Bonfire Shelter
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Bonfire Shelter is an
archaeological Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
site located in a southwest
Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...
rock shelter, near Langtry, Texas. This archaeological site contains evidence of mass
American buffalo American Buffalo may refer to: *American Buffalo (play), ''American Buffalo'' (play), a play by David Mamet *American Buffalo (film), ''American Buffalo'' (film), a 1996 film of Mamet's play directed by Michael Corrente *American Buffalo (coin), a ...
hunts, a phenomenon that is usually associated with the
Great Plains The Great Plains (french: Grandes Plaines), sometimes simply "the Plains", is a broad expanse of flatland in North America. It is located west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, a ...
hundreds of miles to the north. This site is the southernmost site that has been located in
North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and th ...
, where mass bison hunts have taken place.


History

Bison hunting Bison hunting (hunting of the American bison, also commonly known as the American buffalo) was an activity fundamental to the economy and society of the Plains Indians peoples who inhabited the vast grasslands on the Interior Plains of North ...
was performed as " 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 Pollen is a powdery substance produced by seed plants. It consists of pollen grains (highly reduced microgametophytes), which produce male gametes (sperm cells). Pollen grains have a hard coat made of sporopollenin that protects the gametop ...
samples, he discovered that the area had seen good grass cover for grazing only twice 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'' is a biweekly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Springer Science+Business Media covering cross-disciplinary work on all aspects of climate change and variability. It was established in 1978 and the editors-in-chief ...
s and the archaeological evidence we can find today.
Mile Canyon Mile Canyon or more recently known as Eagle Nest Canyon is a tributary canyon of the Rio Grande entering on the north side of the river just downstream from Langtry, Texas. Mile Canyon received its name due to its length being approximately one m ...
, where Bonfire Shelter is located, was added to the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...
in 1970 AD. The historic district comprises a 1,500 acre (6 km2) area which is entirely on privately owned land.


References

Fagan, Brian. ''Ancient North America''. Thames & Hudson, London. 2005, p 125.


External links

* * * Buffalo jumps Rock shelters in the United States Landforms of Val Verde County, Texas {{hunting-stub