Abstract

On a warm afternoon in May 2000, I was walking along Mill Creek in Wabaunsee County inspecting soils and sediment exposed in a steep stream bank that stands about thirty feet above the creek. It is a common routine for me. Most of my research involves reconstructing the geology, paleoecology, and archaeology of stream valleys, so I look for places where creeks and rivers have cut into their own deposits. These cutbanks are my “windows” into the past.

Keywords:

• Claussen,
• archaeology,
• archaeological,
• prehistory,
• Wabunsee County,
• paleoecology,
• geology,
• cutbanks,
• sediment,
• Mill Creek,
• Middle Ceramic period,
• hunter-gatheres,
• Kansas,
• floodplain,
• radiocarbon,
• dating,
• Paleoindian,
• Kansas Anthropological Association,
• anthropology,
• Dalton Period,
• dalton,
• KU Anthropology Department,
• prehistoric