Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-g7gxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T14:45:27.015Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Megafaunal Butchering at Lubbock Lake, Texas: A Taphonomic Reanalysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Lee Ann Kreutzer
Lee Ann Kreutzer*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195 USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Five seasons of excavation in Feature Area 2-1 of the Lubbock Lake Landmark, Texas, exposed a megafaunal bone accumulation in sands and gravels deposited by a late Pleistocene meandering stream. Many bone specimens exhibit evidence of alteration, supporting interpretation of the feature as an in situ, secondary meat-processing area; the gravels are interpreted as the point bar of a meandering stream. Faunal remains lying stratigraphically above the point bar have been considered to form a separate, noncultural feature produced by stream flooding. However, rose diagrams and analysis of adjusted residuals demonstrate that a statistically significant amount of bone in each feature is aligned along axes of preferred orientation. Further, the orientation patterns and statistical analyses of both features exhibit the same trends, suggesting that the same processes affected both. Although the evidence does not rule out a role of human behavior, it does demonstrate that stream currents significantly influenced feature structure.

Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 30 , Issue 2 , September 1988 , pp. 221 - 231
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Behrensmeyer, A.K., (1975). The taphonomy and paleoecology of Plio-Pleistocene vertebrate assemblages east of Lake Rudolf, Kenya. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology. 146 10 473-578.Google Scholar
Behrensmeyer, A.K., Gordon, K.D., Yanagi, G.T., (1986). Trampling as a cause of bone surface damage and pseudocut marks. Nature (London). 319, 768-771.Google Scholar
Evans, G.L., Meade, G.E., (1945). Quaternary of the Texas High Plains. University of Texas Publications. 4401, 485-507.Google Scholar
Everitt, B.S., (1977). The Analysis of Contingency Tables. Wiley, New York.Google Scholar
Fiorillo, A.R., (1984). An introduction to the identification of trample marks. Current Research in the Pleistocene. 1, 47-48.Google Scholar
Frison, G.C., (1976). Cultural activity associated with prehistoric mammoth butchering and processing. Science. 194, 728-730.Google Scholar
Green, E., (1962). The Lubbock Reservoir Site: 12,000 years of human prehistory. Journal of the West Texas Museum Association. 6, 85-183.Google Scholar
Haynes, C.V., Were Clovis progenitors in Beringia?. Hopkins, D., Matthews, J. Jr., Schweger, C., Young, S., (1982). Paleoecology of Beringia. Academic Press, New York, 383-398.Google Scholar
Haynes, C.V., (1987). Clovis origin update. Kiva. 52 2 83-93.Google Scholar
Haynes, G., (1986). Spiral fractures and cut markmimics in noncultural elephant bone assemblages. Current Research in the Pleistocene. 3, 45-46.Google Scholar
Haynes, G., (1988). Longitudinal studies of African elephant death and bone deposits. Journal of Archaeological Science. 15 2 131-157.Google Scholar
Haynes, G., Stanford, D., (1984). On the possible utilization of Camelops by Early Man in North America. Quaternary Research. 22, 216-230.Google Scholar
Hill, A., Walker, A., (1972). Procedures in vertebrate taphonomy. Journal of the Geological Society of London. 128, 399-406.Google Scholar
Holliday, V.T., Stratigraphy and soils of the Lubbock Lake Landmark area. Holliday, V.T., (1983). Guidebook to the Central Llano Estacado. International Center for Arid and Semiarid Land Studies and The Museum, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, 15-24.Google Scholar
Holliday, V.T., (1985). Archaeological geology of the Lubbock Lake Site, Southern High Plains of Texas. Geological Society of America Bulletin. 96, 1483-1492.Google Scholar
Holliday, V.T., Johnson, E., (1983). Comments on Stafford's “Alluvial geology and archaeological potential of the Texas Southern High Plains.”. American Antiquity. 48 1 151-154.Google Scholar
Holliday, V.T., Johnson, E., Haas, H., Stuckenrath, R., (1983). Radiocarbon ages from the Lubbock Lake Site, 1950–1980: Framework for cultural and ecological change on the Southern High Plains. Plains Anthropologist. 28 101 165-182.Google Scholar
