where architectural and cultural remains existed just below the surface.

Drawing upon multiple lines of archaeological evidence, including mortuary ritual, faunal bone, ceramic effigy vessels, and rock art, I argue that birds were an important component of Fremont ideology. This " bird cult " was situated within a larger framework of Fremont ritual practice which incorporated a variety of worn or carried objects identifiable in the archaeological record. I place Fremont ritual use of birds in the context of sympathetic magic, fetishism, totemism, shamanism, and the impersonation of supernaturals. Fremont ideology and ritual practice requires additional research; however, this investigation suggests a ritual life as rich and varied as the elaborate rock art and figurines for which the Fremont are so well-known.

Defining the Fremont archaeological culture has challenged archaeologists for decades. There is still considerable debate about the origins of the Fremont, their eventual demise, their genetic relationship to modern Native American tribes, and myriad other issues. In nearly a century of Fremont research, socio-political, economic, and religious complexity remain elusive subjects. Examining technological style, the manifestation of socially influenced choices during each step of production as a means of passive communication is one useful avenue to examine Fremont material culture to uncover the social patterns they may, or may not contain. I examine whether or not technological style in Fremont Snake Valley corrugated pottery hold traces of social identity produced by Fremont potters living in the Parowan Valley, Utah.

Structure 6 at Wolf Village, Goshen, Utah, is a surface structure with characteristics that conform to and depart from normal Fremont houses. Evidences of household activities are seen in manos, charred Indian rice grass lemmas recovered from the hearth area, and a high frequency of bowl sherds. But Structure 6 also has several unusual characteristics that place it outside the expectations of normal houses. These include Structure 6’s surface architecture (as opposed to a pithouse architecture), a ventilation tunnel (previously unattested with surface buildings), a thick midden deposited over the structure collapse, a number of deer mandibles deposited in the ventilation tunnel (likely deposited at the time the structure was abandoned), and a number of clay figurines found in and around the structure likely associated with abandonment in a possible termination ritual. Examining the artifacts and architecture of Structure 6 together suggests that while household activities took place in Structure 6, what sets this adobe-walled building and its contents apart most is not how the building was used, but how the Fremont walked away from it. Structure 6 was probably home to an individual of special rank and possibly served a communal function.

Although Fremont ceramic design styles have the potential to tell archaeologists a great deal about Fremont social interaction and boundaries, they have never been studied in detail. In the Fremont world, painted designs appear almost exclusively on the inside of bowls produced in two different regions of Utah. The first is the Snake Valley production zone in southwestern Utah where Snake Valley Black-on-gray was produced; the second is the Emery production zone in central Utah where white-slipped Ivie Creek Black-on-white bowls were produced. The similarities in designs on the two main types of Fremont painted bowls indicates regional interaction and exchange of both materials and ideas between the two production zones, while the differences suggest regional distinctions existed within a larger Fremont complex

Archaeobotanical evidences for the presence of wild plants at Fremont archaeological sites
are numerous. However, little can be positively argued for why those plants are present, if they
were used by site inhabitants, and how they were used. Additionally, there are likely several wild
plants that were used but that do not appear in the archaeobotanical record as pollen or
macrobotanicals, the two most commonly identified plant remains. I argue that it is possible to
provide better interpretations for how and why the Fremont used plants by researching how their
historic counterparts, the Goshute, Shoshone, Ute, and Southern Paiute, used the same plants that
are identified at prehistoric sites. I further argue that a phytolith typology for Fremont archaeology
can provide more insight into prehistoric plant use. I demonstrate its utility through a phytolith
analysis of ground stone tools from Wolf Village, a Fremont site in Utah County.

