Plains Archaeology Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

The Olson site (5BL147) is a multi-component rock walled game drive located in the James Peak wilderness
area of Northern Colorado, USA. It is one part of a much larger game drive complex located at
Rollins Pass, situated above modern tree limit and along the Continental Divide, at approximately
3600 m above sea level. Byron Olson and James Benedict conducted work at the site in the late 1960s.We
combined their efforts with our recent field and lab work to produce a synthetic overview of the site. At
least 45 blinds and 1307 m of rock walls are present, to funnel game upslope to waiting hunters.
Radiocarbon and lichenometric dates suggest occupations spanning the last 3200 years, with diagnostic
tools suggesting even older use. Lithic analysis of the debitage and tools, from both excavated (blinds)
and surface contexts (intercept and processing areas), provides possible scenarios for the use of the site.
Large game drives of the Colorado alpine zone represent accumulated landscapes of artifacts and features,
the byproduct of many years of construction, use, and re-use, and built for a variety of reasons.

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- Prehistoric Archaeology, Lichenology, Plains Archaeology, Anthropology of Hunting
- by Kevin Gilmore
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- Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Landscape Archaeology, Plains Archaeology
- by Alan Outram
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- Engineering, Geography, Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology

Several types of smoking pipes have been manufactured and used by native North American peoples throughout later prehistoric and historic times. Although substantial information exists on the styles of these pipes, very little is known about their methods of manufacture. This paper examines one particular style of pipe, the Florence Pipe, associated with the proto-Wichita Great Bend peoples. A block of Minnesota pipestone was manufactured into a pipe using stone tools replicated after those found in the Robb Collection from central Kansas. This archaeological assemblage was proposed to have been used in the manufacture of Florence pipes, which was confirmed through use-wear analysis of the collection. The steps and labor requirements for the creation of Florence pipes are illuminated in this paper in a way that cannot be accomplished through archaeological analysis and use-wear analysis alone.

Locality X is a diffuse scatter which consists primarily of more than 1,000 tiny lithic artifacts distributed throughout a massive stratum of eolian sand adjacent to a lunette southeast of Blackwater Draw Locality 1. The discovery of a single side-notched projectile point along with radiocarbon dates indicate that this newly discovered locality may represent a Late Prehistoric camp associated with the prehistoric springs that characterize the site. As such, it would represent the first discrete Late Prehistoric locality identified at the Blackwater Draw site; however, questions arose regarding the assemblage's validity as a primary site of human activity. The unusually small artifact sizes and their location on the landscape raised the possibility that Locality X represents a secondary accumulation of size-sorted artifacts originating from the multiple archaeological localities lying upwind along the margins of the pond, redeposited in an aggrading lunette feature. Particle size analysis and wind tunnel experiments were carried out to test this hypothesis. Results indicate that, while the site has clearly been reworked by wind, eolian processes alone do not account for the accumulation of the artifacts, and the site appears to represent a primary location of cultural activity. The study generated new information relevant to understanding wind transport of small artifacts as well as confirming the existence of a new locality at the Blackwater Draw site.

- by David Kilby
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- Archaeology, Geoarchaeology, Lithic Technology, Southwestern Archaeology

750 obsidian artifacts in this study suggest that human groups associated with them were not limited in their ability to procure obsidian resources for production of stone tools from locations over 1,000 kilometers distant. A minimum of twenty-two geologically distinct sources were in use by these groups, spanning the entire occupational history of the region. These findings not only suggest numerous obsidian sources were utilized throughout time, but that humans on the plains of Alberta had access to networks of resource procurement that ranged the length and breadth of the Rocky Mountains.

