Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-07T16:11:02.921Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Seasonality of the Scottsbluff and Lipscomb Bison Bonebeds: Implications for Modeling Paleoindian Subsistence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Lawrence C. Todd ,
Jack L. Hofman  and
C. Bertrand Schultz
Lawrence C. Todd
Affiliation:
Zuni Archaeology Program, Pueblo of Zuni, P.O. Box 339, Zuni, NM 87327
Jack L. Hofman
Affiliation:
Oklahoma Archeological Survey, 1808 Newton Drive, Rm. 116, Norman, OK 73019
C. Bertrand Schultz
Affiliation:
Nebraska Academy of Sciences-University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Morrill Hall, Lincoln, NE 68588-0339
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The Scottsbluff and Lipscomb bison bonebeds initially were excavated in the 1930s. Although only brief, preliminary reports have been published on the two sites, they since have been cited widely in discussions of Paleoindian hunting practices on the western Plains. The Scottsbluff and Lipscomb sites both represent mass deaths associated with Cody Complex and Folsom artifacts respectively. Analysis of eruption and wear of the lower dentitions indicates that the Scottsbluff bison died during late spring to summer, and those at Lipscomb died only slightly later in the year (late summer to early fall). Thus, although often cited in the “yet-another-bison-bonebed” category, these two sites exhibit a pattern of seasonal mortality that is different from the generally reported tendency for Paleoindian kills to have taken place in the late fall or winter.

Résumé

Résumé

Los dos estratos de huesos de bisonte encontrados en Scottsbluff y Lipscomb fueron excavados inicialmente en los años 30. Aunque solamente se publicaron reportes breves y preliminares sobre los dos sitios, aquéllos han sido extensamente citados en discusiones sobre las prácticas de caza durante el período Paleoindio en el Llano occidental. Los dos sitios de Scottsbluff y Lipscomb representan muertes en masa asociadas con artefactos de los complejos Cody y Folsom, respectivamente. El análisis de la erupción y el desgaste de las denticiones inferiores indican que los bisontes de Scottsbluff murieron entre el final de la primavera y el verano, en tanto que los de Lipscomb murieron sólo un poco más tarde en el año (entre el final del verano y el principio del otoño). Por lo tanto, aunque estos sitios se hallen citados frecuentemente en la categoría de “otro estrato más de huesos de bisonte,” éstos exhiben un patrón de mortalidad estacional distinto de la tendencia generalmente reportada para la caza paleoindia, que supuestamente ocurrió entre el final del otoño y el invierno.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 55 , Issue 4 , October 1990 , pp. 813 - 827
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1990

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Agenbroad, L. 1978 The Hudson-Meng Site: An Alberta Bison Kill in the Nebraska High Plains. University Press of America, Washington, D. C. Google Scholar
Albanese, J. P. 1977 Paleotopography and Paleoindian Sites in Wyoming and Colorado. In Paleoindian Lifeways, edited by Johnson, E., pp. 28–47. The Museum Journal 17. West Texas Museum Association, Texas Tech University, Lubbock.Google Scholar
Bamforth, D. B. 1985 The Technological Organization of Paleo-Indian Small-Group Bison Hunting on the Llano Estacado. Plains Anthropologist 30: 243–258.Google Scholar
Barbour, E. H., and Schultz, C. B. 1932a The Mounted Skeleton of Bison occidentalis, and Associated Dart Points. Bulletin of the Nebraska State Museum 1: 263–270. Lincoln.Google Scholar
Barbour, E. H., and Schultz, C. B. 1932b The Scottsbluff Bison Quarry and its Artifacts. Bulletin of the Nebraska State Museum 1: 283–286. Lincoln.Google Scholar
Barbour, E. H., and Schultz, C. B. 1936 Paleontologic and Geologic Consideration of Early Man in Nebraska, With Notice of a New Bone Bed in the Early Pleistocene of Morrill County, Nebraska. Bulletin of the Nebraska State Museum 1: 431–450. Lincoln.Google Scholar
Barbour, E. H., and Schultz, C. B. 1941 A New Fossil Bovid from Nebraska With Notice of a New Bison Quarry in Texas. Bulletin of the Nebraska State Museum 2: 63–68. Lincoln.Google Scholar