This analysis of faunal bones from Wolf Village focuses on large game and its utility, as evidenced by what is known as the modified general utility index (MGUI). The MGUI proposes that bones at sites reflect transportation and butchering choices made by hunters at kill-butchering sites. According to the assumptions associated with the MGUI, hunters should select animal portions with high food value. The MGUI has been used in Fremont archaeology to provide a rough measure of site function. The expectation is that faunal bones would accompany the prized cuts of large game meat at habitation sites – and the animal parts with little food value would remain at kill-butchering sites because they are not worth the cost to carry them to the village. My analysis of large game animal bones found in excavations at Wolf Village counter these expectations. Fremont hunters at Wolf Village were returning to the site with low-caloric portions of large game, at least part of the time. Results from strontium isotope analysis suggest that many of the large game individuals hunted by the Fremont were not local to the immediate area. This suggests that hunters saw utility in low-caloric elements not related only to food value. Some low-caloric skeletal elements were used by the Fremont to construct bone tools and other objects, and as possible symbolic objects used in abandonment rituals. The results of this research suggests that the MGUI is not appropriate for measuring the utility of animal portions to the Fremont. Only when considering the social and non-caloric economic reasons for transporting low caloric elements, can archaeologists discover the true utility of large game animal parts to Fremont hunters.

Despite a long history of excavation and analysis, the importance of large Fremont villages has often been overlooked, and social organization has been relatively ignored in favor of debates concerning subsistence and mobility. Recently Brigham Young University’s Department of Anthropology and the Office of Public Archaeology have undertaken excavation and analysis of material from a number of large Fremont sites which contain a variety of residential and communal structures. Incorporating data from several sites, this paper explores Fremont settlement organization and structure use, with particular emphasis on structures used for varying degrees of community interaction, and demonstrates the presence of a variety of forms of social organization among the Fremont. While the Fremont are located in the far northern Southwest, there are interesting similarities between architecture, structure use, and site organization between Fremont sites and those occupied by people elsewhere in the Southwest.

The Fremont, a Formative culture located in the Eastern Great Basin and Colorado Plateau, have been primarily studied from an ecological perspective. This research addresses issues that are not ecological, the organization of production and exchange of ceramic vessels. Following criteria suggested by Brown et al. (1990), I argue that the following need to be addressed prior to a useful discussion of intergroup trade: the source of the raw materials of the exchanged objects, the associated pattern of distribution, the relative value of the objects, and their context of manufacture, use, and consumption. I specifically address three of these issues regarding the Snake Valley pottery series, asking what is the source of Snake Valley Black-on-gray pottery, what is the distribution of Snake Valley Gray, Snake Valley Black-on-gray, and Snake Valley Corrugated, and in what context was Snake Valley Black-on-gray manufactured? These questions are approached via two data sets -- a chemical assay and a distributional analysis. I argue that Snake Valley pottery was probably produced in a restricted area, the Parowan Valley, and that production was organized as community craft specialization, though I acknowledge that more research on this topic is ultimately required.

Fremont residential sites commonly consist of a handful of pithouses reflecting repeated occupation by a nuclear family or perhaps concurrent occupation by related families. Beginning around A.D. 900, some households begin to nucleate into increasingly larger co-resident villages particularly along the well-watered Wasatch Front, a development consistent with increasing population aggregation in the Southwest. Population densities were particularly high in Utah, Sevier, and Parowan Valleys, where large agricultural settlements persisted for centuries. In this study, I investigate the interaction between settlement patterns, agricultural practices, and land tenure in small-scale societies, and discuss how this interplay contributed to the overall structure of Fremont community organization, resulting in a general model of Fremont land tenure and social organization. Settlements in Parowan Valley, the most densely occupied region in the Fremont area, are examined in detail.

Wolf Village is a Fremont farming village located at the southern end of Utah Valley where Brigham Young University has conducted six field schools there and recovered 135 awl and awl fragments. The Wolf Village awls, like the awls from many Fremont sites, represent a large range of morphological variability. Because of the ubiquity and diversity of Fremont bone awls, many different approaches have been taken to organize and understand them; focusing more on morphological characteristics than interpretation. In order to better understand the life use of bone awls, experiments were conducted to replicate the manufacture and use of these tools and to create a comparative collection for diagnostic characteristics. Based on the results of analysis and comparison, the craftspeople at Wolf Village used a variety of methods to make tools for use in basket-making, leatherwork, and other activities.

