Prehistoric Landscapes and Weakly Developed Soils

The landscapes used by prehistoric people during the middle Holocene on the Canadian prairies were considerably different than what we can infer from the remains of those landscapes and the distributions of human populations. Processes of deposition, erosion and soil formation were important to creating a landscape that was attractive to prehistoric people. Post-depositional processes, including erosion, deposition, and soil formation have altered those landscapes significantly, leaving behind only a fragment of the body of land and resources that attracted prehistoric people. Using a combination of oral histories regarding landscape use and scientific processes to understand the physical processes involved in shaping those landscapes, we can infer both the nature of the landscape and the physical and natural resources that attracted prehistoric people to those locations.