Late Quaternary geology, archaeology, and geoarchaeology of Hall's Cave, Texas

Abstract

Hall's Cave, Texas, contains a radiocarbon dated sediment record extending from the Last Glacial Maximum through the Holocene. Changes in the characteristics of the sediments and the pattern of sedimentation in the cave correlate with environmental and climatic shifts over the last 20,000 years. The sediments in Hall's Cave preserve well-documented paleontological and paleoecological records. We show that the cave sediments also contain a well-preserved archaeological record dating from ∼10,500 cal yr B.P. to the Historic period. Human use of the cave was episodic and tied to environmental factors, with evidence for increasingly intensive use of the cave throughout the Holocene. Episodes of deposition and non-deposition in Hall's Cave were synchronous with periods of deposition and erosion in low-order streams of the Edwards Plateau. These processes structured the archaeological record of central Texas.