North America: Great Plains (Geographic Keyword)
126-150 (212 Records)
Under the terms of a Memorandum of Agreement, a professional archaeologist and land-survey crew annually visit 16 historic properties within the Area of Potential Effects of the Maple River Flood Control Dam to document site conditions. All are archaeological sites that could be subjected to seasonal temporary inundation during spring runoff and/or periodic non-winter storm events. Since the "dry dam" first became operational during spring melt in 2007, extreme flood events occurred in 2009 and...
Mobility in the Big Horns: GIS Analysis of Upper and Lower Canyon Creek and the Implications for Prehistoric Movement (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Least cost pathway research focuses on creating a baseline model of human movement constructed on defined variables. The stark landscape of the Bighorn mountains, from a Plains or Basin perspective, can be incredibly steep and difficult to navigate, without high cost or risk. The study uses GIS to identify least cost pathways as possible routes of migration...
Modeling Hunter-Gatherer Population Dynamics on the Texas Coastal Plain during the Holocene (2018)
A radiocarbon database is used to model prehistoric population dynamics on the Texas Coastal Plain in the context of Holocene climate change. Hunters and gatherers participated in a multifaceted social and ecological system that appears to have been highly resilient to climatic impacts by utilizing multiple ecological zones and participating in wide-ranging social networks for over 6000 years. Climatic fluctuations include a dry middle Holocene and fluctuating but wetter late Holocene. During...
Native Narratives and Settler Colonialism in the Rocky Mountain West (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Recognizing and Recording Post-1492 Indigenous Sites in North American Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The study of the social and material effects of European colonization on indigenous inhabitants has been a regular topic of archaeological discourse in the United States for the last twenty years, with strong publication records in the Southeast, Southwest, and California. A generation of recent scholars...
NDDOT’s Collaborative Approach to Tribal Involvement during Project Development and Delivery (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Byways to the Past: An American Highway Archaeology Symposium" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The North Dakota Department of Transportation (NDDOT) has been working with regional Tribal Nations since 1998. In 2004, NDDOT and five of these Nations began jointly writing a Section 106 Programmatic Agreement for Tribal Consultation in North Dakota (PA). The PA among NDDOT, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and...
New Context from an Old Site: Collections Research on the Colby Mammoth Clovis Site (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Since the first discovery of projectile points associated with mammoth remains, the iconic recreation of Clovis life has been a group of hunters stalking this multi-ton animal. However, despite nearly 100 years of research, questions remain about traditions associated with Pleistocene megafauna hunting including its frequency and importance. In the 1970s...
New Interpretations of the Clovis Anzick Site, 50 Years after Its Discovery (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Paleo Lithics to Legacy Management: Ruthann Knudson—Inawa’sioskitsipaki" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Over 100 lithic tools accompanied the burial of a two-year-old Clovis boy. While this assemblage has been called a cache by some, these artifacts appear to have been left as grave goods, so the child would have needed tools in the next life. Some artifacts have nicks and breaks, or have been resharpened suggesting...
New Investigations at Bonfire Shelter: A Consideration of Bison Jumps and Their Implications for Paleoindian Social Organization (2018)
Bonfire Shelter (41VV218) is a nationally significant site in the Lower Pecos region of the West Texas borderlands that preserves evidence of what may be the oldest and southernmost "bison jump" in North America. At least two major episodes of bison hunting are evident at Bonfire Shelter, one associated with Paleoindian Plainview and Folsom projectile points, and another associated with Late Archaic Castroville and Montell points. The approximately 12,000-year-old layers comprising Bonebed 2...
New Investigations of the Deer Creek Site, an Early Eighteenth Century Ancestral Wichita Village (2018)
Deer Creek (34KA3) is one of few known fortified villages on the Southern Plains and was occupied during a critical point in Wichita tribal history. While researchers have been interested in this site for almost one hundred years, it was only two years ago that archaeologists were allowed to formally excavate the site. Following removal of dense brush cover in 2014, archaeologists with the University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma State University, Oklahoma Archaeological Survey, and the Oklahoma...
Of Hearth and Home: Investigating Site Structure at the Fossil Creek Site, an Early Ceramic Camp in Larimer County, Colorado (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Fossil Creek (5LR13041) is a significant Early Ceramic (Plains Woodland) campsite in northern Colorado. Since 2010, archaeologists from Colorado State University and the University of Northern Colorado periodically conducted controlled surface collection, shovel testing, ground-based remote sensing, and block excavation (70 m2) of this large site. Artifacts...
Oneota Expansion and Ethnogenesis on the Eastern Great Plains (2018)
The late 1200s and 1300s saw substantial population shifts in the eastern Plains and Midwest. These occurred in the context of profound sociopolitical and demographic changes, particularly the political decline and depopulation of Cahokia, and regional climatic variation, including significant changes in northern hemisphere temperatures and severe regional droughts. Oneota groups expanded into the east-central Great Plains during this time, at the same time that indigenous Plains farmers...
Oral Metagenomes from Native American Ancestors Reveal Distinct Microbial Lineages in the Precontact Era (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Disruption of the microbial community in the oral cavity, by diet, host genetics, or environmental factors, can lead to dysbiosis, promoting preferential growth of pathogenic microorganisms leading to a diseased state. The calcified matrix of dental calculus is a good source for ancient biomolecules belonging to bacterial species, allowing researchers to...
Paleoecology of the Late Pleistocene Fauna from the Lamb Spring Site, Colorado (2018)
The Lamb Spring site located in central Colorado is a late Quaternary locality with stratified Pleistocene and Holocene faunal remains. The late Pleistocene component is dominated by mammoth (Mammuthus columbi) but contains other grazing taxa like horse, bison, American camel, Harlan’s ground sloth, etc. The general lack of microfauna from this horizon makes detailed paleoecological interpretations difficult. However, the megafauna point to a dominance of grassland with the possibility of...
