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Paleoindian Large Mammal Hunters on the Plains of North America

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Paleoindian Large Mammal Hunters on the Plains of North America Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA Vol. 95, pp. 14576–14583, November 1998 Anthropology This contribution is part of the special series of Inaugural Articles by members of the National Academy of Sciences elected April 29, 1997 Paleoindian large mammal hunters on the plains of North America GEORGE C. FRISON Department of Anthropology, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY 82071 Contributed by George C. Frison, October 2, 1998 ABSTRACT From '11,200 to 8,000 years ago, the Great animal procurement events; butchering and processing; and Plains of North America were populated by small Paleoindian the amount and distribution of food products, all of which hunting groups with well developed weaponry and the exper- could assist the archaeologist in determining the social and tise to successfully hunt large mammals, especially mammoths subsistence activities of the human groups involved. At about and bison. Mammoths became extinct on the Plains by 11,000 the same time, archaeologists also realized that a wide range years ago, and, although paleoecological conditions were of paleoecological data might provide even more information worsening, their demise may have been hastened by human on prehistoric human subsistence strategies. predation. After this, the main target of the Plains Paleoin- Since then, the multidisciplinary approach has been stan- dian hunters consisted of subspecies of bison, Bison antiquus dard procedure in archaeology. This is especially true in studies and Bison occidentalis. As bison populations gradually dimin- of the Plains Paleoindian time period, when the cultural groups ished, apparently because of worsening ecological conditions, were small and highly mobile and left behind scanty evidence by '8,000 years ago, human subsistence was forced into a of their presence, preserved in well stratified geologic contexts greater dependence on small animal and plant foods. Human only in a few ideal situations. Site visibility, site formation paleoecology studies of the Paleoindian time period rely processes, and the integrity of site deposits all became impor- heavily on multidisciplinary efforts. Geomorphologists, bot- tant in attempts to reconstruct some details of Paleoindian anists, soil scientists, palynologists, biologists, and other lifeways. Archaeologists also realized they could not effectively specialists aid archaeologists in data recovery and analysis, command knowledge of all of the specialized studies they although, with few exceptions, their contributions are derived needed. Consequently, they consulted with specialists in a from the fringes rather than the mainstream of their disci- number of other disciplines, although the information they plines. sought was usually on the fringes rather than in the mainstream of these areas. However, the demand for multidisciplinary data The time and circumstances surrounding the arrival of the first became strong enough to develop specialists such as geoar- human inhabitants of North and South America has become a chaeologists able to establish paleolandforms and evaluate the lively topic for debate (1, 2). However, the Northern Plains and integrity of cultural materials recovered in geologic deposits montane basins of the central and southern Rocky Mountains (12) and taphonomists who observe modern analogs of car- have produced some of the best preserved evidence of North nivore, scavenger, and natural modification of animal car- America’s earliest known pedestrian, large mammal hunters casses (13) and apply their findings to the Paleoindian situa- whose presence is documented during the closing years of the tion. Radiocarbon dating—in particular, the more recent Pleistocene after '11,500 years ago. Other groups, recognized accelerator mass spectrometer method in which minute or- by weaponry and tool assemblages, were present until '9,000 ganic samples produce more reliable dates than the older years ago. By 11,000 years ago, a number of large mammal method (14)—has enhanced the Paleoindian chronology species, including the mammoth, mastodon, camel, and horse greatly. This is especially important in many Paleoindian sites were extinct or nearly so, and the older subspecies of bison where even small amounts of culturally derived charcoal in would follow soon after. The search for an explanation of these reliable contexts are rare. Greater accuracy in bone dating has Pleistocene extinctions has been another lively and controver- been developed through isolating individual amino acids, removing contaminates, and dating the results by accelerator sial topic for paleontologists, biologists, geologists, and nu- mass spectrometry (15). merous other specialists for several