Undifferentiated Native American (Culture Keyword)
1-25 (36 Records)
Proper collections management is crucial to archaeology. Recent trends in conservation archaeology recognize the nonrenewable nature of archaeological sites and highlight the research potential of existing archaeological collections.
Bioarchaeological Resources on the Northwestern Plains: A Bibliography (1996)
This bibliography is a selected list of publications and manuscripts pertaining to sites with known mortuary contexts on the Northwestern Plains. It is not a commentary on the political and ethical concerns surrounding the studying of human skeletal remains or mortuary sites but on the results of past research. A few of the sources which have been included focus on osteological data rather than reference to particular archaeological sites. Others are outside the scope of the geographic area but...
Chipped Stone Artifacts (2007)
Implement making is a definite human characteristic. Since the beginning, primitive man made and used artifacts. Some were fashioned for tools; others for weapons; still others were made for ornamental and ceremonial purposes. One of the major tasks of an archaeologist is the collection and classification of these artifacts.
Crazy Woman Cave, Northern Wyoming: Abraded Grooves and the Potential for Prehistoric Rock Art Among Modern Graffiti (2020)
An open cave in an active tourist area on the east side of the Bighorn Mountains is covered with intensive graffiti obscuring the original wall surface. However, inspection of the cave walls revealed earlier Native American grooves among and beneath modern incisions and paint. These figure are part of a common rock art theme dating back at least to the Late Archaic and continues into the Historic period, with grooves at this site probably made during the Late Prehistoric period. Although many...
The DeBarard Earth Oven (48AB3354): Hot Rock Cooking In the Laramie Basin (2021)
In April 2021, an earth oven feature was identified eroding from a Laramie River terrace (48AB3354). The oven consists of a thick zone of charcoal and carbon-stained sediment overlain by a layer of fire-cracked sandstone, all within a shallow depression and capped by alluvium. Below the feature were several unburned fragments of large mammal bone, but no other artifacts were observed. Although no formal testing was conducted, the feature was profiled and samples were collected for radiocarbon...
Faunal Remains from the Garrett Allen (Elk Mountain) Site (48CR301) (2020)
Excavations at the Garrett Allen (Elk Mountain) archaeological site recovered a large and diverse faunal assemblage. The purpose of this article is to summarize data on the faunal remains with emphasis on the unusual aspects of the assemblage. A brief introduction to the site excavations and chronology is presented first. More detailed information about previous investigations at the site is discussed in Eckles (2013).
The Grass Creek Site (48HO120): A Middle Archaic Period Housepit, Hot Springs County, Wyoming (1993)
The Grass Creek (48HO120) site is a multicomponent prehistoric site preserved within an alluvial terrace on Grass Creek in north-central Wyoming. The principal component of the site is a housepit (Feature 31) with artifacts dating to the Middle Plains Archaic Period. Faunal and floral analysis suggests small mammals and certain plant taxa were used as food sources and prepared within the housepit. The lithic analysis suggests that tool maintenance or final tool production occurred within the...
Hafted Stone Tools: A Look at Hunter-Gatherer Examples from the Central and Northwestern Plains (2006)
Chipped stone is a ubiquitous part of the prehistoric hunter-gatherer archaeological record in the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains. It has long been recognized many chipped stone tools represent one element of a composite tool system which includes other perishable materials, such as wood and animal products. Because these latter materials rarely preserve, understanding the role of stone tools in prehistoric contexts is difficult. Although rare, some complete examples of these composite tools...
A Late Prehistoric Bison Jump (48CK1281) Crook County, Wyoming (2004)
During the spring of 1995, the Office of the Wyoming State Archaeologist located an area containing bison (Bison bison) bone and chipped stone artifacts eroding from several locations in a colluvial deposit at the base of a high ridge (Figures 1-3). This site was found during a class III survey for a Wyoming Department of Transportation borrow area, which was subsequently not developed. It is on federal land administered by the Bureau of Land Management, Newcastle Field Office.
Late Prehistoric Life Along Laprele Creek: Evidence for Broad Spectrum Hunting and Gathering at 48CO2672 (2003)
In the summer of 2001, Metcalf Archaeological Consultants, Inc. (MAC) excavated a deeply buried campsite (48C02672) along LaPrele Creek in Converse County, Wyoming. Charcoal from two hearths produced conventional radiocarbon ages of 1200 ± 60 BP and 1100 ± 60 BP. The cultural level dates to the Late Prehistoric period (Frison 1991), and results suggest at least two and as many as four use episodes may be represented. During these use episodes, there appears to have been an emphasis on plant...
Latex Molds of Petroglyphs at Legend Rock and Torrey Lake, Wyoming (2015)
In 2015, a document titled BBHC Rock Art Project Phase I: Technicians Report was discovered in the McCracken Research Library at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West. This document, never published, describes the making of latex molds at Wyoming petroglyphs sites. In the present article, we identify the individual petroglyphs molded during the project to alert others who might be studying the sites.
Lithic Analysis from Two Prehistoric Sites (48NA312 AND 48NA2516) Near Martin's Cove, Natrona County, Wyoming (2006)
Extensive lithic collections have been made from the surface of two archaeological sites (48NA312 and 48NA2516) near Martin’s Cove, Natrona County, Wyoming. Contrary to the original archaeological assessment of the two sites (Griffiths and Talbot 1996), these two sites now appear to contain significant archaeological data concerning the prehistory of the central Wyoming area (NRHP Criterion D). Additional archaeological evaluation of the sites has become necessary to properly evaluate these two...