Range Creek Canyon is a rugged and remote, mid-elevation canyon in the West Tavaputs Plateau, Utah. The
canyon has received much attention because of its remarkably intact record of an inte11Se Fremont occupation
from A.D. 900 to 1200. To date, 470 sites have been recorded with only a fraction of the canyon having been
surveyed The University of Utah has held its Archaeological Field School in Range Creek Canyon annually
since 2003. This article focuses on the results and direction of research at the University of Utah s Range Creek
Field Station, which was established in 2009 for the long-term study, management, and preservation of this rich
archaeological resource. Ongoing projects include survey, subsurface testing, experimental farming, wild plant
procurement, and paleoenvironmental studies.

Spotten Cave (42UT104) in Utah Valley is a special archaeological site because of its intermittent use from 5580 to 50 BP and because of the human coprolites found therein. Few reports have been devoted to this site, however, with none done on botanical remains. Archaeobotanical analysis of these prehistoric human coprolites coupled with ethnographic data provides insight into how and why former inhabitants of Utah Valley may have consumed both wild and cultivated plants. This report is unique for the valley, as it is one of the few botanical reports on Archaic sites in the area, and because Spotten Cave is one of two excavated caves sites and one of four Archaic sites.

Over the last few years, there has been renewed interest in Fremont communal structures and the activities that occurred both within and in conjunction with these buildings (i.e., Allison et al. 2012; Johansson 2014; King 2012; Richards et al. 2013). Over 15 years ago, Bryan Hockett (1998) was the first to attempt an analysis of the function of Fremont central structures. Based on the faunal material, Hockett (1998:298) argued that “short term consumption of large numbers of animals inside the building” was likely occurring within the structure. This paper evaluates this theory in light of both a reanalysis of the faunal material and data from central structures at other Fremont sites.

The variable contexts of Fremont habitation sites in Utah Valley often make the identification of those sites very challenging for archaeologists. Pit houses and other structures throughout the valley are frequently in plowed fields or other disturbed contexts that obscure their more exact location and nature. The application of geophysical technologies at archaeological sites throughout the world, including in North America, has proven to be an effective means of subsurface archaeological survey. However, geophysical techniques have been underutilized in Fremont archaeology. This paper reports on the employment of two geophysical methods, ground-penetrating radar (GPR) and fluxgate gradiometer surveys, at three known Fremont habitation sites in southern Utah Valley-the Wolf Village, Wolf Mound, and Snow Farm sites. The preliminary geophysical surveys and later ground-truthing of various geophysical anomalies reveals the effectiveness of these methods in identifying where architectural or other cultural features exist below the surface.

Within the last decade, dental calculus analysis (DCA) has provided increasingly detailed information about prehistoric diets, but it is currently not widely used by Great Basin archaeologists.  This paper discusses the recent results from DCA performed on the tartar extracted from the teeth of a Fremont burial.  Specifically, this discussion explores how DCA provides a compromise between the mandates established by NAGPRA and the opportunity to reconstruct ancient diets using a non-destructive analytical method.

The Gateway tradition was defined by Alan D. Reed in 1997 to describe a class of prehistoric sites in west-central Colorado that had previously only been described in generic terms or as a local variant of well-known cultural traditions such as Ancestral Puebloan or Fremont. Reed and Michael D. Metcalf elaborated upon the new archaeological taxon in the prehistoric context for the Northern Colorado River basin, which was published in 1999. Several studies and research projects conducted since that time have resulted in new datasets that are relevant to many of the research questions and data gaps identified by Reed and Metcalf for the Gateway tradition. A consideration of these data has resulted in new insights into the lifeways of these people and a taxonomic reformulation of the Gateway tradition into the Gateway phase.

