North America: Great Plains (Geographic Keyword)
201-225 (236 Records)
This is an abstract from the "Technique and Interpretation in the Archaeology of Rock Art" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Abstract rock art formed part of a pilgrimage trail that led from the lower Apishapa Canyon to the Spanish Peaks near Trinidad, Colorado. Hunter/gatherer ethnography from the Great Basin makes sense of abstract engravings in the canyon at sites such as Cramer, Canterbury, and Snake Blakeslee. The Apishapa Canyon leads from...
Sourcing a State: A Systematic Survey and Statistical Analysis of Wyoming Archaeological Assemblages of Lithic Raw Materials (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This pilot study will systematize the spatial distribution of lithic raw materials in Wyoming by using statistical methods. It revisits decades of curated assemblages from the University of Wyoming Archaeological Repository and places them on the geological landscape using GIS and cluster analyses. Through a systematic sampling strategy of the lithic raw...
Spring Creek Drainage - Geoarchaeological Explorations along the Southern High Plains Eastern Escarpment, Northwest Texas (2018)
The Spring Creek drainage, part of the upper Brazos River system, is located along the Southern High Plains eastern escarpment breaks near Post, Texas. Steep and confined vertical channel incision typifies the breaks and the drainage is and was fed by numerous springs emanating from the Ogallala Formation. Geoarchaeological research along a 774m transect from Macy Fork to 222m below its confluence with Spring Creek proper has documented a continual depositional record spanning the latest...
Stalking the Bison: Changing Perspectives in the Zooarchaeology of Big Game Hunters of the Great Plains (2023)
This is an abstract from the "A Tribute to the Contributions of Lawrence C. Todd to World Prehistory" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In the mid-1980s, Lawrence Todd and colleagues published influential, groundbreaking research in Great Plains zooarchaeology. Todd’s pioneering research established innovative methodological and analytical approaches to studying archaeofauna, focusing on large multi-animal bonebeds representing potential kill and...
Stemmed Points in the Ice-Free Corridor (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Late Pleistocene Stemmed Points across North America: Continental Questions and Regional Concerns" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Much reasoning about the early occupation of the Ice Free Corridor has centered on the fluted point phenomenon. Fluting or basal thinning of lanceolate points can be readily recognized, and occurs in a relatively restricted time frame (~13,100 to ~11,500 calendar years ago). Fewer...
Stewardship and Community Outreach on the High Plains (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Archaeology Education: Building a Research Base" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper assesses the present and historical role of outreach and collaboration with collectors in Montana. Understanding the historical context of interactions between professional archaeologists, amateurs, tribes, and the public is an essential foundation for the creation of effective education programs that achieve meaningful...
Structured Wilderness: Managing 19th and Early 20th Century Heritage Resources, Shoshone National Forest, Wyoming (2018)
As the first National Forest that abuts Yellowstone Park, the Shoshone National Forest, northwestern Wyoming has a rich and diverse history of changing use and management. Over the last several years several projects that highlight this history have been conducted by the Shoshone and several partners. Two projects at Anderson Lodge (constructed ~1890) and Simpson Lake Lodge (1926) represent stabilization efforts at cabins representing both administrative and private uses of the back county...
Synchronizing Views: The Development of the Sentinel Cultural Resource–Common Operational Picture (CR-COP) Tool as a Solution for Large-Scale NHPA Compliance and Consultation Challenges (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Crucial Issues in United States Department of Defense Cultural Resources Management " session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Over the next 20 years, the United States Air Force (USAF) will decommission the Minuteman III ICBM and replace it with the Sentinel ICBM. This project includes the replacement of 450 missile launch facilities and 45 missile alert facilities, the installation of 8,000 miles of utility lines and 62...
Taking the Lab to the Field: Examinations at Etzanoa, Kansas (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Quivira Revisited" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Taking scientific lab analyses into the field requires special equipment and planning. PaleoResearch arrived with our mobile field lab to support the archaeological field work. Remote analysis of pollen, phytoliths, seeds, charcoal, and protein residues all are possible, as are the more commonly employed portable XRF and even FTIR analyses. Protein residue analysis...
Testing Geophysical Anomalies Using In Situ Shallow Subsurface Spectroscopy and Soil Magnetic Susceptibility Analysis (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Quivira Revisited" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In 2015 the National Park Service’s Archaeological Prospection Workshop was held at the Tobias Site (14RC8). Students and instructors evaluated the site using a variety of non-invasive prospection methods ranging from landscape-level LiDAR analysis to high sample density subsurface geophysical survey. The evaluation identified buried features and patterning within the...
A Thermoregulatory Perspective on the Folsom Archaeological Record (2018)
Human cold intolerance unambiguously suggests that mid to high latitude prehistoric foragers used thermoregulatory technologies, such as clothing and housing, to cope with the environment, even if archaeologists rarely find them in the record. Others have recognized this, but none have developed a formal means of expressing variation in thermal technologies in the archaeological record over widespread temperature clines. I draw from observations collected during ethnoarchaeological fieldwork...
Thirteenth- and Fourteenth-Century Redstone Pipes and Social Change on the Central Great Plains (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Redstone elbow pipes, often made from catlinite from the Pipestone quarries in Minnesota, play essential roles in many Pawnee ceremonies, including the Hako ceremony, and in the calumet ceremony that was widespread in eastern North America. They appeared first during the thirteenth century in Central Plains tradition communities in eastern Nebraska. ...
