Date of Award:

12-2024

Document Type:

Thesis

Degree Name:

Master of Science (MS)

Department:

Geosciences

Committee Chair(s)

Tammy M. Rittenour

Committee

Tammy M. Rittenour

Committee

Kenneth P. Cannon

Committee

Joel L. Pederson

Abstract

The Wiggins Fork Bison Jump Complex, located in northwestern Wyoming, is comprised of thousands of human-placed rock piles, known as cairns, that were placed within lines to form an extensive network of drivelines and funnels leading to cliffs or steep slopes. These archaeological features were used by Native Americans as a bison hunting method, where the animals were driven off cliffs for harvest. This research uses luminescence dating, which determines when sediment was last exposed to sunlight, to date the timing of driveline construction and the deposition ages of the underlying river deposits.

Research focused on Jump #4, which had extensive drivelines (~1.7 km) leading to a well-developed jump funnel and bison bones preserved at its base. Age results indicate that this jump was constructed on a glacial-aged river terrace of the Wiggins Fork. Dating of the cairns at Jump #4 indicate that they were constructed around 300-800 years ago, aligning with radiocarbon ages from the bone beds at the base of the jump. These results reveal that the jump funnel was constructed during and slightly before the jump was actively used for hunting and indicate that luminescence dating can be used to accurately provide rock placement ages. Additionally, cairn mapping and luminescence dating revealed that drivelines approaching the jump were rebuilt in response to gully erosion as adaptation to a changing landscape, with drivelines closer to the terrace edge producing older ages than those further inland. The results presented here have implications for understanding how Native Americans used and modified landscapes over time.

This research was funded by the Robert K. Fahnestock Award from the Geological Society of America, graduate assistantships from the USU Department of Geosciences, the USU Luminescence Dating Laboratory, and support by a private donor to fund the fieldwork and geochronology costs. This project supports ongoing archaeological work to protect this culturally and historically significant site.

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