North America - Plains (Geographic Keyword)
151-175 (223 Records)
Small numbers of supposedly "Southwestern" sherds appear at many sites on the Great Plains. Some Dismal River aspect (AD 1650-1725) people living on the Central and High Plains had extensive contact with people in northern New Mexico and may have lived with Puebloan migrants in the late 1600s. Exotic ceramics appear at several Dismal River sites including red slipped wares and micaceous sherds. Using a combination of NAA and petrography, we characterized a sample of these sherds from several...
Occupation Lengths in Middle Missouri Sites (2015)
Collections and reports from Middle Missouri salvage archaeology, conducted primarily in the 1950s, hold a wealth of information about Plains Village farming communities, much of which is still being studied. In this paper, I provide a basis for the assessment of occupation lengths in the Middle Missouri utilizing data culled from site reports on several Middle Missouri sites, spanning time and space. This study utilizes evidence of repair of housing structures, overlapping storage pits, and...
On the Road to Becoming Apache: The Western Dismal River Culture at the Plains/Foothills Margin (2017)
Discovery of new sites as well as the reanalysis of museum collections over the last 15 years has renewed focus on the Western Dismal River (WDR) culture, which we hypothesize represents the ancestral Apachean occupation of the western margin of the Great Plains and into the foothills and high country of the Rocky Mountains, A.D. 1300-1650. Once thought to represent the initial entry of ancestral Apache in the region during the initial Na-Dene diaspora from the north, this culture is now...
On-Site Public Interpretation of Bison Kill Sites (2017)
Translating professional archaeological research into meaningful educational experiences for the public has taken on increased urgency in recent years. Several archaeologically investigated ancient bison kill sites in North America, located in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska, and Texas, have an on-site public interpretive facility. The experiences at seven of these sites in moving from archaeological research to developing a public interpretive center are chronicled in a...
"One of These Things Is (Not?) Like the Other:" A Reassessment of Middle and Late Archaic Projectile Point Types in the Rocky Mountains and Great Plains (2016)
Many Archaic projectile points from the Rocky Mountains and the Great Plains are poorly defined stylistically and chronologically, particularly in contrast to those from the earlier Paleoindian Period. As a result, we suspect that projectile points are often classified as different types based solely on geographic location and not necessarily on variation in the point style or technological characteristics. Stemmed points in the Middle Archaic are called Duncan or Hanna in the north and Pinto in...
Oral History and Archaeology: A Case from Crow Country (2015)
Arrow Rock, located in the Pryor Mountains of southern Montana, is a place for travelers to offer gifts in return for their safe passage through the Pryor Gap. These gifts are mostly left by members of the Crow community and meant for the Awa-Kulay, or Little People, living in the mountains. The Little People are described as dwarves that are both human and supernatural beings that can act as spiritual guides for the Crow Tribe. Throughout Crow history stories are told of the Little People being...
Overall spatial pattern recognition in diagnostic Folsom artifacts from the Central Plains (2017)
This study investigates the overall spatial patterns in diagnostic Folsom artifacts from the Central Plains, including distributions of reduction stages and projectile point fragment types. Examination of the overall distribution of reduction stages reveals that Folsom and Midland projectile points are concentrated in western Nebraska and along the southern tier of Nebraska counties bordering Kansas. Folsom preforms were concentrated in western Nebraska, with approximately half of them found at...
Paleoindian Archaeology in the Little Missouri Badlands: An Update on Research in the Dakota Prairie Grasslands, North Dakota (2015)
In 2012 the Dakota Prairie Grasslands, Southern Methodist University, and the State Historical Society of North Dakota began a multi-year research project investigating Paleoindian land use, Late Pleistocene-Early Holocene environments, and archaeological preservation potential in the Little Missouri National Grasslands (LMNG) and surrounding areas. Field research in 2013 and 2014 included resurvey and test excavation at known or suspected Paleoindian localities to determine the nature and...