The Millipede site is a Nebraska variant (Central Plains tradition) lodge dating to ca. AD 1300. The structure had burned, preserving a rich array of plant remains and insects. Elm was the principal wood used in lodge construction and hophornbeam (ironwood) was also heavily employed. Maize (mostly 10-row) was plentiful, and common beans also were present. Over 3,600 goosefoot (Chenopodium cf. berlandieri) seeds were recovered, most of which derive from a domesticated variety. Other abundant native domesticated plants included sumpweed and tobacco. Charred insect larvae, mostly darkling beetles (false wireworms), were associated with food remains in the bottom of an open storage pit and on the lodge floor. We conclude that the lodge's residents vacated and intentionally burned the structure. Insect infestation may have contributed to the residents' decision to burn the lodge, but burning also might have formed part of a closing ritual associated with decommissioning the dwelling. (Article and Supplemental Material)

- by William Green and +1
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- Paleoethnobotany, Plains Archaeology, Archaeoentomology, Iowa archaeology
- by David Kilby
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- Archaeology, Zooarchaeology, Paleoclimatology, Lithic Technology

Archaeological evidence suggests that Tecolote Pueblo, occupied from A.D. 1050-1300, may be a geographic outlier, located at the far eastern edge of Puebloan occupation but still affiliated with the Pueblo. The biological affinity of its residents, however, was not known, as Plains sites have also been recovered very near to Tecolote. Using the dentitions recovered from the site, a dental anthropological approach was used to determine whether the residents’ biological affinity was closer to Puebloan or Plains groups. Dental nonmetric traits were recorded using ASUDAS (Arizona State University Dental Anthropology System) standards and compared statistically using the Mean Measure of Divergence and nonstatistically using Turner’s expression count method. Results from both methods indicate that Tecolote Pueblo is more closely related to Puebloan than Plains groups. This result supports the results of a previous study based on cranial metric traits that Tecolote Pueblo was slightly, but not significantly, more closely related to the Pueblo. However, multidimensional scaling shows that Tecolote does not fall neatly into the Puebloan group and may be biologically different due to genetic drift.

- by Angela M Mallard
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- Dental Anthropology, Osteology, Southwestern Archaeology, Plains Archaeology

In this article, chipped stone raw materials from the Garrett Allen site are discussed, with emphasis on the stone tools. As indicated by Eckles (2013), who discussed the history of investigations and chronology, this is one of several articles to be presented on various aspects of the site’s artifacts. One of the remarkable aspects of the site is the variety of chipped stone raw materials. There are varieties of flint, chert, agate, jasper, chalcedony, petrified wood, orthoquartzite, metaquartzite, quartz, silicified shale, clinker, non-volcanic glass, obsidian, and basalt from many parts of Wyoming and surrounding states. The diversity of raw material types is present throughout the cultural deposits. There is no knappable tool stone on site; the only rocks are small fragments of drab, buff-gray sandstone. All culturally manipulated lithic materials were therefore brought into the site, many from considerable distances. The site is located on private land in southeastern Carbon County, Wyoming at the northern end of the Medicine Bow Mountains and southern edge of the Hanna-Carbon Basin. It is within a homoclinal valley near the perennial Quealy Spring. Deposits are primarily alluvial, derived from the surrounding geological formations (Hayter 1981:31).

- by Adam Guinard
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- Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Geology, Collections Management

Vision quests are well documented as an important practice within the cultures of the Northern Plains and beyond. While vision quest structures have been recorded throughout the Northern Plains, the basis for what makes a vision quest structure has not been considered systematically, particularly for prairie regions. This paper considers the role of the vision quest within plains cultures, and examines the ethnographic record to try to create a picture of the possible range of structures associated with vision quest experiences. A select number of vision quest sites recorded in Saskatchewan are looked at as possible examples of the types of structures described in the ethnographic literature. Finally, implications for identifying vision quest features are discussed.

- by Nathan Friesen
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- Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Ethnography, Plains Archaeology

The Peterson site (also known as the Granite Falls Bison Kill) is an Early Plains Archaic bison kill in Yellow Medicine County, Minnesota. It was discovered in 1988. Field excavations were conducted between 1988 and 1990, followed by intermittent laboratory analysis and research over the last 25 years. This report represents the first complete analysis and interpretation of the Bison Bone Bed, the primary component identified at the Peterson site. The Bison Bone Bed at Peterson represents a 7,700 to 8,000 year old, late fall-early winter kill event with a minimum of 12 adult and juvenile bison resent. The radiocarbon dates obtained and diagnostic spear points recovered demonstrate an Early Plains Archaic, Logan Creek Complex association.