Johnson, C., Geologic investigations at the Lubbock Lake Site. Black, C., (1974). The Museum Journal No. 15, History and Prehistory of the Lubbock Lake Site. West Texas Museum Association, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, 43-78.Google Scholar
Johnson, E., (1976). Investigations into the Zooarchaeology of the Lubbock Lake Site. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. Texas Tech University, Lubbock.Google Scholar
Johnson, E., Lubbock Lake Paleoindian record. Holliday, V.T., (1983). Guidebook to the Central Llano Estacado. International Center for Arid and Semi-arid Land Studies and The Museum, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, 81-105.Google Scholar
Johnson, E., . Current developments in bone technology. Schiffer, M.B., (1985). Advances in Archaeological Method and Theory. Vol. 8 Academic Press, New York, 157-235.Google Scholar
Johnson, E., (1986). Late Pleistocene and early Holocene vertebrates and paleoenvironments on the Southern High Plains, U.S.A.. Geographie Physique et Quaternaire. 40 3 249-261.Google Scholar
Johnson, E., (1987). Lubbock Lake: Late Quaternary Studies on the Southern High Plains. Texas A&M Univ. Press, College Station.Google Scholar
Johnson, E., Holliday, V.T., (1979). Prehistoric life on the Southern High Plains of Texas. Archaeology. 32 2 60-61.Google Scholar
Johnson, E., Holliday, V.T., (1985). A Clovis-age megafaunal processing station at the Lubbock Lake Landmark. Current Research in the Pleistocene. 2, 17-19.Google Scholar
Johnson, E., Holliday, V.T., Kreutzer, L., (1987). Significance of bone orientation data for the Clovis-age bone bed at the Lubbock Lake Landmark. Current Research in the Pleistocene. 4, 77-78.Google Scholar
Johnson, E., Shipman, P., (1986). Scanning electron microscope studies of bone modification. Current Research in the Pleistocene. 3, 47-48.Google Scholar
Kreutzer, L.A., (1986). Cultural vs. Natural Bone Deposition in Feature Area 2-1, Lubbock Lake Site. University of Washington, Unpublished Master's paper.Google Scholar
Sellards, E.H., (1952). Early Man in America. Univ. of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Shipman, P., (1977). Paleoecology, Taphonomic History and Population Dynamics of the Vertebrate Assemblege from the Middle Miocene of Fort Ternan, Kenya. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis. New York University.Google Scholar
Shipman, P., (1981). Life History of a Fossil: An Introduction to Taphonomy and Paleoecology. Harvard Univ. Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Shipman, P., Walker, A., Van Couvering, J.A., Hooker, P.J., Miller, J.A., (1981). The Fort Ternan hominoid site, Kenya: Geology, age, taphonomy and paleoecology. Journal of Human Evolution. 10, 1-28.Google Scholar
Stafford, T.W. Jr., (1981). Alluvial geology and archaeological potential of the Texas Southern High Plains. American Antiquity. 46 3 548-565.Google Scholar
Stafford, T.W. Jr., (1983). Geoarchaeology of the Texas Southern High Plains: A reply to Holliday and Johnson. American Antiquity. 48 1 155-157.Google Scholar
Sundborg, A., (1956). The river Klaralven: A study of fluvial processes. Geografiska Annaler. 38, 125-316.Google Scholar
Todd, L., Frison, G., Taphonomic study of the Colby Site mammoth bones. Frison, G., Todd, L., (1986). The Colby Mammoth Site: Taphonomy and Archaeology of a Clovis Kill in Northern Wyoming. Univ. New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, 27-90.Google Scholar
Toots, H., (1965). Orientation and distribution of fossils as environmental indicators. Wyoming Geological Association Guidebook. 219-229, 19th field conference.Google Scholar
Voorhies, M., (1969). Taphonomy population dynamics of an early Pliocene vertebrate fauna, Knox County, Nebraska. University of Wyoming Contributions to Geology Special Paper. No. 1.Google Scholar
Wendorf, F., The Lubbock subpluvial. Dort, W. Jr., Jones, J.K. Jr., (1970). Pleistocene and Recent Environments of the Central Great Plains. Univ. Kansas Press, Lawrence, 23-36.Google Scholar
Wendorf, F., Hester, J., (1975). Late Pleistocene environments of the Southern High Plains. Fort Burgwin Research Center Publication. No. 9.Google Scholar