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Archeology 201 Final Project

Introduction

Head Smashed in Buffalo Jump, located in Alberta Canada, is one of the world's largest and best

preserved buffalo jumps known to exist. For more than 5,500 years, aboriginal people of the plains

have used this Cliff to trap and kill bison. Early Hunters recognized the potential in the topography of

this location, as an ideal site for killing bison, truly exhibiting the ingenuity of aboriginal people to

hunt efficiently, despite their lack of sophisticated weapons. “West of the cliff lies a large
drainage

basin 40 square km in extent. This is a natural grazing area with plenty of water
and mixed grass

which remains fresh well into the fall. This natural grazing area attracted herds of
buffalo late into the

fall.”(Head Smashed in Buffalo Jump Interpretative Centre, 2008). Below the cliff
provided a source

of fresh water and shelter for the hunters. Although Head Smashed in Buffalo Jump was

historically used to herd the bison over the edge of a precipice, and harvest the dead carcasses in the

camp below. Head Smashed in Buffalo Jump now remains as a priceless plethora of useful artifacts, for

archaeologists to analyse and study to better understand the plains aboriginal people. As this World

Heritage Site becomes ever the more popular, tourist transportation and facilitation are becoming a

necessity within the area, which means to a certain extent, the agitation of the surrounding artifacts. In

order to ensure the preservation of delicate artifacts that will be useful in the continued study of the

aboriginal plains people, the proposed area of disturbance must be checked for artifacts so as not to

destroy or lose valuable archaeological sites and artifacts. The most important of artifacts still being
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studied today is the actual camps rather than the kill sites within the Head Smashed In area. The

proposed development of a Bus Facility poses a threat to unseen artifacts, thus, two localities will be

tested to determine the archaeological value of the site in order to decide if the proposed bus facility

should proceed as planned.

Methods

In order to properly determine whether or not the proposed bus facility would interfere with the

surrounding artifacts two strategically picked test excavation locations where chosen in order to check

if the proposed area had potentially important artifacts such as camp sites of previous hunters. The test

excavations consisted of 2 x 2 meter squares dug into the ground up to 30 cm deep. These test sites

where excavated using brushes, broom pans, and trowels to ensure that all artifacts would be

discovered within the test site. Each artifact that was recovered was catalogued recording its

provenience, description, and catalogue number for later studying. After each artifact was recorded a

graph showing the location and type of artifact was drawn, to better understand what previously

occurred at the select location. Select artifacts where sent to the lab for thermoluminescent and

radiocarbon dating, in order to determine the relative age of the discovered artifacts. A decision could

now be made based upon the scientific data collected as to whether a bus facility could be put into

place without disturbing important artifacts and potential excavation sites. These Methods where very

appropriate in determining potential archaeological sites. Many tipi rings, and buffalo bones still reside

above the ground around Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump. These type of sites are obvious

archaeological sites, where as what lies beneath the ground hidden until discovered is what potentially
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can be a very important site because they will be older, and better preserved, with relatively perfect

provenience. By choosing two separate sites within the proposed area, you increase your chances of

finding an archeological site, and decrease your chances of overturning a site during construction.

Other forms of identifying archaeological sites that might have aided in choosing optimal dig sites

would be to use technology such as Ground penetrating radar to identify the common shape of what

could be a tipi ring or a kill site.

Interpretation

After excavating Location 1 Level 1, cataloguing all of the artifacts and and plotting the points

of the artifacts onto a graph (colour coated based upon identity) I soon discovered that Location 1

Level 1 resembled a tipi. If you look at Artifacts: R1, R2, R3, R4, R12, and R6 within The graph of

Location 1 Level 1 you can see that they are shaped in a crescent which resembles a tipi ring. The side

that is open on the crescent faces towards the east blocking out the harsh western wind, which is quite

important with Alberta's variable temperatures (Vickers 1986: 7). The rocks mentioned above are fairly

large in size making them good weights for the edge of a tipi. Drawing attention to the middle of the

graph there is a smaller ring of rocks: R7, R8, R9, R5, R1, R10 of which encompass small pieces of

burnt wood: K1, K2, K3, K4. When you put these two sets of artifacts together you would get what

looks like it might have been a small fire pit within the tipi.

