Geological and Cultural Context of the Nogahabara I Site

theoretical discussion of toolkit composition and assemblage variability intriguing, their interpretation of the Nogahabara I site as a single, short-term occupation, reflecting a systemic assemblage unbiased by taphonomic disturbance, is unsubstantiated by the data presented in their article. Because their argument hangs on the premise that all of the artifacts are the same age and represent a toolkit or cache that belonged to one or possibly a small group of hunters, site context is critical to this interpretation. Odess and Rasic view the artifacts as having been freshly eroded from a primary burial across a large blowout in a currently active dune field; yet there is a notable absence of discussion or references on northern eolian depositional environments and processes. Alternative interpretations of the geological context of the site and site formation processes, more consistent with the data, are evaluated here, as well as avenues for testing alternate hypotheses. Much of the data are consistent with the cultural materials being situated in an eolian lag deposit, and thus not in a primary context. In addition to the contextual problems with the site, the assemblage data were not analyzed critiGEOLOGICAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXT OF THE NOGAHABARA I SITE