Colluvial deposition of anthropogenic soils at the Ripley site, Ripley, New York

Abstract

The Ripley site is a Late Woodland through Historic period Iroquoian site located on a bluff overlooking the southern shore of Lake Erie in Western New York in the town of Ripley. Numerous authors have mentioned the presence of a midden along the eastern slope of the site, where prehistoric inhabitants cast refuse down the slope toward Young’s Run. The primary focus of this research is to examine the soils along the eastern slope to determine the origins of those deposits. This research will further reconstruct the depositional processes along the backslope, footslope, and toeslope of the eastern bluff, as well as determine if cultural refuse disposal from the prehistoric occupation of the Ripley site occurred along the eastern slope.