Agate Basin to Scottsbluff Along the SHADOWS on the TRAIL

Figure One - Development continuum of Paleoindian projectile point types. From left to right, 

oldest to youngest, Agate Basin, Hell Gap, Alberta, and Scottsbluff. All surface finds are from 

private land in Colorado. For scale, the Agate Basin point on the far left is 4.6 inches long. 

John Bradford Branney Collection.  

In my prehistoric adventure series the SHADOWS on the TRAIL PENTALOGY, three Paleoindian tribes clash on the high plains of Colorado. All three Paleoindian tribes lived similar lifestyles as hunters and gatherers but what differentiated them was their stone weapon tips. While the three tribes all used ‘old world’ spearthrower or atlatl technology, their stone projectile points varied in style and technology. Let me guide you on a short journey into the past. Everyone climb aboard my Delorean time machine. Our destination is southern Colorado about 12,600 years ago.  

Figure Two - Delorean time machine from Back to the Future.  

In the first book of the PENTALOGY titled SHADOWS on the TRAIL, warriors from a tribe of people I called the Mountain People brutally attack the village of a peaceful tribe called the River People. When the attack occurred, most River People men were not in the village, but on a hunting expedition. There were not enough spears to defend the village from the brutal onslaught of the Mountain People. The hunters returned and found the complete destruction of their village and the murder of friends and loved ones. The hunters wanted their revenge but they did not know who inflicted that deplorable act upon their people. The only evidence was a spear in the brush left behind by a warrior from the Mountain People. The spear's owner carved a clue for the hunters on the wooden shaft of the spear, and the stone projectile point at its tip was a different kind. The hunter who discovered the spear brought it to his leader, a man named Avonaco and this was what happened; Lights, camera, action:   

Avonaco held the spear in his hands. The spear shaft was the same wood that the River People used, but the stone spear point was different. The stone spear point was thinner and longer than any Avonaco had ever seen and made from a shiny, black rock material. Avonaco ran his thumb down the sharp edge of the spear point and quickly pulled his thumb away.

“Éŝkos!–Sharp!” Avonaco exclaimed, looking down at his bleeding thumb.

He continued to examine the spear point, “I have only seen a spear point like this once made from this black rock. When I was a boy, I found a spear point much like this deep in the mountains. My father told me the black rock comes from the mountains.”

Avonaco then inspected the sinew wrap that connected the stone spear point to the wooden spear shaft. The River People used sinew from deer or bison to attach their spear points.

Avonaco pointed to the sinew and said, “This is too thin, it is not from bison or deer.”

Avonaco ran his fingers down the smooth wood of the spear and noticed it had carvings in it. To see better, Avonaco moved the spear shaft closer to the light of the campfire. Carved into the wood were five green-painted peaks next to two orange-painted suns,   ҉   Ʌ Ʌ Ʌ Ʌ Ʌ   ҉. , Waquini and Vipponah leaned over Avonaco’s shoulders to take a better look.

I wonder if the River People ever got their revenge? If you want to find out, you are going to have to read the second edition of SHADOWS on the TRAIL. CLICK IMAGE BELOW for info on the BOOK. 

CLICK for the BOOK

Now, the rest of the story!

In figure one above, I photographed four different Paleoindian projectile point types, from left to right, the oldest to the youngest; Agate Basin, Hell Gap, Alberta, and Scottsbluff. The cultural adoption of these four projectile point types was widespread from Canada to Texas through much of the Great Plains and the southwestern United States.

We know from archaeological evidence that different Paleoindian cultures used different projectile point types. We know through investigations at single-episode bison kill sites that Paleoindian hunters often used the same projectile point styles. That suggests to me that the specific tribe or culture involved in each bison kill determined the projectile point style and technology used by the hunters who participated in the bison kills. A few examples of High Plains Paleoindian bison kill sites and the respective projectile point types in parentheses are Casper (Hell Gap), Olsen-Chubbuck (Firstview), Hudson-Meng (Alberta), Jimmy Allen (Jimmy Allen), and the Horner Site (Cody Complex). Either that means that everyone in the tribe was flintknapping to the same style of projectile points or perhaps, there were one or two expert flintknappers within the tribe making all the projectile points. 