- by Steven Kuehn
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- Plains Archaeology, Bison, Midwest Archaeology, Archaic Period
- by Jim Railey
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- Southwestern Archaeology, Plains Archaeology

The chronicles of the Coronado expedition of 1541 record the presence of two groups inhabiting the Llano Estacado region of the southern High Plains. These groups, referred to as Querechos and Teyas, were prototypic Plains nomads, specializing in the hunting and processing of bison, whose products they traded to the Pueblo farmers of the Southwest for a variety of agricultural staples and craft items. Recent studies of archaeological remains in the Texas Panhandle have led to the recognition of two distinct protohistoric occupations, known as the Tierra Blanca and Garza complexes. The possible identifica tion of these complexes with the Querechos and Teyas of the Coronado narratives is discussed, as is their relationship to historic Athapaskan and Caddoan peoples of the region. The significance of these inter pretations to the study of protohistoric Plains-Pueblo interaction is also analyzed.

Compilation of 16 papers in honor of Dr. Jim Benedict, pioneer geoarchaeologist of the Southern Rocky Mountains.

- by Jason M LaBelle
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- Prehistoric Archaeology, Lithic Technology, Lichenology, Plains Archaeology

Published in 1985 and written to be accessible for general audiences, this complete version of Peoples of Prehistoric South Dakota goes back roughly fourteen thousand years to introduce the first people to live in present-day South Dakota. They left behind a fascinating record. Archaeologists have done more than 30 years of research since publications, so some archaeological constructions about the past undoubtedly have changed. Some approaches and word choices have also changed, even the term “prehistoric” in the title. Readers should realize that Native peoples had their own histories that may or may not be the same as those archaeologists construct. Realize also that contemporary tribal names are not the same as the terms archaeologists use for the ancient peoples.
Peoples of Prehistoric South Dakota spans the time from the mammoth hunters to the coming of the first white people in the eighteenth century. It describes the environment of the Great Plains and the tools and adaptations that these early Indians made in response to it. Each major cultural tradition, along with representative artifacts, is discussed and illustrated. The final chapter challenges readers to become responsible for protection of the archaeological sites that contain this precious heritage.
The text not only describes archaeological techniques and the information that results from them but also points out the limits of archaeology and the varieties of interpretation that can result.

- by Larry J Zimmerman
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- Native American Studies, Plains Archaeology, Great Plains Studies, South Dakota
- by Chris Loendorf
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- Archaeology, Plains Archaeology

Nearly 11,100 years ago, a forty year-old man and a ten to eleven year-old girl were buried in a single, primary interment in a rock shelter located on the west bank of the Brazos River in Bosque County, Texas, 30 kilometers upstream from Waco. This chapter explores the forms and possible functions of a remarkable assemblage of items recovered primarily with the adult. Due to the near absence of durable items associated with her, the girl is addressed only briefly. As an opportunity to learn more about the lives of Paleoamericans, we explore the following questions: What do these items suggest about recurring activities of this man? What insights can be gleaned from features of his anatomy that also bear on this subject?

- by Margaret (Pegi) Jodry
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- Spirituality, Shamanism, Plains Archaeology, Hunter-Gatherer Archaeology

The Spring Canyon site (5LR205) is a multicomponent prehistoric campsite located in a foothills valley within Fort Collins, Colorado. It is one of the largest, most diverse sites in the northern Colorado foothills, possessing over 1,700 artifacts spanning Folsom to Late Prehistoric times. This study is a synthesis of existing research at the site that combines several informal and formal investigations starting in the late 1930s. These investigations document the presence of a diverse array of chipped and ground stone tools, diagnostic projectile points, obsidian from the northern Plains and Southwest, ceramics, and buried artifacts and features. It is concluded that the Spring Canyon site served as an important residential base camp for much of prehistory, and that further excavation would likely reveal buried archaeological deposits. The case is made that the Spring Canyon site, though heavily impacted by historic practices, remains a valuable asset for its archaeological merit and its potential focus for public outreach. INTRODUCTION The Spring Canyon site (5LR205) is a multicomponent Native Ameri-can campsite located in Larimer County, Colorado, along the physiographic and ecological boundary separating the foothills of the Front Range and the shortgrass steppe of the Colorado Piedmont. It is situated adjacent to a prominent " water gap " in the hogback foothills, one of many such features along the foothills west of Fort Collins (Figure 1). In the northern Colorado foothills, water gaps are places where north/south-trending hogback ridges are breached

