Bison bones are found in Columbia Plateau archaeological sites from throughout the Holocene, yet no information on people's tactics for procuring them has yet been reported. The discovery of the Tsulim Site, a 2,100-year-old bison kill near the Columbia River in central Washington, has provided the opportunity to investigate those tactics. Despite the deteriorated state of the evidence, analysis of stone artifacts, faunal remains, and site geology revealed that at least eight animals were killed in the apex of a parabolic dune during the early to mid-winter by hunters using both atlatl and bow. Local topography and meteorology make it most likely that the herd was encountered in a low paleochannel, driven northward between the limbs of the dune, up the steep channel wall, and into the kill area, a sort of inverted buffalo jump. Results not only illuminate the large-game hunting practices of the Plateau peoples, but also point out how much can be learned from disturbed, low-density scatters of debris that are often dismissed as insignificant.

Industrial and medical x-radiography can be used in a manner analogous to back-scattered electron microscopy to identify the approximate mineralogy of rock temper particles in ceramics, but without their destruction by thin-sectioning, and at low cost. Particle traits similar to those used in petrography to identify a mineral are visible in a magnified x-radiograph. The traits include particle x-radiographic gray level, which varies with a particle’s mean atomic number, specific gravity, and mineralogy; size; morphology; cleavage; and internal texture. Blind tests are made to evaluate the specificity and accuracy of the method. Its utility is shown through a study of the exchange of Ohio Middle Woodland ceramics.