Figure Three - Agate Basin projectile points and one drill. On some Agate Basin projectile points
the "Hell Gap shoulder" was already developing. For scale, the far left point is 2.2 inches long.
John Bradford Branney Collection.

Based on radiocarbon dating and geologic studies, Agate Basin is the oldest projectile point out of the four artifacts in figure one. Current archaeological evidence proposes that Agate Basin projectile points and knife forms showed up on the high plains around 10,400 years BP, or north of 12,000 years ago in calendar years. Based on radiocarbon dates and geologic studies, the Agate Basin projectile point could have overlapped in time with at least three other projectile point types; Folsom, Hell Gap, and Alberta. We know it overlapped in geographical space! 

Based on stratigraphic evidence at the multicultural Hell Gap site in Wyoming, investigators determined that the Hell Gap culture was younger than the Agate Basin culture, at least at the Hell Gap site. The age most often assigned to the Hell Gap prehistoric culture is around 10,000 years BP or around 11,500 years ago in calendar years. Based on projectile point technology, many investigators believe that Hell Gap projectile points evolved from Agate Basin projectile points. 

In experimental archaeology hunting exercises, Agate Basin proved to be a very effective piece of weaponry, so why did Paleoindians move from Agate Basin to Hell Gap projectile points? One possible explanation could be less time and effort exerted on making Hell Gap versus Agate Basin. If you have ever examined a well-made Agate Basin projectile point, it is obvious that a great amount of time and effort went into its making. In Agate Basin projectile points, fine pressure flaking was used to achieve exceptional point symmetry. Did that extra effort deliver incremental hunting performance? We will never know the answer to that question for sure. Some might call Agate Basin points "flint knapping overkill". The Hell Gap flint knapper usually terminated the finishing process of a projectile point much earlier than an Agate Basin flint knapper (figure four). The Hell Gap flint knapper oftentimes used only pressure flaking on the stems and tips, leaving a rougher and less symmetrical projectile point. And it appears that the Hell Gap shoulders that they introduced made for a better hafting arrangement.  

Figure Four - Hell Gap Projectile Points. The Hell Gap shoulder is fully developed 
on these examples. For scale, the far left point is 2.5 inches long. 
John Bradford Branney Collection. 

Over 11,000 calendar years ago near Casper, Wyoming, Paleoindian hunters used Hell Gap projectile points to kill bison that they stampeded and trapped in sand dunes at what we now call the Casper site. During a similar timeframe in Nebraska, a different group of Paleoindian hunters used what we call Alberta projectile points to dispatch bison they trapped in an ancient arroyo at the Hudson-Meng site. Dr. H. M. Wormington identified and named Alberta projectile points from surface recovered examples found during the dust bowl years of the 1930s in Alberta, Canada. The long stem and abrupt shoulders differentiated Alberta projectile points from both Agate Basin and Hell Gap. We assume that at least some Paleoindians felt the Alberta projectile point design was an advancement in weapon technology over Agate Basin and Hell Gap projectile point designs. When spearing a bison or other game animal, the shoulders and long base of the Alberta projectile point handled much more stress and impact, probably creating a more efficient weapon tip.    

The Alberta projectile point technology and style then gave birth to another projectile point type. The point to the far right in figure one is a Scottsbluff point, a continuation of Cody Complex weaponry and a point design originating from the earlier Alberta projectile points. 

Figure Four - Examples of Cody Complex artifacts, including  Alberta (far left) and 

Scottsbluff (third from left). For scale, the far left point is 2.5 inches long. 

John Bradford Branney Collection. 

The stem and shoulders found on Alberta points existed on Scottsbluff points but what returned was the fine pressure flaking and symmetry of the earlier Agate Basin projectile point.

