Fremont archaeology
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Recent papers in 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... more
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... more
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... more
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... more
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... more
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... more
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... more
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... more
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... more
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... more
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... more
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... more
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.... more
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... more
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... more
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... more
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... more
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... more
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... more
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... more
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.... more
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... more
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... more
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... more
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.... more
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... more
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zFY3A-Dc_4BKkdHXW5jFa2Eq6Ux7JDag/view?usp=sharing Description: This presentation uses the methodology called Parallel Direct Historical approach, a multivariate analysis. The focus is on the continuity... more
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... more
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... more
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... more
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... more
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... more