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University of Wyoming

Significant Research Results


  Bison Dentition Studies

 


Based on intimate knowledge of range cattle maturation, one of the early significant and enduring contributions was the development of methodologies for giving meaning to bison dentition being recovered at a number of bison bone beds throughout the region. Bos sp. (cattle) tooth eruption and wear were used as analogs to B. bison growth and development to model bison population dynamics and season of animal mortality. These studies form the basis of all modern faunal analysis in this region and throughout the world.

For Further Reading:
Frison, George C. and Charles A. Reher. 1970. Age determination of buffalo by teeth eruption and wear. In The Glenrock Buffalo Jump, 48CO304, edited by George C. Frison, pp. 46-50. Plains Anthropologist Memoir No. 7.

 

Clovis Bone Rods

 


Beveled bone objects occur in Clovis assemblages from Florida to Washington, but only a handful of these are known from the entire continent. The Sheaman Site, an Agate Basin locality in east central Wyoming, produced two such objects from a Clovis or Goshen context. Rods are generally round, greater than 20 cm in length, and beveled. The beveled portion is usually cross-hachured (roughened), while the shaft may be decorated. Based on analogy with Inuit and other hunter gatherer equipment, bone rods most likely represent portions of compound shafts or foreshafts for Paleoindian projectile points, but may be points themselves. Similar objects have also been found in Folsom assemblages from Agate Basin site.

For Further Reading:
Frison, George C. and Carolyn Craig. 1982. Bone, antler, and ivory artifacts and manufacture technology. In The Agate Basin Site: a record of the Paleoindian occupation of the Northwestern high Plains, edited by G. C. Frison and D. J. Stanford, pp. 161-173. Academic Press, New York.

Frison, George C. and George Zeimens. 1980. Bone projectile points: an addition to the Folsom Cultural Complex. American Antiquity 45(2):231-237.

 

Colby Site

 


The first widespread American Culture was known in Wyoming from numerous surface artifact finds. But not until the excavation of the Colby Site was the evidence conclusive. Mammoth bone had been found in an unnamed arroyo in the early part of the 20th century, but oil development of the 1970s coupled with stock pond construction made the region accessible and brought to light yet more bone. The Colby site consists of several piles of mammoth bone in a filled arroyo, associated with Clovis projectile points. The bone piles are interpreted as representing Paleoindian food storage strategies, analogous to Inuit meat caches.

For Further Reading:
Frison, George C. and Lawrence C. Todd. 1986. The Colby mammoth site: taphonomy and archeology of a Clovis kill in northern Wyoming. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.

 

Experimental Archaeology

 


Actualistic studies have long been a component of the Institute research. Butchering, chipped stone manufacturing, chipped stone use, and other studies have aided the Institute researchers in the interpretation of the archeological record. Perhaps the best known are George C. Frison's investigations of penetration potential of Clovis projectile points with respect to mammoth (elephant) and bison hide, as well as his use of different lithic raw material for animal processing.

For Further Reading:
Frison, George C.. 1989. Experimental use of Clovis weaponry. American Antiquity 54(4):766-784.

Frison, George C. 1979. Observations on the use of tools: dulling of working edges on some chipped stone tools in bison butchering. In Lithic use-wear analysis, edited by B. Hayden, pp. 259-269. Academic Press, New York.

Frison, George C. 1991. Chapter 6, Experimental Archeology and the use of weaponry and tools. In Prehistoric Hunters of the High Plains, by G. C. Frison, pp. 289-325. Academic Press, San Diego.

 

Foothill/Mountain Adaptation

 


Beginning with the Late Paleoindian times diagnostically unique artifacts (projectile points) appear in the archeological record of the foothills and mountains adjacent of the Northwestern Plains culture area, separating the upland areas from the plains. Evidence of the Foothill/Mountain adaptation had been mounting since the excavation of Mummy Cave and the Bighorn Canyon rock shelters. However, it was not until the more extensive excavations of numerous Bighorn Mountain rock shelters and open air sites in the Bighorns and adjacent mountain ranges that the Foothill Mountain Adaptations were clarified. Subsequent research in the basins of southwest Wyoming have yielded plentiful remains of some of the earliest pithouse structures in North America.