Seamons Mound (42UT271) is located in Utah Valley, just east of Utah Lake in the curving neck of Little Dry Creek on the Provo River delta. The mound is among hundreds of Fremont sites dotting the area and was excavated between 1968 and 1970 by Brigham Young University. This paper examines human remains found during the excavations at Seamons Mound that date to heart of the Fremont era. They exhibit intriguing physiological and pathological characteristics including possible head trauma and a debilitating handicap. Recent stable isotope analyses, metric studies, and sociocultural interpretations offer additional perspectives into the cultural implications of food choice for one young individual living along the shores of Utah Lake.

This thesis primarily addresses the implications of Fremont gaming pieces in the
Parowan Valley. First, I review ethnographic gaming pieces and compare them to the
Fremont worked bone pieces in order to support the idea that they were used by the
Fremont in games similar to the ones recorded ethnographically. Then, I analyze a
collection of Fremont gaming pieces from excavations at three Parowan Valley sites. I note drastic differences in the characteristics found on pieces inside the Parowan Valley and those from outside the Parowan Valley. It is also clear that gaming pieces are being produced in the Parowan Valley and used more frequently there when compared to outside of it. I suggest that this means large aggregations are taking place in the Parowan Valley in the late Fremont period.

Janetski, Joel C., Christopher N. Watkins, and Cady B. Jardine. 
2011 Interaction and Exchange in Fremont Society.  In Perspectives on Prehistoric Trade and Exchange in California and the Great Basin, edited by Richard E. Hughes, pp. 22-54.  The University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.

Much recent and current Fremont research has focused on social and economic life (including trade), with the priority being on probable demographic centers such as Five Finger Ridge, Baker Village, and Parowan Valley where some level of social complexity may have developed (see various but especially Janetski 2002; Janetski et  al. 2000). Stylistic analyses and differential distributional patterns of exotics, ceramics, and obsidian in these and other communities suggest scalar variation within a pan-Fremont interaction sphere. Here we present what we believe to be the critical factors in the deconstruction of the interaction sphere, the explanation of variability in the distributions of specific goods that moved across the Fremont landscape, and the mechanisms responsible for that movement. We believe that understanding of these mechanisms can be elucidated by discussing style and interaction spheres with a focus on tribal societies

This paper examines the visibility of numerous remote granaries located in Range Creek Canyon of central Utah. Of the more than 400 sites recorded in the canyon, approximately twenty-five percent are storage facilities. These include granaries, (above ground storage) cists, (subterranean or semi-subterranean storage) and caches of tools or raw materials. Many of these are located in highly visible but difficult to access locations (remote granaries), while others are easily accessible but well-hidden. This pattern may represent two strategies for protecting stored resources: one in which the storage facility is plainly visible and can be easily monitored and another in which resource stores are hidden and left unattended. Using viewshed analysis, the visibility of granaries from the valley floor and from prehistoric residential sites is assessed and quantified. Recent high resolution Digital Elevation Models and georeferenced aerial photographs allow an accurate reconstruction of what is visible from each granary, i.e. archaeological sites, the valley floor, and defensive vantage points. This paper will test the hypothesis that granaries are visible from the valley floor and positioned in view of residential sites. If correct, the function of this defensive positioning may be to monitor access to granaries from a distance.

Transitions are important in archaeology and much of our time is spent documenting the nature and potential causes of cultural transitions. In the eastern Great Basin and Colorado Plateau there are three major cultural transitions: the Paleoarchaic to Archaic, the Archaic to Formative, and the Formative to Late Prehistoric. Few sites on the Colorado Plateau have been excavated, and North Creek Shelter is “the only known stratified Paleoarchaic site on the Colorado Plateau” (Bodily 2009). Because of the depth of the stratigraphy, North Creek Shelter can provide important information regarding adaptive transitions throughout the past 10,000 years. In his master’s thesis, Bradley Newbold (2009) documented faunal changes between the Paleoarchaic and Early Archaic; this paper discusses the relationships between the fauna from the Paleoarchaic and Early Archaic to that of the Fremont period.