- by Spencer Pelton and +2
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- Obsidian, Ground Stone Technology, Plains Archaeology, Paleoindians

This paper presents the results of investigations into the Olson site, a rock-walled communal hunting site located at Rollins Pass, Colorado, around 3600 m asl. It includes a projectile point chronology, chronometric dates, detailed maps of the site's walls and hunting blinds, metric attributes of the hunting blinds, an artifact tabulation, and a pollen/phytolith residue analysis of ground stone tools from the site. Prehistoric foragers used and remodeled the site for several thousand years beginning around 3,000 calibrated years BP.

- by Jason M LaBelle and +1
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- Ground Stone Technology, Plains Archaeology, Residue and Use-Wear Analysis, Anthropology of Hunting

An enduring problem in North American archaeology concerns the nature of the transition between the Clovis and Folsom Paleoindian complexes in the West. Traditional models indicate a temporal hiatus between the two complexes implying that Folsom was a population replacement for Clovis. Alternatively, if Folsom was an innovation that occurred within Clovis populations and subsequently spread, we would expect to see a temporal overlap. Here, we test these hypotheses using high-quality radiocarbon dates and Bayesian statistics to infer the temporal boundaries of the complexes. We show that the Folsom complex initially appears between 12,900 and 12,740 cal BP, whereas Clovis disappears between 12,720 and12,490 cal BP. Therefore, Folsom may have appeared about 200 years before Clovis disappeared, and so the two complexes likely co-occurred in the West for nearly eight generations. This finding suggests that Folsom was a successful adaptive innovation that diffused through the western Clovis population, eventually going to fixation over multiple generations.

- by David Kilby and +2
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- Plains Archaeology, Bayesian Radiocarbon Dating, Radiocarbon Dating (Archaeology), Younger Dryas

Native-made ceramics with inlaid glass trade beads have been reported from only a few sites in the Plains. At Cheyenne River (39ST1) and Fort Clark (32ME2) on the Missouri River, bead-inlaid vessels appear to be associated with eighteenth and nineteenth century Arikara occupations. At Biesterfeldt (32RM1) on the Sheyenne River, bead-inlaid vessels are associated with an eighteenth century Cheyenne occupation with evidence of Arikara connections. Bead-impressed ceramics reflect creative, syncretic practices in which Native innovators reconstituted trade goods according to an internal cultural logic, similar in some respects to the remanufacture of glass beads into pendants. However, impressing beads in ceramics was a less viable use of glass because of the susceptibility of beads to damage during vessel firing.

- by William Green
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- Plains Archaeology, Ceramics (Archaeology)
- by Kelsey Pennanen and +1
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- Archaeology, Plains Archaeology, University of Calgary, Chacmool

Recent excavations by the Ancient Southwest Texas Project of Texas State University sampled a previously undocumented Younger Dryas component from Eagle Cave in the Lower Pecos Canyonlands of Texas. This stratified assemblage consists of bison (Bison antiquus) bones in association with lithic artifacts and a hearth. Bayesian modeling yields an age of 12,660-12,480 cal BP, and analyses indicate behaviors associated with the processing of a juvenile bison and the manufacture and maintenance of lithic tools. This article presents spatial, faunal, macrobotanical, chronometric, geoarchaeological, and lithic analyses relating to the Younger Dryas component within Eagle Cave. The identification of the Younger Dryas occupation in Eagle Cave should encourage archaeologists to revisit previously excavated rockshelter sites in the Lower Pecos and beyond to evaluate deposits for unrecognized, older occupations.

