"For those interested in the physical anthropology of prehistoric North America, author Leland C. Bements Beyond the Bone Beds: Large-Scale Bison Kills in Northwest Oklahoma presents carefully researched technical data that will enlighten scholars, students, field researchers, and general readers alike. Bison are a keystone prey species of the grassland ecosystem and create mudholes that encourage nutritious plant growth, attracting herbivores and their predators. North American hunter-gatherers relied on large-scale bison hunting, which greatly influenced their culture. Embracing sites spanning 11,000 years of prehistory with artifacts from the Clovis, Folsom, Late Paleoindian, and Late Archaic periods, the collection at the Courson Family Bison Research Center offers a uniquely broad palette for the study of these hunter-gatherers relationships with and use of bison. For over thirty years, senior research archaeologist Leland Bement has excavated and analyzed bison kill sites with his research teams, cataloging the faunal remains and associated artifacts and organizing them thoughtfully. This important work makes possible the assessment of fluctuations in bison populations over the centuries, along with the influences of human predation and changing hunting strategies. Bement presents his research chronologically with illustrative photographs, charts, and line art to engage both archaeological practitioners and well-informed laypersons.

Beyond the Bone Beds offers its readers a new perspective on the prehistoric and later peoples of North America and their interactions with their environment"--"Over the next three decades I would discover, excavate, and analyze the bones and artifacts left downwards of 10 feet at a plethora of sites in western Oklahoma. The bison remains from these sites populate the collections of the Courson Family Bison Research Center (CFBRC) housed at the Oklahoma Archeological Survey, the University of Oklahoma, Norman. Named after one of my staunchest benefactors, this collection of bison skeletal remains, projectile points, and other tools is the subject of this book. To that end, this book introduces the reader to the sites, bones, and artifacts contained in the CFBRC in chronological order based on the age of the site."--ECIP page 6.