For Further Reading:
Frison, George C. 1976. The chronology of Paleo-Indian and Altithermal period groups in the Bighorn Basin, Wyoming. In Cultural change and continuity: essays in honor of James Bennett Griffin, edited by C. E. Cleland, pp. 147-173. Academic Press, New York.

Frison, George C. 1983. The Lookingbill Site. Tebiwa 20:1-16.

Frison, George C. and Donald C. Grey. 1980. Pryor Stemmed, a specialized Paleo-Indian ecological adaptation. Plains Anthropologist 25(87):27-46.

Larson, Mary Lou. 1990. Early Plains Archaic technological organization: the Laddie Creek example. PhD Dissertation, University of California, Santa Barbara. University Microfilm, Ann Arbor Michigan.

Larson, Mary Lou and Julie Francis (editors). 1997. Rethinking the Archaic of he Northwestern Plains and Rocky Mountains. University of South Dakota Press, Vermillion.

Walker, Danny N. 1975. A cultural and ecological analysis of the vertebrate fauna from the Medicine Lodge Creek site (48BH499). Unpublished Master's Thesis, Department of Anthropology, University of Wyoming, Laramie.

 

The Frison Effect


The reductive process of stone tool manufacture results in a continuous change in the formal tool shape. George Frison argued that an analysis of a tool assemblage at a particular site must take this process into account if the assemblage is to be understood. In other words, new and different artifact types are created through the process of successive resharpening episodes. Consequently the assemblage composition has more to do with raw material availability and tool repair than with the culture of people who used the tools. Arthur Jelinek named this process "the Frison Effect."

For Further Reading:
Frison, George C. 1968. A functional analysis of certain chipped stone tools. American Antiquity 33(2):146-155.

Jelinek, Arthur J. 1976. Form, function, and style in lithic analysis. In Culture change and continuity, essays in honor of James Bennett Griffin, edited by C. E. Cleland, pp. 19-33. Academic Press, New York.

 

Goshen Complex

 


Original excavations at the Hell Gap Site in the 1960s identified a previously unknown projectile point type. The investigators named this type Goshen, after the local county. Because of the uncertainty about its relation to other Paleoindian periods, the term was generally not accepted by the archeological community. The discovery and investigation of the Mill Iron Site in Montana in the 1980s, the Upper Twin Mountain Site in the Middle Park of Colorado in the 1990s, the Jimmy Pitts site in South Dakota, and the renewed investigations at the Hell Gap Site also in the 1990s, have firmly established Goshen as a valid Plains Paleoindian Complex. However, its temporal and spatial distribution still forms one of our major research foci.

For Further Reading:
Frison, George C. (editor). 1996. The Mill Iron Site. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.

Kornfeld, Marcel, George C. Frison, Mary Lou Larson, James C. Miller, and Jan Saysette. 1999. Paleoindian bison procurement and paleoenvironments in the Middle Park of Colorado. Geoarchaeology 14(7):655-674.

Kornfeld, Marcel and George C. Frison. 2000. Paleoindian occupation of the High Country: the case of Middle Park, Colorado. Plains Anthropologist (in press).

 

Lithic Technology


Procurement of raw material, manufacture of stone tools, and discard of the used up tools are basic components of any lithic technology. The Institute researchers have made major contributions to lithic technology, in particular the manufacture of Paleoindian bifacial tools.

For Further Reading:
Bradley, Bruce. 1974. Comments on lithic technology of the Casper site materials. In The Casper site: a Hell Gap bison hill on the High Plains, edited by G. C. Frison. New York, Academic Press.

