Analyzing Sedentism in the Built Environment: A Case Study in Archaeological Geophysics at Boundary Village, Uintah County, Utah

This thesis presents a case study that evaluates the ability of near-surface remote sensing to generate archaeological data suitable to answer questions about human behavior. Specifically, this project assesses the ability of two remote sensing methods, ground-penetrating radar (GPR) and magnetic gradiometry to resolve subsurface archaeological features that are markers of sedentism. In this study, the markers of sedentism are features of village sites where their variability is linked to the anticipated and actual length of time spent occupying a domestic site. A comparative dataset was generated to assess how specific subsurface archaeological features would look in GPR and magnetic data sets in the Intermountain West. A Fremont-period pithouse village site was used as a case study to test GPR and magnetic gradiometry. The generated data was then evaluated based on the relationship between the built environment and sedentism. Remote sensing results indicate that postholes and pit features were more identifiable than pithouses, ancient living surfaces, or activity areas. Additionally, magnetic data expectations were not met. The results yielded insight into near-surface remote sensing in the Intermountain West, theory building in geophysical archaeology, and justify further research into the relationship between storage and mobility in prehistoric archaeology.