So, what do you think drove the development continuum of Paleoindian projectile points from Agate Basin to Scottsbluff? Was it technological innovation or were different prehistoric cultures putting their own stamp on weaponry design? Why did Paleoindian cultures adapt the same projectile point type across a wide geographical area? Why did Paleoindians use a specific projectile point type at one bison kill while at a similar timeframe other Paleoindians used a different projectile point type at a different bison kill? Were different people making specific projectile point types? 

Food for thought! 

We can only hypothesize, but isn’t that fun to do?

CLICK for the Journey - SHADOWS on the TRAIL PENTALOGY

The historical fiction novels written by John Bradford Branney are known for their impeccable research and biting realism. In his latest blockbuster novel BEYOND the CAMPFIRE, Branney catapults his readers back into Prehistoric America where they reunite with some familiar faces from Branney’s best-selling prehistoric adventure series the SHADOWS on the TRAIL Pentalogy.

John Bradford Branney holds a geology degree from the University of Wyoming and an MBA from the University of Colorado. John lives in the Colorado mountains with his wife, Theresa. BEYOND the CAMPFIRE is the eleventh published book by Branney.

Shadows from the Cody Complex!

Figure One.  

Figure one is courtesy of The Horner Site - The Type Site of the Cody Cultural Complex by George C. Frison and Lawrence C. Todd. The image first appeared in Rocky Mountain Empire Magazine in 1949, a time before archaeology officially recognized the Cody Complex. At that time, archaeologists and collectors were still referring to most Paleoindian projectile points in the broad category called Yuma points. 

From the looks of the human in figure one, the artist believed that the Paleoindians who occupied the Horner site were semi-intelligent, apelike cavemen covered in fur and with calves the size of beer barrels. The artist's depiction looked like something straight out of a DC or Marvel superhero comic book. Personally, I believe that the crude image of the Paleoindian could not be farther from the truth. In 1949, they did not know what we now know about Paleoindians. When I wrote my prehistorical fiction book series about Paleoindians titled the SHADOWS on the TRAIL Pentalogy, I portrayed Paleoindians as smart, savvy, and industrious. Paleoindians survived in a rugged and unforgiving environment, a place and time most of us spoiled, modern folk could never survive. We would have ended up starving to death or eaten by a large predator. It took physical strength and intellectual savvy to survive in that brave, untamed world. To demonstrate what I mean, let me take you on a brief visit to one of my books. 

The [bison] cows crowded the bull, the smell of water luring them into the arroyo. The bull stood his ground, pawing the ground and bellowing. The cows shoved the bull, attempting to push him up the arroyo, but he held his ground. Then, one by one, the cows went around the bull, passing through to the inside of the wooden fence.

Chayton knelt with Hoka on top of the hill, patiently waiting for the last of the cows and calves to enter the arroyo. When the  

Figure Two - 4-inch-long discoidal biface that was 

the inspiration for SHADOWS on the TRAIL. 
John Bradford Branney Collection.  

last of the tatanka [bison] entered the arroyo, he signaled a hunter on another hillside. Chayton had wanted the tatanka bull in the trap, but it was not going to happen. The hunters would just leave him alone. There was too much risk attacking the bull on the open prairie. The hunt would be more than successful with the cows and the calves. Chayton would let the last of the herd get to the wakan ya [underground spring] and start drinking before he signaled the attack.

“WANA! – NOW!” Chayton bellowed and the hunters sprung the trap. A hunter signaled Tah and Wiyaka who lit their torches and then raced to the arroyo with the other hunters. The hunters arrived at the wooden fence and dropped more deadwood in the gap between the two sides of the arroyo. The hunters then picked up a large log that was lying behind the fence and set it down across the top of the fence. They had sealed the herd into the arroyo, but it would take fire to hold the herd. Tah looked up and saw that the tatanka [bison] bull had already taken off running, abandoning his herd. Tah and Wiyaka threw the torches on the wooden fence and it erupted into flames. Smoke rose as the flames burned into the green sagebrush, creating a huge smoke screen. The smoke signaled Chayton and the other hunters to attack. Carrying large bundles of spears, the hunters ran up to both sides of the arroyo and began heaving spears at the unwary herd. The herd milled around the wakan ya [natural water spring], confused by the spears and the smoke.

