Prehistoric Bison Hunters of the Southern Plains (USA): Grasslands, Canyons, Bone Beds, and Spear Points - Tapa blanda

Bison as a food source for southern Plains cultures has fluxed through the millennia. The focus on bison is likely correlated to available forage. Environment-induced changes in herd size, structure and distribution led to changes in human predation. The Late Archaic saw the rise of a unique type of bison procurement, the arroyo trap. Traps were used for a relatively short period (150 BC to AD 350). Instead of leading herds over a precipice, herds were stampeded into dead-end canyons where they were assailed. These cooperative ventures are reflected in the bones removed from and the stones and bones abandoned at the kill. The risk and energy needed to exploit this resource transformed Late Archaic hunter-gatherers from loosely affiliated groups into a taskforce that assembled seasonally to track, drive, kill, dismember, debone and transport their quarry back to their individual kin groups. This study should be useful to those interested in Great Plains prehistory, applying hunter-gatherer theory, or employing archaeological methods and techniques used to excavate, analyze and interpret skeletal remains associated with a catastrophic kill.

K.C. Kraft, PhD has been an archaeologist since 1987, much of his career being spent in New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. Kraft's publications range from geology and paleontology to anthropology and history. Kraft is state archaeologist for the United States Department of Agriculture in Oklahoma and is editor of "Oklahoma Archaeology."