North America - Plains (Geographic Keyword)
101-125 (223 Records)
The time-sensitive characteristic of gunflints makes them important chronological markers at archaeological sites. This poster reviews gunflints from select sites primarily within the eastern Central Plains that have known dates and well documented histories. Lithic materials, origin of manufacture and method of production, as well as technological characteristics of gunflints are discussed. English, French, and Native made gunflints are considered. Native produced gunflints offer an opportunity...
Gunnerson Revisited: A Reconsideration of Plains Promontory Relationships (2015)
On the basis of new excavations within the Promontory caves, archaeologists are beginning to gain a better understanding of when and how Promontory people lived (Ives et al. 2014; Johansson 2013). Some preliminary data also gives credence to Steward’s (1937, 1940) argument that Promontory people were Athapaskan and that the caves represented one stop on a route taken from Dene lands in Canada to the Plains and Northern Southwest where Athapaskan speakers (Apache and Navajo) were first...
Hard Fare: Investigating Dog Teeth to Interpret the Value of a Dog among Northwestern Plains and Rocky Mountains (2017)
In this paper, Dental Microwear Texture Analysis is used to evaluate the teeth of dogs recovered from Late Prehistoric sites to investigate the idea that these animals had their natural diets modified by their human counterparts. This study compares microwear from wolves (Canis lupus) and coyotes (Canis latrans) to that of archaeological dogs recovered from various sites that represent human mobile groups of the Northwestern Plains and Rocky Mountains. Varied practices have been described in the...
Healing through Heritage: Collaborative Archaeology as Process (2017)
Heritage is never static, rather it is a constantly evolving set of practices, beliefs, and tangible touchstones. Collaborative archaeology sits firmly in that thicket, whether through the data we uncover, the stakeholders we engage, or even the media attention we draw. The archaeology of Amache, the site of a WWII-era Japanese American incarceration camp, is an exemplary test case for how research intertwined in a contemporary community can recast our discipline’s relationship to heritage. ...
High Tide in the Lower Pecos: Digital Documentation of the Threatened Rattlesnake Canyon Mural (2015)
Rockshelters of the Lower Pecos Canyonlands display visually striking and compositionally complex Pecos River style murals painted by hunter-gatherers during the Late Archaic. The Rattlesnake Canyon mural (41VV180) is regarded as one of the six finest surviving examples of this world-renowned pictograph style. However, the site is severely threatened by repeated flooding episodes along the Rio Grande, exacerbated in recent years by siltation of Amistad Reservoir. Three known flooding episodes...
Human Use of the Sand Hills (Central Plains, North America) during the Peri-Medieval Warm Period: Expectations and Preliminary Observations (2016)
The Sand Hills of northcentral Nebraska (Central Plains, North America) were transgressively devegetated and revegetated during the Medieval Warm Period yet also may have hosted several oases. We rely on Binford’s hunter-gatherer frames of reference to model a series of expectations for human occupation here in terms of innovation, resource management systems organization, social network scale and character, and place development as the Medieval Warm Period waxed and waned. Extant archaeological...
Hunter-Gatherer Occupations at San Jon Site, Eastern New Mexico (2016)
One of the hallmarks of Eileen Johnson's career was the establishment of long-term field research projects. Outcomes of this work include high quality datasets, and the development and fermentation of research ideas that can only occur from returning to the same localities year after year. The Lubbock Lake Landmark's regional research at the San Jon site (LA 6437) is an example of one of these projects. The San Jon site is located along the northwestern margin of the Southern High Plains of...
Identifying and Siding the Stylohyoid Bone for North American Artiodactyls (2017)
The stylohyoid is the largest bone in the hyoid complex surrounding the throat in artiodactyls. There is little published information to allow its identification to species or anatomical side. Our study examined comparative stylohoid bones in order to provide criteria for taxonomic identification, using more than 350 animals representing 13 species present in the continental United States. Based on osteometrics and discrete features, the bone can be distinguished to species for most of these...
