A University of Nebraska-Lincoln anthropology field school wrapped up its month-long stay at the Hudson-Meng bison bonebod north of Crawford over the weekend.
Professor Dr Matt Douglass says the field school operated in the hills and prairies surrounding Hudson-Meng, but also spent time in the southern Black Hills doing 3D laser scanning of rock art at Craven Canyon to try to determine how they were affected by last year’s fires.
This is the third year Douglass has conducted a field school based at Hudson-Meng, and he says last year’s fires played a big part in deciding this focus for this year’s field school because artifact visibility is “really fantastic” after fires burn away grass and other vegetation.
A key part of the field school was searching for lithics…stone tools…and one of the most exciting finds for Douglass was an archaic projectile point at least 7,000 years old.
Douglass is working on an international lithics database with other researchers in New Zealand, the U-S and Europe, and says stone tools and stone art from this area match up favorably with those from other parts in the world.
The UNL field school also excavated several pit hearths…prehistoric stoves…in the Hudson-Meng area. Douglass says several stones from them will be tested for lipids to better understand what types of foods the paleo-indians who built the pit hearths ate.
The 9 students in the field school will continue to work on those and other materials, then will write reports for the follow-up course Douglass is teaching this fall at UNL.
He’s already planning a field school for next summer based on the survey work done this summer. He says he loves to bring students to Hudson-Meng because of the wealth of archaeological resources, the great facilities, and the friendly Forest Service staff.
Hudson-Meng has the largest bison bonebed in North America with the remains of over 600 animals who died almost 10,000-years ago. It’s open daily from 9-5 through Labor Day weekend. There is a fee of $5 for adults; $4.50 for seniors, and $3 for children ages 5 – 12. Kids 4 and under are free.