On the Significance of Cutmark Distributions at the Badger Hole Folsom Bison Arroyo Trap, Southern Plains, USA

ABSTRACT

This study assesses the components of the Cooper model of Folsom-age subsistence and mobility patterns on the North American southern Plains, through the analysis of the Badger Hole arroyo trap bison kill butchery patterns. The Cooper model proposes that a dichotomy exists in the size and seasonality of Folsom-age bison kill sites. The butchery programs associated with this dichotomy vary from limited selection of high-valued meat packages leaving nearly completely articulated skeletons at late summer/fall large-scale communal kills to the full butchery of carcasses leaving predominantly disarticulated bison elements at small kills during the rest of the year. We present the distribution of butchering evidence for the Badger Hole bison assemblage and compare the results with the Cooper site assemblages. The Badger Hole cutmark distribution pattern is consistent with that identified at the Cooper site, and supports the predictions of the Cooper model.

KEYWORDS:

• Paleoindian
• cutmarks
• bison kills
• aggregation/dispersal

Acknowledgements

Support for this project was provided by Courson Family Oil and Gas, the Oklahoma Archeological Survey, and the College of Arts and Sciences, University of Oklahoma. We thank the editor, Ted Goebel for the opportunity to publish this work in PaleoAmerica. We also thank the three anonymous peer reviewers for their comments and directions to organize this manuscript and improve clarity.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Leland Bement is a Senior Research Archaeologist at the Oklahoma Archeological Survey, University of Oklahoma. He received his PhD from the University of Texas at Austin. His primary research interest is hunter-gatherer studies and hunting technologies in North America.

Kristen Carlson is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Augustana University, Sioux Falls, South Dakota. She received her PhD from the University of Oklahoma. Her primary research interests are North American Plains cultures, bison studies, and environmental reconstructions.