Although the Fremont culture has been studied for decades, very little is currently understood about their social, political, and community organization. One aspect of Fremont material culture which may help determine their degree of social complexity is their painted bowls—both the black-on-gray and black-on-white varieties. This paper explores to what degree Fremont painted bowls may have been standardized, and whether the degree of standardization is significant enough to draw any conclusions about the Fremont socioeconomic structure.

For thirty years, Fremont ceramic analysts have primarily relied on the ceramic typology proposed by R. Madsen
in 1977. The intervening years of research have yielded a wealth of relevant data and refined analytical techniques.
Contemporary analysts regularly identify variations in Fremont ceramic temper that exceed Madsen’s descriptions.
In addition, key observations from previous analyses were omitted from the Madsen typology. I review past and
current conceptions of Fremont ceramic types as well as the literature pertaining to the treatment of ceramic variation,
specifically temper. Building on this work and on recent developments in Hohokam ceramic studies, I suggest a method
to identify and exploit temper variability in Fremont ceramics. I then propose a reclassification of Fremont pottery
within a Type – Series –Ware hierarchy. Fremont pottery is subsumed under a single ware, with series defined by temper
and types by surface treatment.

The Brigham Young University archaeological field school has spent five field seasons excavating at Wolf Village (42UT273), a large Fremont site in Utah Valley. Wolf Village is a blend of typical Fremont architectural traits and unique or rare characteristics. This blending is exemplified in the two adobe surface structures, which are the only well-documented adobe structures in Utah Valley; the residential pit structures, which include features such as multiple ventilation entrances and are abnormally large; and the 80.5 m² pit structure, which is the largest Fremont structure found to date and was likely used for communal activities. Despite the differences in construction, radiocarbon dating suggests that all these structures date to a relatively short time period in the A.D. 1000s. Exploring architectural traits and variation at Wolf Village and other Fremont sites gives new insights into community and interaction within the Fremont world.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zFY3A-Dc_4BKkdHXW5jFa2Eq6Ux7JDag/view?usp=sharing

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This presentation uses the methodology called Parallel Direct Historical approach, a multivariate analysis. The focus is on the continuity of Athapaskan iconography depicted in petroglyphs surveyed from the Uintah Basin in Northwestern Colorado, south across the Uncompahgre Plateau, to the Northern San Juan River region. Archaeologists believe the Avonlea II projectiles (A.D.0-750), Fremont grey ware pottery and pit house design are supporting evidence of Athapaskan presence. This research identifies images of creation beings (Hactcin) and spirit dancers (Gaans) portrayed on the walls in Cub Creek, Canyon Pintado, Seiber Canyon, the Dolores river basin and upper San Juan region. The Athapaskan cultural association with these petroglyph sites is supported both through ethnographic and archaeological research, and additional analysis of the iconography

Strontium isotope analysis can suggest which large game individuals were obtained locally by prehistoric hunters and which were brought to habitation sites through long-distance hunting or trade. This study explores the potential of using strontium isotope (87 Sr/ 86 Sr) analysis to determine whether the Fremont obtained some non-local large game at habitation sites. The Fremont were a diverse group of people who practiced hunting and horticulture from 500 to 1300 CE in what is now modern Utah. The transport of large game by Fremont hunters is examined at two sites: Five Finger Ridge in central Utah and Wolf Village in northern Utah. The results suggest that Fremont hunters obtained at least some large game individuals from areas away from their habitations, potentially through trade. The results of this study are regionally relevant for presenting previously unpublished results of strontium isotope analysis in Utah, a topic rarely explored. The research is also broadly relevant by showcas-ing potential complications with tracking prehistoric trade in locations with similar geology on a wide-scale, and dissimilar geology on a small-scale.

