ICE PATCH HUNTING IN THE GREATER YELLOWSTONE AREA, ROCKY MOUNTAINS, USA: WOOD SHAFTS, CHIPPED STONE PROJECTILE POINTS, AND BIGHORN SHEEP (OVIS CANADENSIS)

Abstract

Ice patches and the alpine are important elements of the sociocultural landscape of the Greater Yellowstone Area, and they transcend the jurisdictional boundaries that divide the lands on which they occur. The ice patch record complements traditional sources of archaeological knowledge through the addition of well-dated organic artifacts, such as shafts from hunting tools, recovered in a readily recognizable context. This paper examines the types of wood used in the manufacture of hunting implements recovered at Greater Yellowstone Area ice patches through the analysis of nine unique wooden shafts and shaft fragments from five sites. Five shafts are birch (Betulaspp.), two are willow (Salixspp.), one is fir (Abiessp.), and one is pine (Pinussp.). The shafts included in this analysis range in age from 9230 ± 25 B.P. to 215 ± 20 B.P. Diagnostic Oxbow and Pelican Lake chipped stone projectile points recovered in association with ice patches provide additional temporal resolution regarding use of these features. One of the four sites that yielded wooden shafts contains a record of bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis) hunting between 3885 ± 25 B.P. and 879 ± 23 B.P.

The chronology of reindeer hunting on Norway's highest ice patches

“…In other contexts environmental change is thought to affect regional demographic patterns, with population pressure then influencing the use of high-elevation areas [ 14 , 15 ]. Alternatively, climate has been interpreted as a mediator of alpine resource distributions, drawing game animals such as reindeer, bighorn sheep and vicuña (and thus their hunters) to varying elevations [ 4 , 7 , 16 , 17 ]. In a Norwegian context, episodically colder temperatures may for example have made reindeer available to ice-patch hunters at lower elevations (below the zone of surviving archaeological ice-patch finds) [ 7 ].…”

Radiocarbon Dating of Technological Transitions: The Late Holocene Shift From Atlatl to Bow in Northwestern Subarctic Canada

“…Changes in projectile point size do not necessarily reflect a shift in the technologies used to propel them, as the presence of fletching (Hughes 1998:367) and/or the use of poison (see Jones 2007) might allow for decreased dart point sizes without diminishing hunting effectiveness. Empirically defining the chronological shape of this transition, therefore, requires a large sample of radiocarbon dates on diagnostic, organic portions of weapons systems, a feat rarely accomplished thus far (but see, e.g., Andrews, MacKay, and Andrew 2012; Hare et al 2004; Hare et al 2012; Keddie and Nelson 2005; Kuzyk et al 1999; Lee and Puseman 2017; Reckin 2013 and references therein; Vanderhoek et al 2012).…”

Computational Photography, 3-D Modeling, and Online Publication of Basketry for Cache Cave, California

“…For the analysis of basketry in a poor state of preservation, 3-D digitization is highly recommended because of the possible damage incurred during lifting, transporting, and storing. For example, Craig M. Lee and colleagues have been documenting baskets and other perishable artifacts emerging from melting ice patches in the greater Yellowstone area of Montana and Wyoming (personal communication to E. Jolie 2018; Lee and Puseman 2017). In situ documentation enables a better understanding of the major alterations taking place during and after excavation and facilitates improved postexcavation analyses of baskets and other perishable artifacts by perishables analysts or conservators in the lab.…”