A rain of spears fell on the herd from three sides of the arroyo…

The above passage came from my prehistoric adventure titled GHOSTS of the HEART, the second book in my prehistoric series entitled the SHADOWS on the TRAIL Pentalogy. A Paleoindian artifact I found on private land in northern Colorado inspired the book series (figure two). Based on my knowledge of the site where I found the Paleoindian artifact, the four-inch-long discoidal biface made from Alibates agatized dolomite most likely came from the Folsom or Clovis Complex (figure two).   

Figure Three - CLICK ON THIS LINK to find this book

However, this article is about another group of real-life Early Holocene hunter-gatherers who lived a thousand or so years after the Folsom People. We call that culture, the Cody Complex. The lifestyles of the Cody Complex culture did not change much from that of the Folsom people. Both Paleoindian cultures were nomadic hunters and gatherers who centered their lifestyles around bison procurement, and when they could not find bison, they scavenged whatever they could find to survive. 

Figure Four - Recently Found Scottsbluff 
point in northern Colorado.  

 

Cody Complex projectile points and knife forms are some of the most distinctive and sought-after artifacts in Prehistoric America. Based on archaeological data, it appears that the people who made Cody Complex artifacts occupied North America for approximately 2,800 years (Knell and Muniz 2013:p.13). The geographical reach of Cody Complex artifacts is second only to the Clovis prehistoric culture. Cody Complex artifacts can be found from the Great Basin on the west to the St. Lawrence River on the east, and from the Canadian plains on the north to the Texas gulf coast on the south. 

G. L. Jepsen (1951) first coined the term Cody Complex to describe the coexistence of Scottsbluff and Eden points with Cody Knives at the Horner site near the town of Cody in northwestern Wyoming. In archaeology, a complex is defined as a cultural group of related traits or characteristics that combine to form a complete activity, process, or cultural unit. The presence of several key implements or tool types found in association defines a lithic complex. 

In her classic book Ancient Man in North America, Marie Wormington (1957) formalized the Cody Complex and proposed that the Cody Knife should be the index type or marker for the Cody Complex even in the absence of projectile points. 

Figure Five - 5.9-inch long Alberta spear point surface recovered by a migrant worker in the 1930s along the South Platte River in Morgan County, Colorado. John Bradford Branney Collection. 

  

In the Dust Bowl years of the 1930s, artifact collectors in Alberta, Canada who hunted sand blowouts discovered a different style of stemmed projectile points associated with Scottsbluff points (collectors and archaeologists called most Paleoindian point styles Yuma points in the 1930s). These different projectile points were larger and bulkier than Scottsbluff points and had longer stems with slightly convex bases (figure five).

Figure Six - Scottsbluff point as found in September 2008.  

Marie Wormington (1957) proposed the name Alberta for this new type of projectile point found in Canada. Some researchers believe that the Alberta point type preceded the other Cody Complex projectile point styles, but radiocarbon dates indicate that although Alberta might have been first, there was temporal overlap with the different Cody Complex projectile point types. It is my contention that Alberta projectile points evolved from the earlier Hell Gap projectile point and then Alberta projectile points became the prototypes for later Scottsbluff and Eden points. We do know that Alberta was the earliest manifestation of the Cody Complex to produce Cody Knives. 

Archaeologists recovered the first Alberta projectile points in situ at the Hell Gap site in Wyoming where investigator Irwin-Williams suggested that Alberta might reflect a trend from the earlier Hell Gap points. In The Hudson-Meng Site: An Alberta Bison Kill Site in the Nebraska High Plains, Bruce Huckell (1978) proposed a projectile point development continuum leading to the development of stemmed Cody Complex projectile points, starting at Agate Basin which evolved into Hell Gap which evolved into Alberta which evolved into other Cody Complex projectile point types. In Prehistoric Hunter-Gatherers on the High Plains and Rockies, Kornfeld, Frison, and Larson (2010) noted that the Alberta component at the Hudson-Meng site was about the same age as the Hell Gap component at the Casper Site, around 10,000 BP (uncalibrated radiocarbon years), making the two types most likely contemporaneous, at least at those two bison kill sites. 