Paleoindian Occupation in the North Dakota National Grasslands: A geoarchaeological analysis of site preservation and land-use (2015)
A GIS model was utilized to help understand Paleoindian land-use, site formation processes and major landform changes in the North Dakota National Grasslands since the terminal Pleistocene. This landscape has changed dramatically over the last 12,000 years and geoarchaeological methods can help understand what the landscape and environment may have looked like during the Paleoindian period. Further, a recent survey has shown that soil erosion in the North Dakota National Grasslands is occurring...
Paleoindian Occupation of the Colorado Alpine Ecosystem: A Consideration of Archaeological and Paleoclimatic Data (2016)
Colorado is well known for the dense concentrations of Paleoindian sites found within its eastern plains as well as several high altitude basins (Middle Park, Gunnison Basin, and San Luis Valley) to the west. Prominent mountain ranges separate these clusters, with the sinuous Continental Divide forming the headwaters of the Colorado, Rio Grande, and Platte River valleys. These mountains, with elevations routinely topping 3000-4000 m, would have presented both challenges and opportunities for the...
Pattern recognition and automatic feature extraction in GIS. (2015)
Archaeological applications of geographic information systems and remote sensing technologies are becoming increasingly popular, especially in regard to site prospection and the geospatial analysis of cultural features. Utilizing aerial LiDAR and high-resolution satellite imagery of North Dakota, a training data set was used to define the boundaries and characteristics for certain morphological features of anthropogenic origin, which include mounds, earth lodge depressions, and fortification...
Phylogenetic Approaches in Examining Western North American Rock Art: The Evolution of the Shield-Bearing Warrior Motif (2016)
The present study examines rock art and its ritual landscapes as the physical remnants of evolving cultural traditions. By incorporating an evolutionary framework in rock art studies, we can determine if rock art traditions evolved via descent with modification versus blending and borrowing of ideas. This project focuses on Fremont and Ceremonial Style shield-bearing warrior motifs associated with ritual contexts and spaces (animal medicine, cosmology, and shamanism). Drawing upon several...
A Place to Pause: Investigations at the St. Mary Bridge Site (24GL203), Glacier County, Montana (2015)
Two field seasons of archaeological excavations along the banks of the St. Mary River in Glacier National Park, Montana have resulted in the recovery of artifacts ranging in age from late Paleoindian to historic times. In partnership with the National Park Service, archaeologists from the University of Arizona and tribal students, preliminarily interpret this site as an area for temporary winter encampments as well as a staging area for residentially mobile groups in the past. Staging areas are...
The Power of National and State Engagement for Archaeology Education in Kansas (2015)
Kansas has played a synergistic role in Project Archaeology for more than a decade. Archaeologists in the state linked with educators as early as 1992, disseminating curriculum materials as part of Kansas Archeology Week. An early focus on shelter played a key role in the development of national Project Archaeology's first Investigating Shelter unit, drawing on a Kansas example. Since then, the Kansas Historical Society has adopted the national themes of shelter, food and culture, and migration...
Prehistoric Mining in the High Mountains of Northern Colorado (2017)
Rupturing and buckling of fissures along the present valley of the Colorado River in Middle Park, Colorado, during the Miocene resulted in thick deposits of tuff and flow basalt which resulted in the Troublesome Formation. The Troublesome Formation primary consists of weakly consolidated siltstone, minor interbedded sandstone and conglomerate, and locally unconsolidated sand and gravels, and chalcedonies. As the result of the chalcedony filtering through the tuffaceous linear deposits of...
Prehistoric Site Discovery and Evaluation Methods in Upland Landscapes on the Eastern Plains (2016)
This study compares the effectiveness of pedestrian walkover and shovel test survey for identifying and delineating prehistoric sites in the eastern Great Plains. The cultural resource program at Fort Riley, Kansas manages 100,000 acres along the Kansas River in the Flint Hills physiographic province. An archaeological inventory of the Fort has been ongoing since the mid-1990s and less than 30 percent remains to be surveyed at this time. The two survey methods approved by the Kansas SHPO include...
Preliminary Analysis of Extinct Box Turtle Remains from the Late Pleistocene of the Southern High Plains (2016)
A diverse and abundant latest Pleistocene vertebrate fauna is currently being investigated at Macy Locality 100 on the southeastern edge of the Southern High Plains, Texas. Remains of an extinct box turtle (Terrapene carolina putnami) are common among the recovered material from the site's alluvial deposits. Believed to have been a mesic form, the extirpation of the eastern species from the region and the extinction of the T. c. putnami are ostensibly linked to ecological changes of the terminal...
