Site Formation Processes and Archaeological Preservation Potential of the Lady Bug Site, an Inundated Quarry Within the Aucilla River, Northwest Florida

The Lady Bug archaeological site (8JE795) is located in a small mid‐channel sinkhole inundated by the Aucilla River in northwest Florida. In this sinkhole are late Quaternary deposits representing a detailed record of landscape change and stability over the last 50,000 years. Archaeological excavations along with micromorphological, geochemical, and particle size analyses were used to elucidate the site formation processes of the Lady Bug site. Changes in deposition at the Lady Bug site were primarily driven by fluctuations in the local potentiometric surface level and precipitation. The site was subaerially exposed and available for human occupation from ~20,000 cal BP until 13,800 cal BP , and then again from 12,150 to 4500 cal BP . People occupied the Lady Bug site during the later period of subaerial exposure and landscape stability. They were likely exploiting a nearby outcrop of chert until inundation of the sinkhole 4500 years ago by the instigation of the modern Aucilla River fluvial regime. A single flake was recovered from an older than Clovis stratum, possibly representing an archaeological component coeval with the pre‐Clovis component at the nearby Page‐Ladson site.