Geoarchaeological Approach to Resolving the Origins of Bison Bone Beds at Bonfire Shelter, 41VV218, Val Verde County, Texas

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Archaeology of Eagle Nest Canyon, Texas: Papers in Honor of Jack and Wilmuth Skiles" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Bonfire Shelter is a large prehistoric rockshelter site situated at the northern end of Mile Canyon in southwest Texas. Early investigators determined the site to be the location of multiple bison jump events; however subsequent investigations have disputed this interpretation. My research focuses on answering the questions of whether the Paleoindian bone bed represents a bison jump event and if so, does it represent one or multiple events. Geoarchaeological methods including particle size analysis, magnetic susceptibility, and loss-on-ignition are providing insights in the formation processes of the site and as a result, insights into the origin and number of events represented within the Paleoindian bison bone bed. To date, research of this type has not been conducted to analyze the Paleoindian bone bed at Bonfire Shelter. This presentation will provide the completed results of my thesis research as well as the final interpretations of Bone Bed 2 at Bonfire Shelter.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Archaeology of Eagle Nest Canyon, Texas: Papers in Honor of Jack and Wilmuth Skiles   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39034.0