Identifying Canid Tooth Modification: A Side-by-side Comparison of 3D Imaging Techniques (2016)
In this paper, we evaluate the efficacy of two methods, namely photogrammetry and 3-D laser scanning, for the purpose of identifying cultural modification of bone, specifically canid teeth. Instances of dogs with altered canine and carnassial teeth have been observed in Plains Native American archaeological assemblages as well as in the ethnographic record of the Late Prehistoric era. The identification of this type of cultural modification will help interpret ways in which animal and human...
Improving Discovery-Based Probability Models for the Shoshone National Forest, Wyoming (2016)
Site prediction models continue to contribute useful information to the management of archaeological resources. For example, since 2009 we have developed several probability models for the Shoshone National Forest. The first model was used to guide inventory of areas burned in wildland fires to rapidly appraise archaeologically sensitive areas. The model was overhauled in 2015 to cover the entire Shoshone National Forest. Until now, we have used stepwise logistic regression to identify...
In Search of "False Alibates": A Quagmire in Chert Sourcing from Northeastern New Mexico (2017)
Applications of elementally-sensitive geochemical methods have made it possible for archaeologists to identify chert sources with more provenance accuracy than previously possible. Alibates dolomite from quarries in the Texas Panhandle is commonly identified in Southwest sites as evidence for trade with Southern Plains communities. However, regional archaeological research suggests the presence of an Alibates "look-alike" chert outcrop in northeastern New Mexico, near the Baldy Hill formation...
Informal Economic Strategies During Alcohol Prohibition In Anaconda, MontanaAlcohol Prohibition (2015)
One of the many unintended consequences of the Prohibition Era was an unorganized but collective social resistance movement across the nation. Research in the town of Anaconda, Montana, focused on the years of 1923 through 1926, granted a unique opportunity to capture a snapshot of collective social resistance in a company...
The Integrity of a Surface Collection and Its Value to a Tribe (2017)
What is the value of a large surface collection? Surface finds are often dismissed by archaeologists as having little or no integrity. Our work uses data from 24GL304 (The Billy Big Spring Site) to speak to two different types of value for a surface collection: one being its archaeological integrity and the other the value placed on these artifacts by their descendant community. During modern times, the area around our study site has been used as rangeland, which has resulted in animal trampling...
Introduction to session and opening remarks (2017)
Introduction to session and opening remarks
Investigating High-Altitude Campsites in the Rocky Mountains: A Decade Later (2016)
Interpreting past hunter-gatherer use of mountains has been hampered through the years by difficult access, excessive ground vegetation, and wilderness restrictions. With the regular occurrence of forest fires that have exposed hundreds of sites during the last decade, our knowledge of campsite structure and landscape use has dramatically improved. We now know that remote campsites often contain tens of thousands of artifacts that represent a greater commitment to mountain resources and places...
Isotope and Hunter-gatherer Ecology at the Morhiss Site on the Texas Coastal Plain (2017)
We analyze radiocarbon, stable carbon, and nitrogen isotope data from the Morhiss Site (41VT1) located on the Texas Coastal Plain. In 1939-1940, personnel with the Works Progress Administration excavated deep deposits at this large hunter-gatherer site but they lacked adequate chronological control and results were never fully reported. From this location on the Guadalupe River and only 35 km from the Gulf of Mexico, hunter-gatherers could access a variety of habitats. In fact they returned to...
Isotopic examination of human remains associated with the Korell-Bordeaux site (48GO54), Goshen County, Wyoming: δ13C and δ18O from bone and enamel apatite (2015)
Bone and enamel apatite from human remains (N=17) recovered at the Korell-Bordeaux (48GO54) site in Goshen County, Wyoming during the 1980 and 2009 field seasons was analyzed using stable carbon and oxygen isotope methods. Patterns related to the geographic mobility and overall sustenance sourcing of the members of the population during their first and final decades of life are detailed. Remains stained with degraded copper alloys were examined through the same procedural methods and differences...