- by David Kilby and +1
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- Archaeology, Geoarchaeology, North American archaeology, Plains Archaeology

The recording of rock art has vastly changed in the digital age, and the technology associated with digital photography has opened a number of doors for archaeologists with regard to data processing and analysis. D-stretch is a plug-in for ImageJ software program, developed for the purpose of analyzing rock art in different colour spaces. The plug-in is being increasingly popular in the study of rock art world wide. Through the use of D-stretch at archaeological site DgOv-2, at Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park Alberta, an increase of 43% data was collected and added to the known record. The data collected centred on the examination of the presence of ochre within the Ceremonial and Biographical rock art traditions on site. The naming convention of these two traditions suggest the Ceremonial traditional should have a higher use concentration of ochre where the Biographical tradition should have a lower use, based on its predominately " story-telling " purpose. However, the examination of ochre usage between these two traditions highlighted a fairly uniform spiritual use of both traditions. The study also supported the use of D-stretch contributing more than just the highlighting of faded pictographs as often used within current rock art research.

Dogs were an important component of lifeways on the Northern Plains until the reintroduction of the horse following European contact. There has been little investigation into the variability of domestic canids on the Prairies and the potential of that variability as a proxy for identifying relationships between culture-historic entities. Distinguishing between sympatric canids using morphological characteristics can be challenging with degraded specimens that have high intra-specific variability, and where wolf-dog hybridization can result in transitional morphologies. Here, we present preliminary ancient DNA data on archaeological canids recovered from FM Ranch (EfPk-1) and Cluny (EePf-1) in Alberta, as well as from Lake Midden (EfNg-1) in Saskatchewan. Using the mitochondrial control region, we taxonomically reclassify zooarchaeological remains, find potential evidence of European dogs in a protocontact component, and identify preliminary indications of a distinct dog population at the Cluny site that may be of interest for determining the origin of the One Gun phase.

- by Tyler J Murchie and +1
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- Ancient DNA (Archaeology), Plains Archaeology, Archaeological dogs, Canadian Archaeology

In attempting to work out the chronological relationship between newly discovered mammoth kills and plant processing sites in southern Arizona in the 1950s, Emil Haury succinctly concluded, “the hunters were here first.” In the ensuing decades, it became clear that underlying the relatively conspicuous archaeological record of the agricultural Southwest is an abundant record of Paleoindian occupations, with a correspondingly abundant history of significant discoveries and insights regarding late Pleistocene hunter-gatherers in western North America. This presentation reviews the role of the Greater Southwest in past and present Paleoindian research, and serves as an introduction and context for the papers that follow in The Paleoindian Southwest symposium.

Bonfire Shelter (41VV218) is a nationally significant site in the Lower Pecos region of the West Texas borderlands that preserves evidence of what may be the oldest and southernmost " bison jump " in North America. At least two major episodes of bison hunting are evident at Bonfire Shelter, one associated with Paleoindian Plainview and Folsom projectile points, and another associated with Late Archaic Castroville and Montell points. The approximately 12,000-year-old layers comprising Bonebed 2 appear to represent a singular example of this hunting technique in these early time periods, and are the subject of recent debate. There is disagreement as to whether one or as many as three hunting events are represented in Bonebed 2, and as to whether or not they truly represent bison jumps. This paper reports the results of renewed field investigations into the timing, context, and cultural associations of both bone beds at Bonfire Shelter carried out by the Ancient Southwest Texas Project at Texas State University. The paper then considers the interpretation of these archaeofaunal deposits as bison jumps, and the implications of those interpretations for Late Pleistocene hunter-gatherer social organization in the Lower Pecos and the larger Southern Plains region.

- by David Kilby
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- Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Southwestern Archaeology, Plains Archaeology

chapter 4 from An Archaeology of the Cosmos

In the following paper, an attempt is made to form a model to explain the location of late prehistoric sites in the Flint Hills area of the Central Plains. To achieve this, early journals and historic records describing the Native American groups known to have inhabited the area were examined. These were then used to reconstruct known travel routes and occupation sites used by these groups, and to describe the annual seasonal round they followed to gather resources. Archeological reports from the area were then reviewed to find any sites or data that might shed additional light on this pattern. Source areas of raw materials, known to have been important to native peoples, were also located, using ecological references. Finally, cultural factors such as tradition or religious beliefs, which can also significantly affect site location, were examined. These factors vary in importance and are often interdependent. By comparing the geographic locations of occupation sites, travel routes, and raw material source areas to cultural biases, and the seasonal round of native peoples, a model to explain the location of many late prehistoric archeological sites in the area was obtained.

