Archaeological research on the late Pleistocene and early Holocene periods has tended to focus on rock shelters, caves, large game kills, and occasionally butchery sites. Diversity in Open-Air Site Structure across the Pleistocene/Holocene Boundary examines a diverse range of open-air sites—bounded both naturally and culturally—in Siberia and Germany and throughout North America.
 
Open-air sites are difficult for researchers to locate and, because of depositional processes, often more difficult to interpret; they contain many superimposed events but often show evidence of only the most recent. Working to overcome the limitations of data and poor preservation, using decades of prior research and new analytical tools, and diverging from a one-size-fits-all mode of interpretation, the contributors to this volume offer fresh insight into the formation and taphonomy of open-air sites.
 
Contributors: Douglas B. Bamforth, Ian Buvit, Brian J. Carter, Robin Cordero, Robert Dello-Russo, George C. Frison, Kelly E. Graf, Bruce B. Huckell, Michael A. Jochim, Joshua D. Kapp, Robert L. Kelly, Aleksander V. Konstantinov, Banks Leonard, Madeline E. Mackie, Christopher W. Merriman, Matthew J. O’Brien, Spencer Pelton, Neil N. Puckett, Beth Shapiro, Todd A. Surovell, Karisa Terry, Steve Teteak, Robert Yohe
 

Kristen A. Carlson is associate professor in the Anthropology Department at Augustana University. Her research focuses on paleoenvironmental reconstruction through the use of stable isotopes and trace elements, predominantly with Paleoindian bison kills in North America. She has studied bison herd manipulation and drive-lane construction for bison jumps using GIS analysis and worked for the National Park Service, where she studied and preserved prehistoric Southwestern Pueblo sites. Carlson is coeditor of The Archaeology of Large-Scale Manipulation of Prey.

Leland C. Bement is an archeologist with the Oklahoma Archeological Survey at the University of Oklahoma, Norman. He has forty years of experience in the prehistoric archaeology of the southern plains of North America and has worked extensively on Paleoindian and Archaic sites in Texas and Oklahoma. He is the coeditor of The Archaeology of Large-Scale Manipulation of Prey and author of Hunter-Gatherer Mortuary Practices during the Central Texas Archaicand Bison Hunting at Cooper Site.