Digging Deep into the Summer Activities at Bull Creek (34BV176): A Late Paleoindian Site in the Southern Plains

Abstract

The Bull Creek site (34BV176), located along a tributary of the Beaver River in the Oklahoma Panhandle, belongs to a short list of late Paleoindian open-habitation camps. Events at Bull Creek are superimposed on one another. No clear refuse area (such as a midden, palimpsest, or dump) is evident, leaving the idea that the entirety of Bull Creek is in its’ original context, abandoned on at least three separate occasions. To better understand the activities resulting in the artifactual and feature components of the archaeological record, I relied on the methods of ring analysis, the refit analysis of bone artifacts, animal protein residue and plant/starch analysis on lithic artifacts, 3D rendering, and experimental butchering. The spatial distribution of the remains from a single bison were plotted and investigated in relationship with other site materials, including a hearth, a lithic hammerstone/anvil couplet, and an isolated bone tool, resulting in the conclusion that site materials identify the animal butchering, animal processing, and plant processing around a central hearth feature.