Sustainable archaeological practice involves the efficient performance of archaeological work in areas affected by development interests. In urban settings, planning agencies have recognized that geoarchaeological strategies are time and cost efficient. Deep testing methods minimize footprints to generate stratigraphic models that inform on past native environments, subsequent landscape change, absolute chronology, and site formation. When coupled with background historic and environmental data, geoarchaeological probing supplements or even precludes the need for costly excavation. In this study, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority Capital Construction Company (MTACC) sponsored the drilling and detailed stratigraphic analysis of four deep borings in preparation for a new subway tunnel in New York City. A more expansive set of boring samples was taken by the MTACC for geotechnical purposes. Our stratigraphic construct facilitated “retrofitting” of the MTACC observations to develop a laterally extensive baseline sequence. An allostratigraphic model was developed for a ten-block length of the Upper East Side of Lower Manhattan on the strength of radiocarbon dates and ethnobotanic and malacological analyses. Finally, geographic information system (GIS) modeling generated a series of time slices chronicling the transformation of the project area from Late Glacial times through the area's prehistoric and historic past.

Abstract Geological studies of flood plains are a major concern in archaeological research (Larsen, 1982; Anderson and Schuldenrein, 1985; Brakenridge, 1984; Ferring, 1986; Waters, 1988). An interest in the process of flood-plain development has been stimulated by the abundance of stratified sites in such settings and by the utility of cultural-geologic successions that link past human and environmental events. The genesis of flood-plain deposits that preserve archaeological evidence is complicated by both human occupation and natural alluvial events and processes. Deposits with archaeological associations may obscure natural flood-plain stratification, while alluvial events can re-sort artifacts and alter spatial distributions of prehistoric activities. Soil formation and flood-plain erosion may change or destroy portions of the archaeological record even more. Still, a comprehensive appreciation of site-formation processes that includes familiarity with flood processes, soil formation processes, the nature of riverine occupations, and the range of disturbances affecting deposits can result in a reasonable reconstruction of the occupational landscapes. In the temperate Holocene environments of the southeastern U.S. Piedmont, the primary rivers served as settlement pathways for prehistoric peoples up through the period of European contact. Based on evidence from throughout the region, adaptive strategies changed through time, even though the affinity for riverine settlement persisted (Coe, 1964; Claggett and Cable, 1982; Ward 1983). Many of the key drainages preserve discontinuous records of occupation for much of the Holocene. As a result, the cultural sequences preserved in the alluvium of the main drainageways provide excellent opportunities for integrating the Holocene landscape and occupational histories