George C. Frison

A functional analysis of certain chipped stone tools

A Late Prehistoric period buffalo kill and butchering site in northern Wyoming (Site 48 JO 312) produced a large number of stone tools. Flakes removed in sharpening stone tools provided much of the interpretation of the activity that occurred at the site and in addition gave a number of ideas concerning tool use and sharpening.

Carter / Kerr-McGee Paleoindian Site: Cultural Resource Management and Archaeological Research

A decade of intensive archaeological survey of the Powder River Basin in Wyoming has revealed one stratified Paleoindian site along with several thousand sites of later age. This site is only a remnant of a much larger one. It has four cultural levels that include Clovis, Folsom, Agate Basin-Hell Gap, and Alberta-Cody respectively, with intervening sterile deposits. The site location and the taphonomics of the bone bed in the Alberta-Cody level suggest that the site was associated with the procurement of large animals. Interdisciplinary investigation of the site indicates that past geologic activity is largely responsible for the scarcity of Paleoindian sites in the basin. The history and basic philosophy of cultural resource management in this area are reviewed. Currently, land ownership is divided between federal and state agencies and private operators, such that the surface may be privately owned while the subsurface is federally owned. The argument is made for a future cultural resource management program for the Powder River Basin that is strongly oriented toward research in contrast to the present policy of inventory and avoidance of archaeological sites.

Projectile Points and Specialized Bifaces from the Horner Site

Publisher Summary This chapter describes the projectile points and specialized bifaces found at the Horner site. The 1977 and 1978, excavations by the University of Wyoming at the Horner site made it apparent that with the additional data, a more in-depth study should be undertaken, especially as many of the projectile points from the site did not seem to fit into the typological categories that have been described as occurring in the Cody Complex. All the materials recovered from the site since the start of work by a Princeton expedition in 1949 have been assembled. This has enabled a thorough reexamination and reevaluation to be made. The circumstances surrounding the context of many of the projectile points that were recovered from the Horner site before and during the Princeton excavations in 1949 have been extremely difficult to reconstruct. Quite a number of the specimens seem to have been collected from the surface in the general site vicinity and simply added to the collection. Because of this, it was deemed prudent to study only those pieces that undisputedly were recovered in a context indicating association with the site strata.

Bone Projectile Points: An Addition To the Folsom Cultural Complex

FOLSOM HAS BEEN OF LONG-STANDING INTEREST to American Archaeology and there are a number of acceptable radiocarbon dates that place it within the 10,200-10,850 B.P. time range (Haynes 1967; Frison 1978: 23). It provided the first satisfactory evidence for the association of man and extinct animals in the New World and, in doing so, opened the way for Early Man or Paleoindian studies. Recognized by a distinctive projectile point with flutes or channels removed on one or both faces, the stone technology expressed in the manufacture of Folsom projectile points has unfortunately tended to overshadow other aspects of the culture. A number of bison kills are known for the Folsom time period (Wormington 1957) and these have yielded fluted projectile points. The original Folsom site (Figgins 1927) was the scene of a seasonal animal kill judging from the ages of the animals recovered. Animals in age groups one year apart, as determined by tooth eruption and wear, strongly indicate seasonal restrictions of the procurement period to the late fall or early winter (Frison 1978:149). The Lindenmeier site (Roberts 1935, 1936) may have been associated with a bison kill but the skeletal material was not preserved for study. The Linger site in Colorado (Hurst 1943) was a Folsom bison kill; the Lipscomb site (Schultz 1943), the Lake Theo site (Harrison and Killen 1978), the Bonfire Shelter (Dibble and Lorrain 1968), and the Lubbock Lake Site (Sellards 1952; Johnson 1974), all in Texas, contain evidence of bison procurement in Folsom times.

Late Paleoindian Animal Trapping Net From Northern Wyoming

A net made of juniper (Juniperus sp.) bark fibers and suitable for capturing animals up to the size of deer and mountain sheep was discovered recently in northern Wyoming. The specimen dates to 8,860 radiocarbon years (6910 ? 170 B.C.; RL-396), and the discovery provides new information about late Paleoindian animal procurement practices at higher elevations. The net was recovered in the Absaroka Mountains of north-central Wyoming. Although preserved in its entirety, it is too friable to be unfolded. This limits access to details of the nets size, shape, construction, and use. However, other archaeological occurrences of nets and net fragments together with ethnographic observations allow an informed discussion of its probable use. The probability that such an extremely perishable item of such great age would be preserved at all is extremely low. The net had been folded in antiquity and then presumably stored in a small cave in the highest rim of a prominent landmark known as Sheep Mountain on the eastern slopes of the Absaroka Mountains. Discovery of the net was accidental, and the circumstances of preservation were unique. Packrat (Neotoma cinerea) midden covered and protected the object, and there was no associated evidence of human occupation of the cave. Perishable materials, including net fragments of more recent age, have been recovered from other caves in the area (Frison 1962; Husted 1978). Older net fragments are known from the Great Basin (Jennings 1957), but previously reported complete specimens are of later age (Aikens i 970) and were made to trap smaller animals. Sheep Mountain covers approximately 60 km2 and lies between the confluence of the North and South Forks of the Shoshone River (Figure 1). It was named for the numbers of mountain sheep (Ovis canadensis) that wintered there in early historic times as they do to a lesser extent at present. The base of Sheep Mountain is a 1,700 m elevation, and the mountain rises to 2,440 m. The topography is extremely rough (Figure 2), and the entire area is currently excellent mountain sheep habitat.

