Dramatic climatic changes at the close of the Pleistocene resulted in extinctions as well as fundamental reorganization of ecological communities some 13,000 years ago (11,000 rcybp). It was during this period that the vast region recognized today as the Great Plains developed. Expansion of grassland dominated environments and rapid increase in bison populations, filling the niche left by the extinction of other grazing herbivores such as mammoth, horses, and camels, set the stage for the first human groups to utilize the Plains environment. These Paleoindian people, as archaeologists refer to them, developed economic, technological, and social systems well suited to the mobile life of pedestrian bison hunting.

Aerial view of excavations at the Waugh site – 34HP42

Investigations of the bison kill sites and campsites of these early peoples have resulted in development of substantial collections in Archaeology. This fieldwork and research extends back to 1895 with work at the 12 Mile Creek site in Logan County. Numerous other sites and collections also reflect varied studies of bones, stone artifacts, and sediments at the sites of these earliest people of the Great Plains. Collections from various research projects and field schools which have focused on this period include Waugh, Howard Gully, and the Bethel Locality, Oklahoma; Lipscomb and Shifting Sands in Texas; and Norton, Winger, Gardiner, Burntwood Creek, Claussen, Vincent-Donovan, and the Kanorado locality in Kansas.  The degree of mobility in the central Plains during this time is reflected in part by the movement of lithic materials.  The long distance movement of high-quality cherts is characteristic of Plains Paleoindian adaptations, as noted by the recovery of raw materials from sources thousands of miles from the western Kansas localities.

Point recovered from the Kanorado Locality

Investigations at these sites has been the focus of both KU Anthropology Department fieldschools and Odyssey Geomorphology fieldschools over the past 10 years.  Combined, these approaches have documented ancient land surfaces that date to Early and Middle Holocene time periods and direct evidence of cultural occupations.  Sites are identified as bison kill localities, habitation areas, and combinations of both.  The distribution of sites across the central High Plains, dating from ca 12,000 to 9000 BP, demonstrates a greater density of sites than previously known.  Data from the habitation sites provides a greater appreciation of the complexity and diversity in the adaptations; data that is often lacking from kill sites.

Excavations at Kanorado Locality, Sherman County, Kansas