Preservation Practice at Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site - Using New Planning Frameworks to Identify and Address Impacts to an Archeological Landscape. (2015)
Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site was set aside to preserve, research, and interpret the archeological and cultural landscapes of the Hidatsa-Mandan villages at the confluence of the Knife and Missouri Rivers. Both park enabling legislation and NPS policy direct park staff to preserve archeological resources unimpaired for future generations. However, defining what preservation means and how it is put into practice presents a challenge for park managers as they attempt to...
Preserving Our Heritage and History: Maximizing Partnerships to Professionally Archive and Manage a Sizable Forest Service Historical Collection (2016)
The Black Hills National Forest (South Dakota and Wyoming) created the Historical Collections Archival Project (Project) to grapple with an issue that practically every U.S. Forest Service unit will eventually encounter: the proper long-term archiving of their unit’s historical collections. The Project objective is to digitize all images and selected print documents from the Forest’s extant historical collection. The materials are professionally archived under agreement at the Leland D. Case...
Preserving Our Past and Providing For Our Future: Heritage Management at Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation, Montana (2016)
Like all Tribal Historic Preservation Offices, our staff are required to wear many hats. The diversity of projects undertaken by the Chippewa Cree Cultural Resources Preservation Department (CCCRPD) includes on-reservation resource documentation and mitigation, educational programming for the local community, development of governmental agency policies and procedures, and consultation on repatriation and current archaeological and museum research. In addition, the CCCRPD has developed the...
Projectile Dysfunction (2016)
There is an undeniable trend of a gradual decrease in projectile point size over time. About 1000 years ago, these points significantly change in size. Most archaeologists today posit that this sudden change has to do with the invention or adoption of the bow and arrow; however without a large sample of preserved wooden bows, arrows, or darts, there is no way to say for certain that this notion is correct. Via a controlled archery experiment, projectile point performance and function will be...
Promontory Culture in Eastern Colorado: Franktown Cave and Early Proto-Apachean Migration (2017)
Similarities between contemporaneous occupations from the Promontory Caves in Utah and Franktown Cave in eastern Colorado provide evidence of a pre-A.D. 1300 migration of proto-Apachean speakers into the Rocky Mountain west using both Intermontane and Plains margin migration routes. Bayesian modeling of Promontory Culture AMS dates from Franktown Cave suggests a 40-85 year occupation starting in the early A.D. 13th century that likely overlaps the modeled 25-55 year occupation of Promontory Cave...
Prospects for Detection of Ephemeral Historic Sod Structures Using Geophysical Techniques in Custer County, Nebraska (2015)
Sod houses represent one form of ephemeral historic structure that became common to portions of the Great Plains as a result of the Homestead Act of 1862. Since their construction in the late 1800s and early 1900s, sod house and out buildings have either been preserved, allowed to "melt," deliberately removed and put under cultivation. This poster examines the documentation of these structures under various post-occupation conditions through the use of surface level, non-destructive, geophysical...
Putting Archaeology Teacher Workshops to the Test (2017)
Students are assessed constantly throughout the school year. As teachers we ask ourselves how do I know that the students understand the concepts and skills? Archaeology educators should be conducting the same kind of rigorous evaluation of the professional development courses we offer teachers. Challenging our profession to know where teachers are coming from, what their needs are, where we want them to go, and how we know that they learned. What prior knowledge do teachers bring to a workshop?...
Radiocarbon Dating at the Gault Site – A Case Study in Collaboration Between AMS and ZooMS to Analyze Promising Faunal Samples (2017)
The Gault site is a lithic procurement site and campsite in Central Texas with components ranging from earlier than Clovis to the Late Prehistoric. For the most part, absolute dating at Gault has relied on optically stimulated luminescence (OSL), which has a high standard error. AMS dating on sparse charcoal samples has been conducted as well, but with mixed results. In particular, the charcoal from the Clovis and lower strata failed to yield viable radiocarbon dates. While faunal preservation...