Paleoindian occupation of the High Country : The case of Middle Park, Colorado

Abstract Middle Park is one of the high intermountain basins of the Rocky Mountains that has been occupied continually for over 11,000 years. Our studies of the Paleo indian occupations suggest that many of the well known Plains complexes, as well as some mountain complexes, are present in Middle Parle This paper concentrates on the sites and collections we have investigated most thoroughly, but reviews other sites as well. Analysis of chipped stone and bone yields information on organization of Paleoindian technology and settlement-subsistence strategies. Middle Park is shown to have been densely occupied on a year-round basis by Paleoindian people with connections to the Great Plains to the east and Great Basin to the west.

Paleoclimate and Amerindians: Evidence from stable isotopes and atmospheric circulation

Two Amerindian demographic shifts are attributed to climate change in the northwest plains of North America: at ≈11,000 calendar years before present (yr BP), Amerindian culture apparently split into foothills–mountains vs. plains biomes; and from 8,000–5,000 yr BP, scarce archaeological sites on the open plains suggest emigration during xeric “Altithermal” conditions. We reconstructed paleoclimates from stable isotopes in prehistoric bison bone and relations between weather and fractions of C4 plants in forage. Further, we developed a climate-change model that synthesized stable isotope, existing qualitative evidence (e.g., palynological, erosional), and global climate mechanisms affecting this midlatitude region. Our isotope data indicate significant warming from ≈12,400 to 11,900 yr BP, supporting climate-driven cultural separation. However, isotope evidence of apparently wet, warm conditions at 7,300 yr BP refutes emigration to avoid xeric conditions. Scarcity of archaeological sites is best explained by rapid climate fluctuations after catastrophic draining of the Laurentide Lakes, which disrupted North Atlantic Deep Water production and subsequently altered monsoonal inputs to the open plains.

Studies on Amerindian dogs, 3: Prehistoric wolf/dog hybrids from the northwestern plains

Abstract Discriminant function analysis is an invaluable statistical tool for the taxonomic identification of hybrids between various extant species of Canis in the eastern United States. This technique has recently been applied to the taxonomic identification of canid skulls from several Wyoming archaeological sites. Analysis indicates most canid remains, originally identified as wolf ( Canis lupus ), to be wolf/dog hybrids exhibiting constant and continual backbreeding to the local wolf populations. The spatial and temporal extent of the form is discussed.

Stone Tool Caching On the North American Plains: Implications of the McKean Site Tool Kit

AbstractA tool cache was recently recovered from the Middle Plains Archaic stratum of the McKean site in Wyoming. Analysis of this cache, including a microwear study of the utilized edges, yielded data about raw material procurement, manufacture, and the use of storage facilities on the NW High Plains of North America. These data are used to make inferences about the technological system from the perspective of implement storage behavior. The characteristics of settlement and subsistence strategies, a matter of current debate in the region, are addressed in this analysis.

Animal Population Studies and Cultural Inference

As late as the early 1960s, interest in the archaeological analysis of bison skeletal remains centered largely around the specific identification of animals in Paleo-lndian kill sites. The problem of bison procurement was more a subject to be studied and solved by the methods of history and ethnology, and to be accomplished by reading historical accounts and questioning Indian informants. Both methods have value but both also demon strate fundamental weaknesses for interpreta tions into the prehistoric past. The historic observers were able to record very little of the actual prehistoric period. Even the oldest of their Indian informants were separated by several generations from the pre-horse period. The White observers actually knew little if anything about the bison they were observing and were consequently recording a good deal more of personal impressions rather than true empirical data. On the other hand, the biological data now available from certain animal kill situations are highly empirical and can be used for purposes of interpreting the cultural systematics of prehistoric Plains bison hunters. The animal population study is an example. Within the past decade, there has been an increased emphasis on bison studies. The methodology is continually changing and is still very much in the formative stage. It is proceeding along a strongly interdisciplinary path. Taxonomy is still a problem and it will probably continue to be so, although new ideas are appearing (Wilson 1974b, 1974c). Aging animals by means of tooth eruption and epiphyseal fusion, butchering methods, pro curement methods, seasonal aspects of bison and other animal procurement, and utilization of the food products are some of the lines of inquiry that are presently regarded as im portant for studies in cultural systems analysis. It is now fairly well established that behavioral and biological studies of bison and other animal populations can reveal some thing of the activities of the human groups exploiting them.