The Little Bald Mountain Site (2008)
In 1945, while surface-hunting for artifacts in the high country of the Big Horn Mountains, I discovered what appeared to be an ancient village site and buffalo-killing area situated in a saddle on the main divide immediately south of Little Bald Mountain at an elevation of 9,000 feet. Two small drainage ditches for the then little-used Wyoming Highway #14 had exposed arrowheads and bison bones, and an itinerant sheepherder informed me that in past years his daughter had gathered many buffalo...
A Middle Range Research Project in Fire Pit Technology (1997)
During recent excavations at the Maneater Cave site (Zeimens and Baars 1996) a number of slab-lined pit features were encountered (Figure 1). All appear to have been used as fire hearths. Three of these yielded corrected radiocarbon dates of BC 4080 (Beta 84881), BC 4340 (Beta 86401), and BC 4320 (Beta 85550). Located adjacent to some of the slab-lined features were shallow basin-shaped depressions. The hardened floor and blackened zone on the inside surface of these depressions indicate that...
The Mountain Meadow Ranch Burial from Southeastern Wyoming (1994)
Salvage excavations of a Late Prehistoric burial found in a small overhang of a sandstone outcrop in southeastern Wyoming produced remains of an older-aged female Native American Indian of unknown biological affinities. Previous excavations by collectors recovered 86 tubular bone beads, eight corner-notched projectile points and one fresh water bivalve shell pendant. The Late Prehistoric age is suggested by the projectile points found in association with the human remains and their similarity to...
A Notched Tool from the Hell Gap Site Area I (1995)
This artifact, probably a hafted knife, was discovered at the Hell Gap site on November 2, 1994, by George Zeimens while on a field trip with a group of third and fourth grade students from Lingle Elementary School. The tool was found on a talus pile in front of an animal burrow. The burrow had been dug into the perpendicular stream bank approximately 25 m southwest of the western edge of the Harvard Area I excavations, and about 0.95 m below the present ground surface. It is presumed that the...
Obsidian Utilization in Prehistoric Jackson Hole (1995)
We used X-Ray fluorescence (XRF) spectroscopy to identify nine obsidian sources used by the prehistoric inhabitants of Jackson Hole, Wyoming. This paper examines this prehistoric use of obsidian and obsidian sources. Variation in utilization patterns is suggested through study of temporally diagnostic obsidian artifacts. The diachronic pattern of sources used allows consideration of the influences in acquisition, distribution, and use of obsidian.
Pecked Petroglyphs at the Gateway Site: The Uncompahgre Style In the Green River Basin (2014)
A recent discovery of Archaic period pecked petroglyphs at the Gateway site (48LN348) is the first occurrence of Uncompahgre style imagery in the northern Green River Basin. Badly impacted by superimposed Late Prehistoric period incised petroglyphs, the Uncompahgre style images are a panel of abstract lines and circular forms whose overall form is similar to other Uncompahgre style petroglyphs at a site further south along the Green River. We document these newly discovered Gateway site...
Prehistoric Obsidian Utilization in the Beartooth Mountains of Montana and Wyoming (1996)
X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy was used to determine the source of 107 obsidian projectile points in surface collections from the Beartooth Mountains of south-central Montana and northwest Wyoming. Seventy-two percent of the points were from Obsidian Cliff in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. Evidence was found for change of source usage when the artifacts were grouped into cultural affiliation periods.
Prehistoric Obsidian Utilization in the Central Rocky Mountains: The Lookingbill Site 48FR308 (1994)
XRF (x-ray fluorescence) spectroscopy was used to study obsidian artifacts collected from the Helen Lookingbill site (48FR308). The site is located in the southern Absaroka Mountains, a part of the Central Rocky Mountains of Wyoming. Using XRF, the trace element proportions for artifacts were compared to trace element proportions for known sources to identify the sources of the artifacts. The artifacts were produced from four obsidian sources west and northwest of the site. The pattern of...
Preliminary Report of Salvage Excavations at the Hell Gap Site, 48GO305 (1995)
During the winter of 1984-85 (before Hell Gap was acquired by the Wyoming Archeological Foundation) we observed an unusually large firepit eroding out of the left bank of the arroyo just below the Harvard Locality I excavation area. Numerous flakes, bones, firecracked rocks, and a few pot sherds were also eroding from the matrix surrounding the partially exposed feature. It was obvious that the pit would soon either erode entirely away or be looted by collectors that frequent the site. Much of...
Pronghorn Procurement at the Bear River Site (48GO22), Southeastern Wyoming (2010)
The Bear River Site (48GO22) was located in 1979 during a class III cultural resource survey for a Wyoming Department of Transportation project along the LaGrange Road in Goshen County, Wyoming near the town of LaGrange (Sanders and Francis 1979). The site is in extreme southeastern Wyoming, near the Nebraska border. Artifacts and bone were first identified eroding from an apparent natural (erosional) cut in the third alluvial terrace above the river. This included flakes and a possible large...
A Report on the Medicine Wheel Investigation (2008)
The archaeological investigation of the famed Medicine Wheel was undertaken with some trepidation because of two conditions imposed upon the operation. First, the excavation permit from the Forest Service contained the express restriction that no stones of the structure were to be disturbed. Second, the site had been badly disturbed by souvenir hunters since its discovery in the late 1880s. The extent of this disturbance was crucial in interpreting the results of the investigation, and a...
Review of Red Desert: History of a Place (2010)
Review of Red Desert: History of a Place
Review of Skeletal Biology in the Great Plains: Migration Warfare, Health, and Subsistence (1995)
Review of Skeletal Biology in the Great Plains: Migration Warfare, Health, and Subsistence