10,000 Years in the Rocky Mountains: The Helen Lookingbill Site

Abstract

Located in a spring-fed meadow at 2620 masl, Helen Lookingbill is a stratified, high-altitude open site in the Washakie Range of the Absaroka Mountains in NW Wyoming. The site contains cultural material ranging in age from Paleoindian through Late Prehistoric periods. Although the densest cultural deposits date to the Early Archaic (8000–5000 b.p., uncalibrated), other time periods are well represented. A 10,400 year old layer comprises the earliest component (Haskett/Hell Gap) in the main excavation area; above it is a series of Late Paleoindian, Early Archaic, later Archaic, and Late Prehistoric components. The major materials at the site are chipped stone and bone, while a deer bone bed dating between 6500 and 6800 b.p. is contained within the main excavation block. In addition to deet; the site contains the remains of mountain sheep, bison, porcupine, and other mammals. Located on and near both quartzite and chert stone sources, the mountain meadow served as a prehistoric camp site and yielded evidence of tool production, heat treatment, refurbishing, and use. Interdisciplinary research provides much information pertinent to understanding the nature of site occupation with implications for regional cultural dynamics, high altitude hunter-gatherer adaptations, and site formation processes.