Bonnichsen, R., Stanford, D., and Fastook, J. L. 1987 Environmental Change and the Developmental History of Human Adaptive Patterns: The Paleoindian Case. In North America and Adjacent Oceans During the Last Deglaciation, edited by Ruddiman, W. F. and Wright, H. E., Jr., pp. 403–424. The Geology of North America, vol. K-3. Geological Society of America, Boulder.Google Scholar
Figgins, J. D. 1927 The Antiquity of Man in America. Natural History 27: 229–239.Google Scholar
Fisher, D. C. 1987 Mastodont Procurement by Paleoindians of the Great Lakes Region: Hunting or Scavenging. In The Evolution of Human Hunting, edited by Nitecki, M. H. and Nitecki, D. V., pp. 309–421. Plenum Press, New York.Google Scholar
Frison, G. C. 1970 The Glenrock Buffalo Jump, 48CO304: Late Prehistoric Period Buffalo Procurement and Butchering on the Northwestern Plains. Memoir 7. Plains Anthropologist, Topeka.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frison, G. C. 1973 The Wardell Buffalo Trap, 48SU301: Communal Procurement in the Upper Green River Basin of Wyoming. Anthropological Papers No. 48. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frison, G. C. 1978a Animal Population Studies and Cultural Inference. In Bison Procurement and Utilization: A Symposium, edited by Davis, L. B. and Wilson, M., pp. 44–52. Memoir 14. Plains Anthropologist, Lincoln.Google Scholar
Frison, G. C. 1978b Prehistoric Hunters of the High Plains. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Frison, G. C. 1982a Bison Dentition Studies. In The Agate Basin Site: A Record of the Paleoindian Occupation of the Northwestern High Plains, edited by Frison, G. C. and Stanford, D., pp. 240–260. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Frison, G. C. 1982b Paleo-Indian Winter Subsistence Strategies on the High Plains. In Plains Indian Studies: A Collection of Essays in Honor of John C. Ewers and Waldo Wedel, edited by Ubelaker, D. H. and Viola, H. J., pp. 193–201. Smithsonian Contributions to Anthropology No. 30. Washington, D. C. Google Scholar
Frison, G. C. 1984 The Carter/Kerr-McGee Paleoindian Site: Cultural Resource Management and Archaeological Research. American Antiquity 49: 288–314.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frison, G. C. (editor) 1974 The Casper Site: A Hell Gap Bison Kill on the High Plains. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Frison, G. C, and Reher, C. A. 1970 Appendix I: Age Determination of Buffalo by Teeth Eruption and Wear. In The Glenrock Buffalo Jump, 48CO304: Late Prehistoric Period Buffalo Procurement and Butchering on the Northwestern Plains, by Frison, G. C., pp. 46–47. Memoir 7. Plains Anthropologist, Topeka.Google Scholar
Frison, G. C, and Stanford, D. J. (editors) 1982 The Agate Basin Site: A Record of the Paleoindian Occupation of the Northwestern High Plains. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Frison, G. C, and Todd, L. C. (editors) 1987 The Horner Site: The Type Site of the Cody Cultural Complex. Academic Press, Orlando.Google Scholar
Frison, G. C, Wilson, M., and Walker, D. N. 1978 The Big Goose Creek Site: Bison Procurement and Faunal Analysis. Occasional Papers on Wyoming Archaeology No. 1. Department of Anthropology, University of Wyoming, Laramie.Google Scholar
Frison, G. C, Wilson, M., and Wilson, D. J. 1976 Fossil Bison and Artifacts from an Early Altithermal Period Arroyo Trap in Wyoming. American Antiquity 41: 28–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Graham, R. W. 1986 Plant-Animal Interactions and Pleistocene Extinctions. In Dynamics of Extinctions, edited by Elliott, D. K., pp. 131–154. Wiley and Sons, New York.Google Scholar
Graham, R. W., and Lundelius, E. L., Jr. 1984 Coevolutionary Disequilibrium and Pleistocene Extinctions. In Quaternary Extinctions: A Prehistoric Revolution, edited by Martin, P. S. and Klein, R. G., pp. 223–249. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Gunnerson, J. H. 1987 Archaeology of the High Plains. Cultural Resource Series 19. Bureau of Land Management, Colorado State Office, Denver.Google Scholar
