- Bonfire Shelter
Bonfire Shelter is an
archaeological site located in a southwestTexas rock shelter. This archaeological site contains evidence of massbison hunts, a phenomenon that is usually associated with theGreat 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 toPaleo-Indian period hunts, while the later occurred in around 500 BC. The site was originally investigated by legendary Texas archaeologistDavid S. Dibble .Archaeologist
Vaughn Bryant has investigated this strange lack of intermediate hunts. Usingpollen 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 betweenclimatic change s and the archaeological evidence we can find today.References
Fagan, Brian. "Ancient North America". Thames & Hudson, London. 2005, p 125.
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