Fire Reveals Human Stone Effigy, Bison-Kill Site in Montana

T-Bob

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Great article about prehistoric bison hunters of the High Plains and what they left behind:

A grass fire in northern Montana has uncovered an ancient complex of stone alignments and other features that have likely not been seen for centuries — and certainly never from the air.

The features emerging from the blackened plains appear to have served both ceremonial and practical uses, forming a site that land managers described as "exceedingly rare and unique."

Among the formations are two large effigies —or figures made from arrangements of stones — one of a human and the other, perhaps, of a turtle.

The burn also exposed six rock cairns, a multitude of stone tipi rings, and dozens of so-called drive lines — alignments of large boulders that ancient hunters used to chase bison into a killing pen.

Some of these formations had been identified in the 1960s, as part of a prehistoric bison-hunting camp known as the Henry Smith site, but they were never extensively recorded, and their full extent remained obscured by the prairie.

Partial excavations at the time revealed a portion of the impoundment where the animals were trapped, as well as butchering tools and stemmed stone points that were indicative of a cultural complex from the Northern Plains known as the Avonlea phase.

The artifacts — along with radiocarbon dates from six discrete layers of cast-off bison remains — showed that the site was used regularly from 770 to 1040 CE.

Read the complete article here: Fire Reveals Human Stone Effigy, Bison-Kill Site in Montana