Bradley, Bruce. 1991. Flaked stone technology in the Northern High Plains. In Prehistoric Hunters of the High Plains, by G. C. Frison, pp. 369-395. Academic Press, San Diego.

Frison, George C. and Bruce Bradley. 1999. The Fenn Clovis Cache. One Horse Land and Cattle Co., Santa Fe.

Larson, Mary Lou. 1994. Toward a holistic analysis of chipped stone assemblages. In The organization of North American Prehistoric chipped stone tool technologies, edited by P. J. Carr, pp. 57-69.

Ingbar, Mary Lou Larson, and Bruce Bradley. 1989. A non-typological approach to debitage analysis. In Experiments in Lithic Technology, edited by D.S. Amick and R. P. Mauldin, pp. 117-136. British Archaeological Reports International Series 528.

Larson, Mary Lou, and Eric Ingbar. 1992. Perspectives of refitting: critique and a complementary approach. In Piecing together the past. Edited by J. L. Hofman and J. Enloe, pp. 151-162. British Archaeological Reports, International Series 578.

Larson, Mary Lou and Marcel Kornfeld. 1997. Chipped Stone Nodules: Theory, Method, and Examples. Lithic Technology 22(1):5-18.

Reher, Charles A. and George C. Frison. 1991. Rarity, clarity, symmetry: quartz crystal utilization in hunter-gatherer stone tool assemblages. In Raw material economies among prehistoric hunter-gatherers, edited by A. Montet-White and S. Holen, 375-397.

 

Mountain Sheep Procurement


Shoshone people hunted bighorn sheep in the high mountains of western Wyoming. Theirs and perhaps their predecessors remains of these activities are found in the sheep traps scattered over much of the high country. The sheep traps consist of hunting blinds, drive lines, and pens. Much of the construction of these facilities is wood, but rocks and boulders are used in selected places. The three sets of facilities were used in concert to drive the sheep up steep slopes and into pens where they can be slaughtered. Construction of each part must take into account topography and other terrain features if the facilities are to be used successfully. This indicates an intimate knowledge of animal behavior on the part of the hunters. The hunting blinds could also be used for individual hunting as well.

For Further Reading:
Frison, George C., Charles A. Reher, and Danny N. Walker. 1990. Prehistoric mountain sheep hunting in the central Rocky Mountains of North America. In Hunters of the recent past, edited by L. B. Davis and B. O. K. Reeves, pp. 208-240. Unwin-Hyman, London.

 

 Ruby Site

 


Communal animal procurement is nearly universally associated with ritual. Shamans (ritual specialists) perform ceremonies insuring success of the activity, longevity of the animal population, and acknowledging the dependence of humans on the animals (nature). The Ruby Site, a Besant period site with drive lines, corrals, and a shaman's structure exhibits evidence of communal bison procurement and ritual activity in form of bison skull placement and the shaman's structure.

For Further Reading:

Frison, George C. 1971. The buffalo pound in Northwestern Plains prehistory: site 48CA302. American Antiquity 36(1):77-91.

 

Vore Site


Highway construction outside of Beulah, Wyoming exposed massive quantities of bison bone and Late Prehistoric period projectile points in a filled sinkhole. Excavation exposed more than 25 feet of fill deposit, consisting of varves (annual alluvial fill deposits) interspersed with massive layers of bison bone. The Vore Site is estimated to be the largest North American bison kill locality representing as many as 25,000 animals, a scale on par with the largest known communal kill locations anywhere in the world. The site contains evidence of bison procurement, butchering, ritual, and aggregation of dispersed hunter-gatherer bands.

For Further Reading:
Reher, Charles C. and George C. Frison. 1980. The Vore Site, 48CK302, a stratified buffalo jump in the Wyoming Black Hills. Plains Anthropologist Memoir No. 16.

Minimum Analytical Nodule Analysis

 

 

 

Last Updated on 2/12/2009 9:32:40 AM