The Palaeoindian Bison Assemblage from Charlie Lake Cave, British Columbia

A small assemblage of bison bones from the Palaeoindian (10,700 to 9500 BP) components at Charlie Lake Cave, British Columbia is dominated by elements from the middle and lower limbs. The skeletal element frequencies are not typical of a kill site. The lithic assemblage, the lack of evidence for bur...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Canadian journal of archaeology 2008-07, Vol.32 (2), p.239-257
Main Authors: Driver, Jonathan C., Vallières, Claudine
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
America and Arctic regions
Archaeology
Bison
Bone density
Bones
Buffalo
Caves
Environmental studies
Fauna
Generalities
Geological time
Hunter gatherers
Long bones
Mammals
Meats
Methodology and general studies
North America
Paleontology
Prehistory and protohistory
Research Report
Sediments
Skeleton
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Summary:A small assemblage of bison bones from the Palaeoindian (10,700 to 9500 BP) components at Charlie Lake Cave, British Columbia is dominated by elements from the middle and lower limbs. The skeletal element frequencies are not typical of a kill site. The lithic assemblage, the lack of evidence for burning, and the ratio of long bone shaft fragments to epiphyses suggest that the assemblage was not produced at a residential site nor at a specialized processing area. We propose that the assemblage resulted from storage of frozen bison limbs in a series of meat caches, probably located in a small cave that would have been difficult for scavengers to enter. Un petit assemblage d'ossements de bison provenant des composantes paléoindiennes (10,700 à 9500 AA) du site Charlie Lake Cave, Colombie-Britannique, est dominé par des éléments des membres inférieurs et moyens. Les fréquences d'éléments squelettiques ne sont pas typiques d'un site de tuerie. L'assemblage lithique, l'absence d'indice de feu, et le ratio entre les fragments de diaphyses d'os longs et les épiphyses suggèrent que l'assemblage n'est ni le produit d'un site résidentiel, ni celui d'une aire de boucherie spécialisée. Nous proposons que cet assemblage reflète l'entreposage de membres de bison gelés dans une série de caches à viande, probablement localisées dans une petite cave, difficilement accessible aux charognards.
ISSN:0705-2006
2816-2293