Kite Aerial Photography and Archaeology: Grandfather of the Drone, Ancient yet Applicable (2015)
The use of kites in capturing aerial images of archaeological sites has been used by archaeologists in the past, but is quickly becoming overshadowed by the use of drone aircraft. Despite the obvious advantages of drone vehicles, kites still offer practical solutions in capturing aerial site imagery. Kites present affordable, durable, and easily deployed methods of capturing a bird’s-eye view of sites without the need for cumbersome and expensive drone technology. The poster is designed to...
Knapping Precise Porcelain Replicas (2017)
The experimental replication of lithic artifacts commonly encounters issues of standardization and control. Two major issues are how to accurately sample a population and how to sample from specific stages over the flaking process. Knappable stone is unpredictable due to inclusions, cracks, and differences in size, texture, and fracture toughness. It is necessary to create knappable facsimiles of either artifacts or knapped replicas by experts at specific stages. This allows for observation of...
A Landmark Career: The Professional Legacy of the Lubbock Lake Landmark Program (2016)
For more than forty years the Lubbock Lake Landmark Regional Research Program has provided an immersive participatory environment for students to actively engage with and understand the past. The interdisciplinary nature of the investigations and rich archaeological setting of the Landmark itself have attracted participants to the program from across the globe. From inception the program has followed an apprenticeship rather than traditional field school model. For many of the hundreds of alumni...
The Landscape Archaeology of the Northwestern Plains: Problems and Potential (2015)
The Plains of Northern Montana contain a uniquely preserved record of rock circles (tipi rings), rock piles (cairns), and other rock configurations that communicate resident, transient, and permanent aspects of prehistoric Native American life in the modern Blackfeet Indian Reservation. This paper relies on the long-term recordation of several thousand of such features to articulate a continuous architectural landscape that represents leadership, planning, seasonality, demography, and the...
Landscape Preference and Pre-Contact Site Location Modeling in the Central Plains, USA. (2017)
The Cultural Resource program at Fort Riley provides an ideal setting for developing and testing models for Pre-Contact settlement within the Flint Hills region of the Central Plains. Pre-Contact populations utilized the patchy environmental resources available within the Flint Hills by means of specialized activity locations in varying topographic zones. Many of these small sites have been identified through extensive pedestrian surveys of the Fort Riley Installation. These survey data have...
Landscape, Rock Art, and Ceremonial Game Drives (2016)
Early Hunting petroglyphs in a Black Hills canyon depict hunting situations and ceremonies. A loop-line motif, that is unique to this rock art tradition, signifies drive lines and trap structures. Loop-lines occur only at canyon locations that are appropriate settings for trap structures. The canyon starts on the margin of a basin that provides good grazing. Entry to the canyon is funnel-shaped like the V-shaped wings of hunting traps. Recent discovery of a cairn drive line that utilizes another...
LandUse6k North America: Report and Implications (2017)
LandUse6k is a consortium of archaeologists, historical geographers and historians engaged in synthesizing land use data for various slices of time, to be used to improve the efficacy of climate models. These efforts recognize the large impact that anthropogenic land cover change has had on past climate and climate change trajectory. We report on efforts to characterize land use through time for North America describing methods and issues. We estimate how these characterizations allow for more...
Late Quaternary Radiocarbon Geochronology and Stratigraphy on the Northern Plains: Silts, Mammoths, and Buried Soils in the Lower Yellowstone Valley, Montana (2017)
Within the Yellowstone River basin, in eastern Montana, upland landscapes contain silts with buried soils. Radiocarbon measurements from bone and the paleosols provide a basis for proposing a regional chronostratigraphic model. At the Lindsay locality, north of the Yellowstone River, mammoth remains were recovered within silts overlain by a buried soil A-horizon. Samples from the mammoth have been analyzed by six laboratories, using beta decay or AMS. If the radiocarbon determinations older...