Geoarchaeological simulation of meandering river deposits and settlement distributions: A three-dimensional approach

Fluvial processes have the potential to obscure, expose, or even destroy portions of the archaeological record. Floodplain aggradation can bury and hide archaeological features, whereas actively migrating channels can erode them. The archaeological record preserved in the subsurface of a fluvial system is potentially fragmented and is three-dimensionally complex, especially when the system has been subjected to successive phases of alluviation and entrenchment. A simulation model is presented to gain insight into the three-dimensional subsurface distribution, visibility, and preservation potential of the archaeological record in a meander-floodplain system as a function of geomorphic history. Simulation results indicate that fluvial cut-fill cycles can strongly influence the density of archaeological material in the subsurface. Thus, interpretation of floodplain habitation based solely upon features visible in the shallow subsurface (through traditional techniques such as aerial photography and geophysical prospection) can be misleading. In the examples, the loss of archaeological record by channel migration ranges between 45% and 90% over 12,000 years for channel belt-dominated systems, decreasing to 10 to 30% for rivers where the floodplain width is a multiple of channel belt width. The modeling presented can be used to test excavation strategies in relation to hypothesized scenarios of stratigraphic evolution for archaeological sites. (c) 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.