Through a Glass, Darkly: Shedding Light on Late Prehistoric Obsidian Conveyance and Apachean Ethnogenesis on the Western Great Plains of North America (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Obsidian was technologically and symbolically important to the prehistoric inhabitants of western North America, and analysis of the small but diverse obsidian assemblage from the Bayou Gulch site (5DA265) in Colorado suggests both uses were important to the site’s inhabitants toward the end of the Late Prehistoric Period (AD 1000-1540). Chemical analysis...
Topographic Morphometrics: Utilizing 3D Scans of Lithic Projectile Points to Look for Similarities and Differences in Flake Scar Patterning (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The conceptual basis of this study is that flintknapping knowledge and technique in small, hunter-gatherer groups is passed from generation to generation through a small number of flintknappers. This should result in similar flake scar patterning on projectile points that can be identified using topographic morphometric analysis. Topographic morphometrics is a...
Toyah Mitotes: Feasting in the Terminal Late Pre-Hispanic Southern Plains (2018)
The proto-historic period within North America provides a framework for assessing the transformations brought on by contact and conflict between indigenous peoples and European colonizers. In central and south Texas, a distinct archaeological culture, Toyah, spans some 400 years, 1250-1650 CE. The hallmark projectile point and first systemic, locally-produced ceramic tradition in the area have intrigued archaeologists for over a hundred years; interpretations of the phenomena have been...
The Toyah Phase Paradox: In Three Dimensions (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Geometric Morphometrics in Archaeology" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Toyah Phase has been the subject of debate since J. Charles Kelly first defined it in 1947. Known widely as the Toyah Phase Paradox, research has struggled to reconcile the homogenous expression of this protohistoric to historic archaeological record in central Texas and the high levels of ethnic diversity witnessed by French and Spanish...
Uncovering Etzanoa: A Megasite on the Southern Plains (2018)
In 1601 CE, Juan de Oñate visited a large community in southern Kansas that natives described as taking two or three days to walk through. The location of the remains of the town was first clearly demonstrated in 2015. Since then, surface survey and work with collectors continues to document the scale of the community. Excavation in 2017 by Wichita State University and the University of Colorado in what was thought to be a midden mound instead encountered a dense concentration of features...
Understanding Ancestral Wichita and French Trade at the Deer Creek (34KA3) Site (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. Deer Creek is an eighteenth-century fortified site in Oklahoma that is featured in dozens of publications yet was not excavated until 2016. While archaeologists today acknowledge the site as a Wichita village, others have insisted Deer Creek is a European fort. Historical narratives bereft of...
Undiscovered Country: The Ground Stone Tools Assemblage from Hell Gap National Historical Landmark (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. One of the most complete records of human activity on the North American Plains, between 13,000 and 8500 years ago, is found at the Hell Gap National Historic Landmark in Wyoming. The area was inhabited continuously during this period as evidenced by the five main site localities. While we know a good deal about the activities on site from chipped stone...
Unlikely Allies: Modern Wolves and the Diets of Pre-contact Domestic Dogs (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. Assumptions of prehistoric domestic dogs as scavengers has been pervasive in archaeology and beyond. This project clarifies these assumption by investigating the dietary behavior of prehistoric domestic dogs via dental microwear data or features on the tooth surface that indicate types of food consumed. In order...
Using Augmented Reality to Increase Collections Access: Examples from the University of Saskatchewan Archaeological Collections (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This poster demonstrates augmented reality as a useful approach for making inaccessible collections accessible to the public. Using the mobile app Augment, highlights of the University of Saskatchewan’s archaeological collections will be virtually presented to the public for the first time. Hidden archaeological gems will be given the spotlight they deserve...
Using Micro and Macrobotanical Analyses to Assess Socio-economic Strategies at 48PA551, the McKean Occupation in the Sunlight Basin, Wyoming (2019)
This is an abstract from the "New Multidisciplinary Research at 48PA551: A Middle Archaic (McKean Complex) Site in Northwest Wyoming" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Located in the Absaroka Mountains of northwest Wyoming site 48PA51 is unique for its pithouse, rock pile surrounded by deer skull caps with antlers, abundant hearths and pit features, large number of dart points and groundstone, and substantial faunal assemblage. These features and the...
A View from the Mountains: A Test of a Predictive Model in the Southern Wind River Range, Wyoming (2018)
This paper details the results of archaeological survey in the Wind River Range, Wyoming between elevations of 9,000 and 11,000 ft. The purpose of this survey was to test a predictive model of a specific site type (sites referred to as villages) created by Stirn (2014) and tested by Stirn in a different region of the same mountain range. Although the methods of creating the predictive model were not altered, the survey methods were significantly altered. Random survey blocks were created within...
Visualizing Mountain Shoshone Occupations in the Washakie Wilderness of Northwestern 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. Interpreting past uses of mountainous regions of the American West is hampered by difficult access, excessive ground vegetation, and wilderness restrictions. Recently however researchers working in the Greater Yellowstone Area have recorded hundreds of sites exposed by forest fires, and our knowledge of campsite...
Walking the Footwear Landscape on the Western Plains Margin: The Implications of 3,500 Years of Footwear from Franktown Cave, Colorado (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Approaches to Archaeological Footwear" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Franktown Cave (5DA272) on the Palmer Divide south of Denver contains an assemblage of perishable artifacts unrivaled on the western Great Plains, and among these perishables is footwear from occupations dated 3300 BC–AD 1280. The footwear has proven to be the most useful for determining regional and cultural associations. Most of the analysis of...