Water is arguably the most important resource for successful crop production in the Southwest. In this dissertation, I examine the economic tradeoffs involved in dry farming maize vs. maize farming using simple surface irrigation for the Fremont farmers who occupied Range Creek Canyon, east-central Utah from AD 900 to 1200. To understand the costs and benefits of irrigation in the past, maize farming experiments are conducted. The experiments focus on the differences in edible grain yield as the amount of irrigation water is varied between farm plots. The temperature and precipitation were tracked along with the growth stages of the experimental crop. The weight of experimental harvest increased in each plot as the number of irrigations increased. The benefits of irrigation are clear, higher yields.
The modern environmental constraints on farming in the canyon (precipitation, temperature, soils, and amount of arable land) were reconstructed to empirically scale variability in current maize farming productivity along the valley floor based on the results of the experimental crop. The results of farming productivity under modern environmental constraints are compared to the past using a tree-ring sequence to reconstruct water availability during the Fremont occupation of Range Creek Canyon. The reconstruction of past precipitation using tree ring data show that dry farming would have been extremely difficult during the period AD 900-1200 in Range Creek Canyon. Archaeological evidence indicates that the Fremont people were farming during this period suggesting irrigation was used to supplement precipitation shortfalls.
Large amounts of contiguous arable land, highly suitable for irrigation farming, are identified along the valley bottom. The distribution of residential sites and associated surface rock alignment features are analyzed to determine whether the Fremont located themselves in close proximity to these areas identified as highly suitable for irrigation farming. Seventy-five percent of the residential sites in Range Creek Canyon are located near the five loci identified as highly suitable for irrigation farming.

Appliqué is a decorative pottery technique found at many Fremont sites, but appliquéd sherds or vessels are rarely recovered in large numbers. Excavations at Wolf Village have produced 439 sherds with ceramic appliqué, by far the largest assemblage of this style from a single Fremont site. This article discusses the variation found within
the style and proposes a typology of appliqué styles based on the way the appliqué attaches to the vessel body. Appliqué is found on jars and figurines and was used more for its aesthetic value than utilitarian purposes. This visually distinctive technique set these vessels apart, although it is unclear what that might have meant to the prehistoric inhabitants of Wolf Village.

Six seasons of excavation at the Fremont site Wolf Village resulted in the recovery of over 56,000 ceramic sherds. The majority of these are plain grayware sherds, but over 6,000 sherds are decorated in some form. Decoration includes black-on-gray, Red-on-gray, surface manipulation, applique, corrugation, and fugitive red coating. Several of these types are the largest known collection of their kind. This paper provides a brief introduction to each type and what the peculiarities of the Wolf Village assemblage can do to expand our knowledge of each. Information is also provided for vessel and temper types to illustrate the importance placed on certain decorative sites and how the Fremont of Wolf Village may have provided for their decorative needs.

The results of geoarchaeological investigations at Pharo Village, a Fremont hamlet situated on a large alluvial fan in central Utah, are discussed in order to reveal ways in which landform dynamics contributed to the rise of Fremont occupation there as well as to the site's eventual abandonment. Cutbanks along Pharo Creek, the stream adjacent to Pharo Village, were mapped and sampled during fieldwork in 2013. Field and subsequent laboratory analysis resulted in reconstruction of the alluvial geochronology of the stream and geomorphological history of its adjacent landforms. Carbon samples from mapped strata and buried paleosols were radiocarbon dated and correlated to additional dates generated from the site's archaeological component housed at the Natural History Museum of Utah (NHMU). Projectile points in the NHMU collection were also analyzed in order to further refine when site occupations occurred. Redating of the site indicate Pharo Village had three periods of occupation, with two of three site abandonments correlating with regional drought events. Buried soils in mapped sections indicate a period of stability on the landform where Pharo Village is located prior to and likely during the site's occupation, suggesting landform stability encouraged Fremont use of the site. The final abandonment of the site ca. 600 cal BP occurred before or during a transition to a more active geomorphic environment marked by flooding and considerable deposition. This abandonment is also consistent with the general temporal span for the cessation of Fremont lifeways in the region and a major regional megadrought.