Bonfire Shelter
Encyclopedia
Bonfire Shelter is an archaeological site located in a southwest Texas
rock shelter, near Langtry, Texas
. This archaeological site contains evidence of mass bison
hunts, a phenomenon that is usually associated with the Great Plains
hundreds of miles to the north. This site is the southernmost site where mass bison hunts have taken place. These hunts were "bison jumps
" which involved stampeding a herd of bison over a cliff, and then butchering the dead animals. In the shelter, there are two distinct zones of bison bones. Each zone represents several bison jumps over relatively little time, perhaps no more than 50–100 years, but the two zones occurred nearly 7500 years apart. The earlier bones are dated to Paleo-Indian period hunts, while the later occurred in around 500 BC. The site was originally investigated by legendary Texas archaeologist David S. Dibble.
Archaeologist Vaughn Bryant has investigated this strange lack of intermediate hunts. Using pollen
samples, he discovered that the area had only seen good grass cover for grazing two times since 10,000 BC, and that each time coincided with a deposit of bones. At other times, this area was too inhospitable to support large herds of grazing animals. Bonfire Shelter demonstrates the correlation between climatic change
s and the archaeological evidence we can find today.
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
rock shelter, near Langtry, Texas
Langtry, Texas
Langtry is an unincorporated community in Val Verde County, Texas, United States. The community is notable as the place where "Judge" Roy Bean, the "Law West of the Pecos", had his saloon and practiced a kind of law.-History:...
. This archaeological site contains evidence of mass bison
Bison
Members of the genus Bison are large, even-toed ungulates within the subfamily Bovinae. Two extant and four extinct species are recognized...
hunts, a phenomenon that is usually associated with the Great Plains
Great Plains
The Great Plains are a broad expanse of flat land, much of it covered in prairie, steppe and grassland, which lies west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States and Canada. This area covers parts of the U.S...
hundreds of miles to the north. This site is the southernmost site where mass bison hunts have taken place. These hunts were "bison jumps
Buffalo jump
A buffalo jump is a cliff formation which North American Indians historically used in mass killings of plains bison. Hunters herded the bison and drove them over the cliff, breaking their legs and rendering them immobile. Tribe members waiting below closed in with spears and bows to finish the kills...
" which involved stampeding a herd of bison over a cliff, and then butchering the dead animals. In the shelter, there are two distinct zones of bison bones. Each zone represents several bison jumps over relatively little time, perhaps no more than 50–100 years, but the two zones occurred nearly 7500 years apart. The earlier bones are dated to Paleo-Indian period hunts, while the later occurred in around 500 BC. The site was originally investigated by legendary Texas archaeologist David S. Dibble.
Archaeologist Vaughn Bryant has investigated this strange lack of intermediate hunts. Using pollen
Pollen
Pollen is a fine to coarse powder containing the microgametophytes of seed plants, which produce the male gametes . Pollen grains have a hard coat that protects the sperm cells during the process of their movement from the stamens to the pistil of flowering plants or from the male cone to the...
samples, he discovered that the area had only seen good grass cover for grazing two times since 10,000 BC, and that each time coincided with a deposit of bones. At other times, this area was too inhospitable to support large herds of grazing animals. Bonfire Shelter demonstrates the correlation between climatic change
Climatic Change
Climatic Change is a scientific journal published by Springer Science+Business Media. It deals with the problems of climatic variability and change...
s and the archaeological evidence we can find today.