Kristen Carlson

Badger Hole: Towards Defining a Folsom Bison Hunting Complex along the Beaver River, Oklahoma

Abstract Badger Hole, 34HP 194, is a Folsom-age arroyo bison kill along the north side of the Beaver River floodplain in northwestern Oklahoma. Badger Hole joins the Cooper and Jake Bluff sites to define one of the highest density Folsom site concentrations in this area of the southern Plains. Together these sites suggest the possible existence of a bison hunting complex that is structured on bison migration, arroyo occurrence, and seasonally specific intercept patterns. A preliminary definition of the Beaver River bison hunting complex is provided based on recent results of limited excavation at the recently discovered Badger Hole site.

The Jake Bluff East Paleoindian Bison Butchering Feature, Northwest Oklahoma

Abstract Excavation of an exposure of bone fragments identified a bison bone butchering pile near the Clovis-age Jake Bluff site in northwest Oklahoma. Radiocarbon assay places this activity at 10,020 14C yr BP (11,322–11,654 cal yr BP), extending the known extent of bison hunting in the area by 300 years.

Tightening Chronology of Paleoindian Bison Kill Sites on the Northern and Southern Plains

Researchers on the Great Plains of North America have come to terms with a need to better understand the chronological sequence of the Paleoindian period. Dating this period has been problematic; however, current improved methods are now available to reevaluate this chronology. To evaluate change through time of hunting strategies and land use practices we need to step back and clarify chronology. This article looks at six Paleoindian bison kill sites, three from the northern and three from the southern Plains, and revaluates the dates from each.

On the Significance of Cutmark Distributions at the Badger Hole Folsom Bison Arroyo Trap, Southern Plains, USA

ABSTRACT This study assesses the components of the Cooper model of Folsom-age subsistence and mobility patterns on the North American southern Plains, through the analysis of the Badger Hole arroyo trap bison kill butchery patterns. The Cooper model proposes that a dichotomy exists in the size and seasonality of Folsom-age bison kill sites. The butchery programs associated with this dichotomy vary from limited selection of high-valued meat packages leaving nearly completely articulated skeletons at late summer/fall large-scale communal kills to the full butchery of carcasses leaving predominantly disarticulated bison elements at small kills during the rest of the year. We present the distribution of butchering evidence for the Badger Hole bison assemblage and compare the results with the Cooper site assemblages. The Badger Hole cutmark distribution pattern is consistent with that identified at the Cooper site, and supports the predictions of the Cooper model.