Contact and influence between two areas like the Plains and Southwest can take many forms. It could be migration of an entire population, or by movement of a single individual carrying certain cultural traits. It could be by trade, diffusion brought about by simple contact and awareness of how another group does things, or by warfare such as conquest or raiding. A major effect might also be seen through movement of an individual who transmitted one of the decimating diseases introduced by the Europeans. To identify where and to what extent any of these factors are operating is very difficult with the present state of knowledge. To quote Wedel (1950:100) "the area is vast, the time span long, and the available information still far too sketchy and uneven." With this in mind, the direction of this paper will not be to evaluate the exact nature of contact, but instead to show what evidence is available, and what general trends and changes over time can be identified.

The research presented outlines the use of terrestrial laser scanning as a method of digitally capturing an at-risk Buffalo Jump site in south-central Alberta. The bison faunal material and other archaeological remains present at the base of the sandstone cliff were exposed following the 2013 flooding and migration of the main channel of the Jumpingpound Creek, and the remnant portion of the site is classified as highly threatened due to natural erosional processes along the riverbank. Terrestrial LiDAR was implemented to digitally capture the site and surrounding landscape in the fall of 2016, and a second point cloud dataset was collected in the fall of 2017. Results of the cloud-to-cloud comparison of the two non-contemporaneously collected datasets determined that in certain areas along the cutbank of the site locality, over 1.5 meters of erosion took place. Measurements of the sedimentary cutbank and geologic profiling were recovered from the 3-dimensional spatial data collected and comparisons were made for determinations of cutbank undercutting and instability at different locations based on the point-cloud data. This research will allow for more strategic mitigative archaeological initiatives to be implemented at this site of significant traditional provenance for the Blackfoot peoples to aid in its protection and preservation. TLS implementation creates accurate 3D visualization of archaeological sites it is argued that the analytical possibilities of point clouds and other forms of digital data require further exploration for potential applications in monitoring and use of these datasets for public outreach and sharing of cultural heritage resources. The resulting datasets provide a lasting digital record of the site, at multiple points in time, and the importance of properly archiving datasets for sharing and data compatibility for future use in monitoring is a necessity. As natural disasters such as flooding and wildfire increase in frequency, it is concluded that reality-capture technologies, such as TLS, are effective tools for sharing, documenting, and monitoring heritage resources.

- by Kelsey Pennanen
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- Archaeology, LiDAR, Plains Archaeology, TLS, Lidar

This presentation summarizes the remarkable career of Lawrence L. Loendorf, who has conducted cutting edge archaeological research for nearly six decades. As his son, my life follows the arc of Larry's research as an archaeologist from when it formally began in early 1960s through today. Consequently, I am uniquely positioned to comment on his work, which is far too vast to fully encapsulate here, and instead I am only able to present a few highlights. Larry's passion for archaeology has inspired an entire generation of researchers, including myself. He is an award winning educator, and he has been a mentor to many aspiring archaeologists. He has personally helped many people develop successful careers of their own, including a number who were otherwise disadvantaged. His work has contributed greatly to our understanding of Northern Plains prehistory in particular, and to rock art research throughout North America in general. His incredible enthusiasm for understanding and preserving the past continues unabated to this day, and he remains highly engaged as a field and laboratory investigator with his ongoing work at Sacred Sites Research, Inc., a non-profit corporation he established.

- by Chris Loendorf
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- Rock Art (Archaeology), Plains Archaeology
- by Laura Scheiber
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- Archaeology, Zooarchaeology, Typology, Plains Archaeology
- by Mary Adair
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- Archaeobotany, Plains Archaeology, Maize
- by Jason M LaBelle
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- Lithic Technology, Plains Archaeology, Paleoindians, Late Paleoindian Archaeology

Scheiber, Laura L. (2008) Life and Death on the Northwestern Plains: Mortuary Practices and Cultural Transformations. In Skeletal Biology and Bioarchaeology of the Northwestern Plains, edited by George W. Gill and Rick L. Weathermon,... more

- by Laura Scheiber
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- Archaeology, Bioarchaeology, Skeletal Biology, Plains Archaeology