Figure Seven - Cody Complex types from left to right; Alberta, Cody Knife, Scottsbluff, Eden,
Firstview, and Holland. For scale, the Alberta point is 2.5 inches long.
John Bradford Branney Collection.   

The Cody Complex people shared a distinct technology for making projectile points and knife forms that set them apart from other Paleoindians. The photograph in figure seven shows an array of different projectile points and knife forms in the Cody Complex. The first thing that stands out about Cody Complex artifacts is the basal stems. Although a prior technology called Hell Gap used stemming to an extent, Cody Complex took it a step further, squaring the edges to an extent not seen before. The stemming process included the intentional removal of pressure-thinned flakes along the lateral margins. 

From left to right in figure seven; a Wyoming Alberta knife form (2.5 inches long), a Wyoming Cody knife, a Colorado Scottsbluff projectile point, a Wyoming Eden dart point, a Colorado Firstview dart point (could very well be a Midland projectile point), and a western Nebraska Holland (?) dart point. Although Holland projectile points seem to possess several Cody Complex attributes, some researchers believe that Holland evolved out of Dalton projectile points from the midwest.      

Figure Eight - 3.95-inch long Scottsbluff knife form surface found on private land
in Weld County, Colorado in the 1980s. John Bradford Branney Collection.   

 

What was the environment like on the northern plains for Cody Complex people? The culture existed between two major climate change bookends; the cooling-off period during the Younger Dryas ran from about 13,000 to 11,500 calendar years ago, and the heating-up period during the Altithermal ran from about 7,000 to 5,000 calendar years ago. The great spruce forests of the Younger Dryas were mostly gone by Cody Complex times and grasslands dominated the high plains. Forty or so species of the Pleistocene megafauna were already extinct, leaving bison as the 'main game on the high plains. The overall climate during Cody Complex was drier and more prone to drought than the Younger Dryas and less drought-stricken than the Altithermal. You might say that the climate on the northern plains during Cody Complex times was a lot like the climate we have today.  

I hope you enjoyed this brief history of the Cody Complex. Check out the SHADOWS on the TRAIL Pentalogy! Bet you cannot put my books down! 

Frison, George C., and Lawrence C. Todd

1987      The Horner Site - The Type Site of the Cody Cultural Complex. Academic Press.                  Orlando.

Huckell, Bruce

1978     Hudson-Meng Chipped Stone in The Hudson-Meng Site: An Alberta Bison Kill in                 the Nebraska High Plains by Larry D. Agenbroad. Northern Arizona University.   

Jepsen, G. L.

1951     Ancient Buffalo Hunters of Wyoming. Newsletter, Archaeological Society of New                 Jersey, 24:22-24

Knell, Edward J., and Mark P. Muniz

2013     Paleoindian Lifeways of the Cody Complex. University of Utah Press. Salt Lake.

Kornfeld, Marcel, George C. Frison, and Mary Lou Larson

2010    Prehistoric Hunters-Gatherers of the High Plains and Rockies. Left Coast Press.                    Walnut Creek, California.  

Wormington, H. M.

1957    Ancient Man in North America. Denver Museum of Natural History, Popular Series             No. 4. Denver.      

The prehistorical fiction novels written by John Bradford Branney are known for their impeccable research and biting realism. In his latest blockbuster novel Beyond the Campfire, Branney catapults his readers back into Prehistoric America where they reunite with some familiar faces from Branney’s best-selling prehistoric adventure series the Shadows on the Trail Pentalogy.

John Bradford Branney holds a geology degree from the University of Wyoming and an MBA from the University of Colorado. John lives in the Colorado mountains with his wife, Theresa. Beyond the Campfire is the eleventh published book by Branney.

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