Paleoindian Activity in the Washakie Wilderness, Absaroka Range, Wyoming (2019)
This is an abstract from the "New and Ongoing Research on the North American Plains and Rocky Mountains" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. More than 15 years of systematic surveys in the Washakie Wilderness area by the GRSLE archaeology project in the Shoshone National Forest, northwest Wyoming, has yielded a sample of over 30 Paleoindian projectile points at a mean elevation of 2885m. These specimens provide clues about early prehistoric activity at...
Paleoindian Intercept Hunting in the Bethel Locality, Western Oklahoma (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The narrow divide between the Canadian and Washita rivers in west central Oklahoma is the location of multiple historic transportation routes. The Rock Island Railroad, U.S. Highway 66 and Interstate Highway 40 all parallel the route of the early historic California Road. These routes followed a game trail which was a focus for prehistoric hunting. Prominent...
Paracosmic Play Areas in Western Plains Boarding and Day Schools (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Childhood play areas represent a complete departure from the landscapes that archaeologists often examine in that they exist within adults’ domestic, logistic, and/or sacred spaces yet simultaneously outside of any of these spatial ideals. The difficulty in analyzing these areas is further compounded when Indigenous ontologies are considered, especially...
Passing Through or Settling Down? Paleoindian Occupation of Colorado’s Southern Rocky Mountains, USA (2018)
Colorado is well known for dense concentrations of Paleoindian sites found within its eastern plains and in multiple high altitude basins (Middle Park, Gunnison Basin, San Luis Valley) to the west. Prominent mountain ranges separate these clusters of sites, and the question remains, when were these mountains first crossed and/or utilized? These high altitude settings (elevations routinely topping 3000-4400 m) would have presented both challenges and opportunities for the earliest inhabitants of...
A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words: Reading the Past and (Digital) Interpretation in the 21st Century, a Case Study from the Bighorn Basin, Wyoming (2018)
During 2016 and 2017, Bighorn Archaeology participants used on-the-ground photogrammetric methods and aerial photography to document features at archaeological sites throughout the Bighorn Basin and surrounding foothills in northwestern Wyoming. The sample includes both horizontal and vertical features such as stone circles (tipi rings), a hunting driveline, defensive rock bulwarks, and pictograph rock shelter overhang panels. In this presentation, we discuss our evolving methodology and the...
Plains and Mountain Settlement Systems Change During the Earliest Holocene at the Sisters Hill Paleoindian Site (48JO314) (2019)
This is an abstract from the "New and Ongoing Research on the North American Plains and Rocky Mountains" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Sisters Hill Paleoindian site is located between the Bighorn Mountains and the High Plains of the Powder River Basin in northern Wyoming, two regions with largely distinct ecologies and chipped stone raw material sources. Accordingly, the site is an ideal place to research the causes of settlement system...
Pocket Gophers as Food? The Zooarchaeological Investigation of An Unusual Woodland Period Assemblage (2018)
The Rainbow site (13PM91) is a multi-component Middle to Late Woodland period site situated within the tallgrass prairie of northwest Iowa. Excavated in the late 1970’s, the site remains an important example due to its well excavated and substantial faunal collection. The current study focuses on the reanalysis of a concentration of pocket gopher (Geomys bursarius) remains found within the Early-Late Woodland horizon C (AD 550-620). The surprising number and spatial concentration of pocket...
Polychrome Perplexities: The Painted Rock Art of the Southern Black Hills (2019)
This is an abstract from the "The Role of Rock Art in Cultural Understanding: A Symposium in Honor of Polly Schaafsma" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Infrared, ultraviolet, and D-Stretch imaging has provided a more complete view of a complex set of black and red painted rock from the southern Black Hills of South Dakota. The painted designs include bison, bears, other quadrupeds, humans, net-, web-, and gridlike figures, atlatl darts, hand- and...
A Possible New Paleoindian Area of the Hell Gap Site: The 2018 Shovel Test at Locality IV (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Hell Gap at 60: Myth? Reality? What Has It Taught Us?" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. During the 2018 field season, a fluted preform was recovered during surface survey at Hell Gap Locality IV. A shovel test was dug at the location of the preform to investigate the stratigraphy, landform characteristics, and assess the possible age of the deposit. The test uncovered 675 very tightly vertically clustered artifacts,...
Postmarital Residence Patterns of Late Archaic Hunter-Gatherers from the Loma Sandia (41LK28) Site, Live Oak County, Texas: An Analysis Using 87Sr/86Sr (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Archaeologists researching hunter-gatherers in the Texas Coastal Plains (TCP) and Central Texas have noted differences between sexes in carbon and nitrogen isotope studies. One explanation offered for these differences is due to mate exchange, specifically patrilocality. Evidence for hunter-gatherer patrilocality in Texas also comes from the ethnographic...
Prehistoric Use of the Wind Creek Locality at Fort Riley, Kansas (2018)
Fort Riley Army Installation in northeastern Kansas is bordered by Wildcat Creek, a tributary of the Kansas River that has a high density of prehistoric sites, including Smoky Hill hamlets and base camps. We review the CEMML surveys and site exams along Wind Creek - a tributary of Wildcat Creek - that have produced an unexpected density of upland prehistoric sites. In this context, we discuss the prehistoric sites types found along Wind Creek and explore how they are part of settlement...
A Preliminary Assessment of Athapaskan Land-Use Strategies in the Central High Plains (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Athapaskans entered the Central High Plains as part of a large migration from the Yukon River Basin. As these populations left the basin and moved south, they encountered new resources, resource distributions, landforms, and competition with local communities that would have challenged their existing land-use strategies, including settlement and mobility. This...