The next set of artifacts are the ceramics: C3, C4, C5, C6, and C7 are all made by the plains

aboriginal people with a paddle and anvil technique. C1 and C2 are more recent ceramics because they

have glaze and are wheel thrown. These bits of ceramics most likely belong to a more recent time
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frame possibly within the last 150 years.

There are five bones lying within the tipi ring 4 of which are bison bones and one of which is a

deer antler most likely used as a soft hammer. The deer antler is most definitely been used as a tool

because the Natives would not need a deer for meat considering they were camping yet they would

need it as a tool.

There are some small lithic tools and projectile points within the South West corner of the map

would be possible possibly an area where they where making tools and or storing tools for cutting up

bison.

Although most artifacts within this excavation are typical of the plains aboriginal people, there

are a few items within the South East sector of the tipi which shows more modern technology,

specifically: M1, M2, M3, M4, M5. Out of these artifacts the most important to look at is M4 which is

a used bullet shell. M4 shows a large difference in time between the projectile points above and the

modern bullets found in the same tipi. This shows that the same tipi ring has continually been used over

long periods of time. The shell casing for a bullet is a relatively new it only came into use within the

late 1800's and the early 1900's which shows that perhaps the natives, although still using old tipi rings,

began adopting new techniques to hunt such as a rifle.

M5 is a glass bottle top, which is also somewhat modern debris, relative to how long Head

Smashed In has been used. Natives most likely picked up this Glass bottle top and the other glass piece,

M1, through trade with immigrants to North America. Glass blowing was not a skill that the Plains

aboriginal people ever acquired. The Glass remnants within the tipi also could lead to the possibility of

a people other than natives using the area.

In conclusion Location 1 Level 1 proved to be a campsite that has had multiple uses over the

years and is most definitely an important archaeological dig site should be excavated further in order to
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fully understand what has gone on over the years in that area.

Within Location 2 Level 6 the entire level is covered in silt meaning that a stream has flown

over this site at one time which would have destroyed the original provenience of the site making

perfect interpretation very difficult. This site contains plenty of bones and because it is covered in silt

the bones are very well preserved (Reeves 1978:157). Yet this site is still most definitely a kill site. The

characteristics of this site that lead me to believe this is that the site only contained Bison bones,

projectile points, and knifes. The majority of the bones within this site are fractured or incomplete in

some way or another making it a definitive place of death for the bison after they have been ran off of

Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump. Within this kill site there is 29 identified specimens and the minimum

number of individuals would be 4.

The possibility that the Plains Aboriginal people travelled annually to Head Smashed In is very

high. Lodged in L5, L1, L12, L15 is Knife River Flint which comes from North Dakota. This would

mean that the Aboriginal Plains people travel or trade long distances.

In conclusion Location 2 Level 6 is a kill site that has most likely been covered by a river that

has previously dried up leaving the remains of the kill site covered in the silt. This site would be quite

beneficial to researchers because they could study the projectile points in order to see what types of

Tribes hunted in the Head Smashed In area.

Recommendations

If construction of bus facilities was to proceed within the proposed area it would stir up

important artifacts that are still archaeologically beneficial. No further archaeological work is needed at

this site to determine whether or not a bus facility may proceed to be built here. A bus facility should

not be built if they wish to preserve artifacts that will be beneficial to further archaeological studies.

However I would recommend that further archaeological studies ensue, so as to ensure that the site can
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be fully understood and so that artifacts can be fully protected. As Reeves said in his Head Smashed in

Buffalo jump report, “The campsite debris is thickest near the kill.”(Reeves 1978:154)

Bibliography

Unesco World Heritage Site

Reeves, Brian
1978 Head Smashed In Report 5500 Years of Bison Jumping In The Alberta
Plains Pg 154

Reeves, Brian
1978 Head Smashed In Report 5500 Years of Bison Jumping In The Alberta
Plains Pg 157

Vickers J Roderick
1986 Alberta Plains Prehistory A Review Archaeological Survey of Alberta
Occasional Paper 27, Edmonton