Guthrie, R. D. 1984 Mosaics, Allelochemics, and Nutrients: An Ecological Theory of Late Pleistocene Megafaunal Extinctions. In Quaternary Extinctions: A Prehistoric Revolution, edited by Martin, P. S. and Klein, R. G., pp. 259–298. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Guthrie, R. D. 1990 Frozen Fauna of The Mammoth Steppe: The Story of Blue Babe. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Hester, J. J. 1967 The Agency of Man in Animal Extinctions. In Pleistocene Extinctions, The Search for a Cause, edited by Martin, P. S. and Wright, H. E., Jr., pp. 169–192. Yale University Press, New Haven.Google Scholar
Hillerud, J. M. 1970 Subfossil High Plains Bison. Unpublished Ph. D. dissertation, Department of Geology, University of Nebraska, Lincoln.Google Scholar
Hofman, J. L., and Ingbar, E. E. 1988 A Folsom Hunting Overlook in Eastern Wyoming. Plains Anthropologist 33: 337–350.Google Scholar
Hofman, J. L., and Todd, L. C. 1990 The Lipscomb Bison Quarry: 50 Years of Research. Transactions of the 25th Regional Archaeological Symposium for Southeastern New Mexico and Western Texas, pp. 43–58. Southwest Federation of Archeological Societies, Midland.Google Scholar
Hofman, J. L., Todd, L. C., and Schultz, C. B. 1989 Further Investigation of the Folsom Bison Kill at Lipscomb, Texas. Current Research in the Pleistocene 6: 16–18.Google Scholar
Hofman, J. L., Todd, L. C., Schultz, C. B., and Hendy, W. 1990 The Lipscomb Bison Quarry: Continuing Investigations at a Folsom Site on the Southern Plains. Bulletin of the Texas Archeological Society 60, in press.Google Scholar
Jodry, M. A. 1987 Stewart's Cattle Guard Site: A Folsom Site in Southern Colorado: A Report of the 1981 and 1983 Field Season. Unpublished Master's thesis, Department of Anthropology, University of Texas, Austin.Google Scholar
Johnson, E. 1978 Paleo-Indian Bison Procurement and Butchering Patterns on the Llano Estacado. In Bison Procurement and Utilizations: A Symposium, edited by Davis, L. B. and Wilson, M., pp. 98–105. Memoir 14. Plains Anthropologist, Lincoln.Google Scholar
Johnson, E. (editor) 1987 Lubbock Lake: Late Quaternary Studies on the Southern High Plains. Texas A&M Press, College Station.Google Scholar
Kelly, R. L., and Todd, L. C. 1988 Coming Into the Country: Early Paleoindian Hunting and Mobility. American Antiquity 53: 231–244.Google Scholar
Kornfeld, M. 1988 The Rocky Folsom Site: A Small Folsom Assemblage from the Northwestern Plains. North American Archaeologist 9: 197–222.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lundelius, E. L., Jr. 1989 The Implications of Disharmonious Assemblages for Pleistocene Extinctions. Journal of Archaeological Science 16: 407–417.Google Scholar
Martin, L. 1987 Equability in the Late Pleistocene. In Quaternary Environments of Kansas, edited by Johnson, W. C., pp. 123–127. Guidebook Series 5. Kansas Geological Survey, Lawrence.Google Scholar
Meltzer, D. J. 1988 Late Pleistocene Human Adaptations in Eastern North America. Journal of World Prehistory 2: 1–52.Google Scholar
Meltzer, D. J., and Smith, B. D. 1986 Paleoindian and Early Archaic Subsistence Strategies in Eastern North America. In Foraging, Collecting and Harvesting: Archaic Period Subsistence and Settlement in the Eastern Woodlands, edited by Neusius, S., pp. 1–30. Center for Archaeological Investigations, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale.Google Scholar
Meserve, F. G., and Barbour, E. H. 1932 Association of an Arrow Point with Bison occidentalis in Nebraska. Bulletin of the Nebraska State Museum 1: 239–242. Lincoln.Google Scholar
Myers, T. P., Corner, R. G., and Tanner, L. G. 1981 Preliminary Report on the 1979 Excavations at the Clary Ranch Site. Transactions of the Nebraska Academy of Sciences 9: 1–7. Lincoln.Google Scholar
Nicholson, B. A. 1982 An Examination of the Evidence for Paleo-Indian Bison Procurement Practices. Manitoba Archaeological Quarterly 6(4): 2–15.Google Scholar
Reher, C. A. 1970 Population Dynamics of the Glenrock Bison bison Population. In The Glenrock Buffalo Jump, 48CO304: Late Prehistoric Period Buffalo Procurement and Butchering on the Northwestern Plains, by Frison, G. C., pp. 51–55. Memoir 7. Plains Anthropologist, Topeka.Google Scholar
