NTAS 08.10.2023 Dr. Gus Costa "The Nighthawk Bison Jump: Initial Results from 2022 Test Excavations"

Описание: Guest Speaker: Dr. Gus Costa

Topic: "The Nighthawk Bison Jump (41BI564/41BI565): Initial results from the 2022 Texas Tech Test Excavations in Caprock Canyon State Park"

In 2021, THC Steward Rick Day and Susan Day located bison bones eroding out of a slope below the Caprock escarpment on the western border of Caprock Canyon State Park in Briscoe County. TAS fellow Chris Lintz in coordination with Tony Lyle, (regional TPWD archaeologist) launched a follow up reconnaissance and documented extensive bison bones in two locations: one directly below the Caprock cliff face (41BI564) and another 125 meters east (41BI565). The surfaces around these sites yielded abundant lithic chipping debris, burned rock and a handful of notched and stemmed dart points and arrowpoints. These sites were inferred to represent a Late Archaic to Late Prehistoric bison jump kill site and an adjacent processing site. Aside from Bonfire Shelter (41VV218, Val Verde county), this discovery represents the only bison jump in Texas and the broader southern plains. Realizing the significance of this find and potential loss due to ongoing erosion, TPWD collaborated with Drs. Brett Houk and Tamra Walter at Texas Tech University to organize a field school to test and salvage a sample from the sites in the Fall of 2022. This talk will review the initial results of those field investigations and ongoing conservation and analysis of the bison remains.