Leland C. Bement

JAKE BLUFF: CLOVIS BISON HUNTING ON THE SOUTHERN PLAINS OF NORTH AMERICA

Clovis hunters of the North American Great Plains are known for their ability to hunt and scavenge mammoths. Less is known of their hunting strategies for other large animals, such as horse, camel, and bison, although remains of these animals have been found at several Clovis camps. Recent investigations of the Jake Bluff site on the southern Plains have identified a Clovis bison kill in an arroyo. The apparent use of an arroyo style trap for bison hunting provides the opportunity to study Clovis hunting strategies that came to be widely used during later Paleoindian times. The arroyo style bison trap is generally attributed to Folsom and later groups, and yet the Jake Bluff site yielded an association of Clovis-style projectile points with the remains of 22 Bison antiquus at the bottom of a short arroyo. The late date of 12,838 cal. BP suggests that the site spans the gap between the Clovis mammoth hunter and the Folsom bison hunter, indicating that some Clovis hunters developed the arroyo style bison trap to capture multiple bison at the same time, and as mammoths were extirpated from certain areas during the Pleistocene to Holocene transition.

Quantifying the distribution of nanodiamonds in pre-Younger Dryas to recent age deposits along Bull Creek, Oklahoma panhandle, USA.

Significance In 2007, scientists proposed that the start of the Younger Dryas (YD) chronozone (10,900 radiocarbon years ago) and late Pleistocene extinctions resulted from the explosion of a comet in the earth’s atmosphere. The ET event, as it is known, is purportedly marked by high levels of various materials, including nanodiamonds. Nanodiamonds had previously been reported from the Bull Creek, Oklahoma, area. We investigate this claim here by quantifying the distribution of nanodiamonds in sediments of different periods within the Bull Creek valley. We found high levels of nanodiamonds in YD boundary deposits, supporting the previous claim. A second spike in nanodiamonds during the late Holocene suggests that the distribution of nanodiamonds is not unique to the YD. High levels of nanodiamonds (nds) have been used to support the transformative hypothesis that an extraterrestrial (ET) event (comet explosion) triggered Younger Dryas changes in temperature, flora and fauna assemblages, and human adaptations [Firestone RB, et al. (2007) Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 104(41):16016–16021]. We evaluate this hypothesis by establishing the distribution of nds within the Bull Creek drainage of the Beaver River basin in the Oklahoma panhandle. The earlier report of an abundance spike of nds in the Bull Creek I Younger Dryas boundary soil is confirmed, although no pure cubic diamonds were identified. The lack of hexagonal nds suggests Bull Creek I is not near any impact site. Potential hexagonal nds at Bull Creek were found to be more consistent with graphene/graphane. An additional nd spike is found in deposits of late Holocene through the modern age, indicating nds are not unique to the Younger Dryas boundary. Nd distributions do not correlate with depositional environment, pedogenesis, climate perturbations, periods of surface stability, or cultural activity.

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.

Bonfire Shelter: a jumping off point for comments for Byerly et al.

Animal processing at some level accompanies all human-induced bison kill sites in North America. But, does the level or location of this processing suggest the location and kind of kill—especially jump versus non-jump bison kill sites? Byerly et al. (2005) suggest the Bone Bed 2 deposits at Bonfire Shelter, Texas did not result from the use of the site as a bison jump during Paleoindian times. To better understand these issues, a brief historical context of the work at Bonfire is presented with a discussion supporting the original interpretation that Bonfire Shelter is a stratified bison jump site.

Clovis Sites, Gut Piles, and Environmental Reconstructions in Northwest Oklahoma

Abstract Research into the cause of a discrepancy between plant opal phytolith quantities at the Clovis age Jake Bluff bison kill site and contemporaneous samples from the Bull Creek paleoenvironmental profile investigates the contribution of gut piles to sediment content. Concordance between phytolith quantities from three of four sediment samples from the Jake Bluff site and contemporaneous samples from the Bull Creek site support the regional paleoenvironmental reconstruction for northwest Oklahoma and the Oklahoma panhandle. The discrepancy between the Jake Bluff Clovis age kill deposit phytoliths and contemporaneous Bull Creek samples suggest an anthropogenicinduced event may be to blame.

The Cooper site : A stratified Folsom bison kill in Oklahoma

Two seasons of fieldwork at the Cooper site, a stratified Folsom-age bison kill in northwestern Oklahoma, yielded extensive bone and lithic materials. The three kill deposits provide the opportunity to study hunting and butchering practices as revealed by stone tools and bone alteration. This preliminary description of the excavations and recovered materials provides a general overview of the site and discusses the potential it holds to further our understanding of Folsom lifeways.

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.

STUCK IN THE MUCK: THE BIG LAKE BISON KILL SITE (41RG13), WEST TEXAS

The remains of at least ten bison-three adult females, five juveniles, and two calves-were shallowly buried in lacustrine clays at the base of a large truncated dune encircling the northern perimeter of Big Lake, the largest saline lake in Texas. Radiocarbon assay of sediments and bone apatite, and the heavily ground base of a straight-sided Late Paleoindian dart point, date the kill to approximately 8000 radiocarbon years ago. The vertical stance of lower limb bones indicates that the animals were mired in the saturated clays of the lake bed and dispatched. A subsequent period of extreme aridity promoted the accumulation of an enormous lunate dune that buried the bonebed under meters of displaced lake sediments. Under the current climatic regime, the dune has been truncated and eroded by episodes of lake competency, again bringing the bone deposit to the surface.

The Thunder Valley Burial Cache: Group Investment in a Central Texas Sinkhole Cemetery

A burial cache of 14 early stage bifaces and one drill was recovered from the Middle Archaic zone (ca 3000years BP) in Bering Sinkhole (41KR241), a vertical shaft cemetery, in the limestone plateau region of central Texas. Variables commonly used in technological and idiosyncratic analyses of lithic artifacts are discussed and applied through multivariate analysis to identify the technological stage place ment of biface production and to suggest the number offlintknappers responsible for their manufacture. Tlxe specimens are all blanks, but produced by three knappers. The possible socio-cultural significance of the cache is discussed in terms of trade and territoriality.

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.