decades (3, 4). The debate turns on whether the late Pleistocene extinctions were the The High Plains Paleoindian Chronology results of paleoecological changes, human predation, or a mixture of both. The problem shows no signs of an immediate Our knowledge of the chronology of Paleoindian hunting resolution (5–7). groups is based on stratigraphy and radiocarbon dates as well The confirmation in the 1920s of human presence with an as on morphological and technological changes in weaponry extinct subspecies of bison at the Folsom site in northern New and tool assemblages. The data are recovered in locations of Mexico (8) and the mammoth at the Dent site in Colorado (9) human activity or sites named after a variety of situations, as well as the Blackwater Draw site in eastern New Mexico including their geographic locations, land owners, and indi- shortly afterward (10, 11) drew archaeologists into the subject viduals first credited with their discovery. Four stratified, of Pleistocene extinctions. However, they addressed problems multicomponent sites, Blackwater Draw in eastern New Mex- differently from most specialists of the Pleistocene and focused ico (16); Hell Gap in southeast Wyoming (17); Agate Basin in mainly on human predator–prey relationships. These included east central Wyoming (18); and CarteryKerr–McGee in central the time of year, location, and geologic features utilized in Wyoming (19), complement each other in establishing and confirming the chronology. There are also numerous other © 1998 by The National Academy of Sciences 0027-8424y98y9514576-8$2.00y0 sites with radiocarbon-dated dated components that augment PNAS is available online at www.pnas.org. this database (Fig. 1). 14576 Downloaded by guest on September 28, 2021 Anthropology: Frison Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 95 (1998) 14577 first recognized at the Hell Gap site in southeast Wyoming (17) and better defined at the Mill Iron site in southeast Montana (20), also is recognized by a distinctive projectile point type (Fig. 3b). It may have been contemporaneous with late Clovis and early Folsom and also may have been a direct precursor of the latter. Folsom, best known from the Lindenmeier site in Colorado (21), added the distinctive flutes to their weaponry (Fig. 3c), which may have had both functional and ritual purposes (22). Overlapping with Folsom is the Agate Basin complex, as defined by the bison kill site of this name in east central Wyoming (18). It is identified by a projectile point very different but apparently every bit as lethal as the preceding ones (Fig. 3d). The Hell Gap complex first was recognized at the site with the same name in southeast Wyoming (17) and appears to have developed directly out of the immediately preceding Agate Basin. Several bison kills (23, 24) confirm the expertise of Hell Gap hunters and the efficiency of their weaponry (Fig. 3e). The Alberta complex introduced different but still efficient weaponry in the form of a stemmed and shouldered projectile point (Fig. 3f). First recognized in southern Alberta, Canada (25), its age and chronological position were confirmed at the Hell Gap site, as were several other Paleoindian complexes (17). A large Alberta bison kill is located in western Nebraska (26), although the procurement strategy involved is not un- derstood clearly. The Cody complex, named from the Horner site in north- west Wyoming (27), evolved directly out of Alberta. The weaponry is more varied: one part is recognized by the Eden projectile point (Fig. 3g), named after a bison kill site in FIG. 1. Locations of Paleoindian sites referred to in the text. 1, western Wyoming (28), while the other is recognized by the Agate Basin; 2, Blackwater Draw; 3, Carter–KerryMcGee; 4, Casper; Scottsbluff projectile point (Fig. 3h), named after a bison kill 5, Cattle Guard; 6, Colby; 7, Cooper; 8, Dent; 9, Finley; 10, Fletcher; in western Nebraska (29). An unmistakable diagnostic of the 11, Folsom; 12, Hell Gap; 13, Horner; 14, Hudson–Meng; 15, James Cody complex is a tool known as the Cody Knife. Allen; 16, Jones–Miller; 17, Lange–Ferguson; 18, Lindenmeier; 19, After Cody, the archaeological picture on the Northern Lipscomb; 20, Mill Iron; 21, Olsen–Chubbuck; 22, Plainview; 23, Scottsbluff. Plains and Rocky Mountains is unclear and is represented by Seven cultural complexes—Clovis, Goshen, Folsom, Agate Basin, Hell Gap, Alberta, and Cody, from oldest to youngest— comprise the known Northern Plains Paleoindian cultural groups from '11,200 years to 9,000 years before present (Fig. 2) and are identified by the imperishable stone elements of their weaponry (Fig. 3). Clovis is the only one presently known to have confirmed association with mammoth remains and is recognized by a distinctive projectile point (Fig. 3a). Goshen, FIG. 3. Paleoindian weaponry diagnostics. (a) Clovis. (b) Goshen. FIG. 2. Paleoindian
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