Dietz's Dots.

Phosphorus testing conducted in the 1950s by Eugene F. Dietz, Theodore Peck, and David A. Baerreis at a Native American habitation site is the antecedent and inspiration for numerous subsurface, geochemical analyses of ancient human activity patterns. Specifically, figure 1 in Dietz (1957) is a predecessor to contemporary interpolations of subsurface elemental concentrations constructed using geographic information systems. Dietz was one of the first within American archaeology to interpret human behavior though soils alone, rejecting traditional material analysis. Phosphorus concentrations were used as a proxy to examine areas where Native American’s discarded animal refuse. As a result, Dietz’s analysis was also able to detect where prehistoric houses and fire pits were, illuminating the greater breadth of landscape use at the site. This study contributes to today’s understanding of interdisciplinary geoarchaeological methods of delineating not only where an archaeological site was on the landscape, but also the activity patterns within the site, and how these patterns have actively shaped contemporary soils. Elemental analyses of archaeological sites still utilize Dietz’s grid sampling strategy and soil extraction techniques. However, tools such as geographic information systems have become more widespread, helping to construct digital subsurface soil maps. While Dietz did not invent many of the techniques he used, his work is important because it popularized soil science methods in the field of American archaeology.