A brief history of bison zooarchaeological research in eastern Washington

Abstract

In 1953 15 archaeological sites in eastern Washington State had produced remains of bison ( Bison bison). Over the following years, the growing archaeological record of bison in the area was revisited as scholars sought to determine if technology changed in response to the presence of bison, the butchering practices used to process carcasses, the demography of resident populations, the kind of activity areas with which bison remains were associated, the frequency of the animal during the Holocene, and the body size of individuals during the Holocene. In this, the study of bison remains tracks well the history of North American zooarchaeology and the history of archaeology in general. Today 70 archaeological and 10 paleontological sites are known to have produced bison remains. Restudy of the larger collections from a modern standpoint will likely reveal much about eastern Washington Holocene bison—an ecologically and biogeographically peripheral or marginal population—that has not yet been considered.