Hell Gap: Paleo-Indian Occupation on the High Plains

Irwin-Williams, Cynthia; Irwin, Henry T.; Agogino, George A.; Haynes, C. Vance

doi:10.1080/2052546.1973.11908649

Cited by 53 publications

(50 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…The data are recovered in locations of human activity or sites named after a variety of situations, including their geographic locations, land owners, and individuals first credited with their discovery. Four stratified, multicomponent sites, Blackwater Draw in eastern New Mexico (16); Hell Gap in southeast Wyoming (17); Agate Basin in east central Wyoming (18); and Carter͞Kerr-McGee in central Wyoming (19), complement each other in establishing and confirming the chronology. There are also numerous other sites with radiocarbon-dated dated components that augment this database (Fig.…”

Section: The High Plains Paleoindian Chronologymentioning

confidence: 98%

“…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 understood clearly.…”

Section: The High Plains Paleoindian Chronologymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…3a). Goshen, 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).…”

Section: The High Plains Paleoindian Chronologymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Paleoindian large mammal hunters on the plains of North America

Frison

1998

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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From Ϸ11,200 to 8,000 years ago, the Great Plains of North America were populated by small Paleoindian hunting groups with well developed weaponry and the expertise to successfully hunt large mammals, especially mammoths and bison. Mammoths became extinct on the Plains by 11,000 years ago, and, although paleoecological conditions were worsening, their demise may have been hastened by human predation. After this, the main target of the Plains Paleoindian hunters consisted of subspecies of bison, Bison antiquus and Bison occidentalis. As bison populations gradually diminished, apparently because of worsening ecological conditions, by Ϸ8,000 years ago, human subsistence was forced into a greater dependence on small animal and plant foods. Human paleoecology studies of the Paleoindian time period rely heavily on multidisciplinary efforts. Geomorphologists, botanists, soil scientists, palynologists, biologists, and other specialists aid archaeologists in data recovery and analysis, although, with few exceptions, their contributions are derived from the fringes rather than the mainstream of their disciplines.The time and circumstances surrounding the arrival of the first human inhabitants of North and South America has become a lively topic for debate (1, 2). However, the Northern Plains and montane basins of the central and southern Rocky Mountains have produced some of the best preserved evidence of North America's earliest known pedestrian, large mammal hunters whose presence is documented during the closing years of the Pleistocene after Ϸ11,500 years ago. Other groups, recognized by weaponry and tool assemblages, were present until Ϸ9,000 years ago. By 11,000 years ago, a number of large mammal species, including the mammoth, mastodon, camel, and horse were extinct or nearly so, and the older subspecies of bison would follow soon after. The search for an explanation of these Pleistocene extinctions has been another lively and controversial topic for paleontologists, biologists, geologists, and numerous other specialists for several decades (3, 4). The debate turns on whether the late Pleistocene extinctions were the results of paleoecological changes, human predation, or a mixture of both. The problem shows no signs of an immediate resolution (5-7).The confirmation in the 1920s of human presence with an extinct subspecies of bison at the Folsom site in northern New Mexico (8) and the mammoth at the Dent site in Colorado (9) as well as the Blackwater Draw site in eastern New Mexico shortly afterward (10, 11) drew archaeologists into the subject of Pleistocene extinctions. However, they addressed problems differently from most specialists of the Pleistocene and focused mainly on human predator-prey relationships. These included the time of year, location, and geologic features utilized in animal procurement events; butchering and processing; and the amount and distribution of food products, all of which could assist the archaeologist in determining the social and subsistence activities of the human groups i...

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Section: The High Plains Paleoindian Chronologymentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: The High Plains Paleoindian Chronologymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Paleoindian large mammal hunters on the plains of North America

Frison

1998

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…Although in some cases colonization may be indistinguishable from exploration, there are certain characteristics that appear in successfully colonized localities; for example, development redundant pathways linking key resources to persistent campsites, progressively longer tenures in a single place (e.g., Bamforth et al, 2005;Hill, 2005;Surovell et al, 2005;Wilmsen and Roberts, 1984); or reoccupation of key places by successive, perhaps unrelated groups that returned and briefly occupied the same area over long periods of time (e.g., Boldurian and Cotter, 1999;Irwin-Williams et al, 1973;Larson et al, 2009;Johnson, 1987;Sellet, 2001). Generally, colonized localities may become territorial cores, as suggested by the presence of large sites in the Northeast (e.g., Dincauze, 1993), Great Lakes (Roosa, 1977;Shott, 1993), and Plains (Kornfeld et al, 2009), or at least remain within the periphery of landscape knowledge to be transferred to future generations.…”

Section: Time 2: Colonizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Agency and politics in hunter-gatherer territory formation

Zedeño

Anderson

2010

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Discussions of territoriality in prehistory that link ownership, exclusion, and privilege to the development of complex social systems are seldom relevant for explaining hunter-gatherer territorial organization. It is necessary, therefore, to address huntergatherer territoriality from a perspective that is uniquely tailored to their land use patterns, social networks, and political agencies. By building a model of territory formation that explicitly incorporates mobility and other key aspects of hunter-gatherer lifeways, this article demonstrates that political territoriality is present at the time of first arrival of a human group into an uninhabited area, developing and expanding through time. A brief example from the initial colonization of North America illustrates main points.Key woRDS: territory formation, hunter-gatherers, Paleoindian, agency, mobility ReSUMoDiscussões sobre territorialidade na pré-história que ligam propriedade, exclusão e privilégio ao desenvolvimento de sistemas sociais complexos são raramente relevantes para explicar a organização territorial de caçadores-coletores. Portanto, é necessário abordar a territorialidade de caçadores-coletores de uma perspectiva que é exclusivamente voltada para seus padrões de usufruto da terra, para suas redes sociais e para a agência política dos mesmos. Através da construção de um modelo de formação territorial que incorpora, de forma explicita, a mobilidade e outros elementos chaves referentes aos modos-de-vida dos caçadores-coletores, este artigo demonstrará que polí-ticas de territorialidade encontram-se presentes desde o momento da primeira chegada de um grupo humano a uma área desabitada, expandindo-se e desenvolvendo-se através do tempo. Um breve exemplo da colonização inicial da América do Norte ilustrará os pontos principais.

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“…"Both camels and llamas were common in North American Pleistocene time but became extinct at the end of the epoch" (Kurten and Anderson 1980:301). Although there is no direct association between these bones and prehistoric peoples within the project area, Camelops remains have been recovered from a number of Paleo-Indian sites (e.g., Agogino and Galloway 1965;Irwin-Williams et al 1973;Frison et al 1978); therefore, the occurrence of Clovis and Folsom points and Pleistocene mammals, such as Camelidae, within the Harlan County Lake area are suggestive of the possible presence of Paleo-Indian kill and butchering sites.…”

Section: Procyon Lotor (Raccoon) -25hn36: 2 Specimensmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prehistoric and Historic Cultural Resources of Selected Sites at Harlan County Lake, Harlan County, Nebraska: Test Excavations and Determination of Significance for 28 Sites

Adair¹,

Brown²

1987

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Hell Gap: Paleo-Indian Occupation on the High Plains

Cited by 53 publications

References 3 publications

Paleoindian large mammal hunters on the plains of North America

Paleoindian large mammal hunters on the plains of North America

Agency and politics in hunter-gatherer territory formation

Prehistoric and Historic Cultural Resources of Selected Sites at Harlan County Lake, Harlan County, Nebraska: Test Excavations and Determination of Significance for 28 Sites

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