science

Riverton Site

Riverton Site is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Riverton Site rather than just read about it. In short: The Riverton Site is an archaeological site located immediately west of the Wabash River and northeast of Palestine, Illinois. The site, which dates from the Late Archaic period (3000-1000 BCE), is the type site of the Riverton culture.

Key takeaways

Riverton Site belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Riverton Site to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Riverton Site from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Riverton Site is an archaeological site located immediately west of the Wabash River and northeast of Palestine, Illinois. The site, which dates from the Late Archaic period (3000-1000 BCE), is the type site of the Riverton culture. The Riverton culture, of which only three known sites had been discovered as of 1978, inhabited the central Wabash Valley and had distinct methods of making tools. The remains at the Riverton site can be separated into two areas: a manufacturing area with pits and a significant number of discarded tools, and a residential area with the clay floors of homes. The site was first noticed in the 1950s, and Dr. Frank Winters of the Illinois State Museum began excavations at the site in 1961. The site was added to the National Register of Historic Places on December 18, 1978. It is one of three archaeological sites on the National Register in Crawford County; the other two sites, the Swan Island Site and the Stoner Site, were the other two known Riverton culture sites as of 1978.

Early agriculture The Eastern Agricultural Complex of the United States is one of about 10 places in the world where humans independently domesticated wild plants and initiated agriculture. The Riverton Site is one of the best known and earliest sites of extensive cultivation in the eastern U.S. By 1800 BCE, Native Americans were cultivating several different native plants at Riverton for food and containers. The cultivated plants were bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria), marshelder (Iva annua var. macrocarpa), sunflower (Helianthus annuus var. macrocarpus), and 2 cultivated varieties of chenopod (Chenopodium berlandieri), as well as the possible cultivation of squash (Cucurbita pepo) and little barley (Hordeum pusillum). Ten house sites have been discovered at Riverton, indicating a population of 50 to 100 people in the community. Among the hearths and storage pits associated with the houses, archaeologists found a number of plant remains, including a large number of seeds of chenopods (goosefoot or lamb's quarters). Some of the chenopod seeds had husks only one third as thick as those of wild seeds. Riverton farmers had bred them selectively to produce a husk easier to remove from the edible seed than wild varieties of the same plant.

See also List of archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in Illinois

Notes

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Riverton Site

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Riverton Site claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Riverton Site before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Riverton Site ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Riverton Site

In research: Riverton Site appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Riverton Site in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Riverton Site is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in Illinois, Crops originating from Pre-Columbian North America, Crops originating from the United States, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Riverton Site outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Riverton Site in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Riverton Site means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Riverton Site out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Riverton Site in simple terms?

Why does Riverton Site matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Riverton Site?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Riverton Site.