Reher, C. A. 1973 The Wardell Bison bison Sample: Population Dynamics and Archaeological Interpretation. In The Wardell Buffalo Trap 48SU301: Communal Procurement in the Upper Green River Basin, Wyoming, by Frison, G. C., pp. 89–105. Anthropological Papers No. 48. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Reher, C. A. 1974 Population Study of the Casper Site Bison. In The Casper Site: A Hell Gap Bison Kill on the High Plains, edited by Frison, G. C., pp. 113–124. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Reher, C. A., and Frison, G. C. 1980 The Vore Site, 48CK302, a Stratified Buffalo Jump in the Wyoming Black Hills. Memoir 16. Plains Anthropologist, Lincoln.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sauer, C. O. 1944 A Geographic Sketch of Early Man in America. Geographical Review 34: 540–554.Google Scholar
Schultz, C. B. 1932 Association of Artifacts and Extinct Mammals in Nebraska. Bulletin of the Nebraska State Museum 1: 271-282, Lincoln.Google Scholar
Schultz, C. B. 1943 Some Artifact Sites of Early Man in the Great Plains and Adjacent Areas. American Antiquity 3: 242–249.Google Scholar
Schultz, C. B., and Eiseley, L. C. 1935 Paleontological Evidence of the Antiquity of the Scottsbluff Bison Quarry and Its Associated Artifacts. American Anthropologist 37: 306–318.Google Scholar
Schultz, C. B., and Eiseley, L. C. 1936 An Added Note on the Scottsbluff Quarry. American Anthropologist 38: 521–524.Google Scholar
Sellards, E. H. 1952 Early Man in America, A Study in Prehistory. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Speth, J. D. 1983 Bison Kills and Bone Counts: Decision Making by Ancient Hunters. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Speth, J. D., and Spielmann, K. 1983 Energy Sources, Protein Metabolism, and Hunter-Gatherer Subsistence Strategies. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 2: 1–31.Google Scholar
Stanford, D. 1979 Bison Kill by Ice Age Hunters. National Geographic 155: 114–121.Google Scholar
Suhm, D. A., Krieger, A. D., and Jelks, E. B. 1954 An Introductory Handbook to Texas Archaeology. Bulletin of the Texas Archaeological and Paleontological Society 25. Austin.Google Scholar
Todd, L. C. 1987a Analysis of Kill-Butchery Bonebeds and Interpretation of Paleoindian Hunting. In The Evolution of Human Hunting, edited by Nitecki, M. H. and Nitecki, D. V., pp. 225–266. Plenum Press, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Todd, L. C. 1987b Taphonomy of the Horner II Bone Bed. In The Horner Site: The Type Site of the Cody Cultural Complex, edited by Frison, G. C. and Todd, L. C., pp. 107–198. Academic Press, Orlando.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Todd, L. C. 1989 Seasonality Studies and Paleoindian Subsistence Strategies. Paper presented at the 54th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Atlanta.Google Scholar
Todd, L. C, and Hofman, J. L. 1987 Bison Mandibles from the Homer and Finley Sites. In The Horner Site: The Type Site of the Cody Cultural Complex, edited by Frison, G. C. and Todd, L. C., pp. 493–539. Academic Press, Orlando.Google Scholar
Todd, L. C, Hofman, J. L., and Schultz, C. B. 1990 Faunal Analysis and Paleoindian Studies: The Lipscomb Bison Bonebed. Bulletin of the Texas Archeological Society 61, in press.Google Scholar
Wedel, W. R. 1961 Prehistoric Man on the Great Plains. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.Google Scholar
Wendorf, F., and Hester, J. J. 1962 Early Man's Utilization of the Great Plains Environment. American Antiquity 28: 159–171.Google Scholar
Wheat, J. B. 1972 The Olsen-Chubbuck Site: A Paleo-Indian Bison Kill. Memoir No. 26. Society for American Archaeology, Washington, D. C. Google Scholar
Wilson, M. 1974 The Casper Local Fauna and Its Fossil Bison. In The Casper Site: A Hell Gap Bison Kill on the High Plains, edited by Frison, G. C., pp. 125–171. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Wilson, M. 1980 Population Dynamics of the Gamsey Site Bison. In Late Prehistoric Bison Procurement in Southeastern New Mexico: The 1978 Season at the Gamsey Site (LA-18399), by Speth, J. D. and Parry, W. J., pp. 88–129. Technical Reports No. 12. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Wilson, M. 1983 Once Upon a River: Archaeology and Geology of the Bow River Valley at Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Archaeological Survey of Canada Paper 114. National Museum of Man Mercury Series, Ottawa.Google Scholar
Wilson, M., Frison, G. C., and Todd, L. C. 1988 Bison Dentitions from the Murray Springs Site, Arizona. Ms. in possession of authors.Google Scholar
Wormington, H. M. 1957 Ancient Man in North America. Popular Series No. 4. Denver Museum of Natural History, Denver.Google Scholar