BOZEMAN, Mont. (AP) - In a horseshoe-shaped washout area just off-trail in Madison Buffalo Jump State Park near Three Forks, University of Montana associate professor of archaeology Doug MacDonald scraped bits of charcoal into a hand-made tinfoil envelope.
Once collected, the sample will be sent for radiocarbon dating to determine when it was part of a fire that was likely used to cook bison meat from an animal run to its death off a nearby cliff.
“We can find out exactly when it was used. It’s pretty crazy,” MacDonald said.
Thursday was the last day at Madison Buffalo Jump State Park for MacDonald and a group students from the UM field school, who spent the last two weeks walking the 640-acre park and documenting its features.
From small shards of buffalo bones to large stone circles that mark teepee rings, their findings will be used to create the most complete record to date of the artifacts at Madison Buffalo Jump State Park, where for 2,000 years Native Americans stampeded herds of bison off a limestone cliff.
The last time a study of this scale was done was in the 1970s, but at that time GPS and other technology was not available, said Sara Scott, Montana State Parks heritage resources program manager.
Thousands of people walk the grounds at Madison Buffalo Jump State Park each year, but during these past two weeks MacDonald’s group walked with their eyes to the earth, looking for patterns that tell the story of the park’s history.
While the untrained eye may see four or five stones scattered in an area, MacDonald and the UM students see patterns that indicate how bison were funneled off the edge of the cliff.
Locating these patterns from the east-central park boundary, redefining their exact location and mapping them was a “really cool” experience for the group, MacDonald said.
Other notable finds included an inscription - “C.A. Kinsey, 1936” - the name of the original excavator of the site. They also got GPS locations and photos or sketches for 38 stone circles and two eagle traps on the rim of the plateau.
“The whole picture’s here,” MacDonald said.
Graduate student Liz Lynch sat nearby, cataloging photos.
Lynch, who came to UM from her home in New York City, wanted to be an archaeologist since she was a child when her mother gave her a book on mummies.
Coming to Montana and working on this project has provided her with a “surreal” experience.
“It’s surreal seeing teepee rings in a park that’s been open to the public for years,” Lynch said.
Lynch, MacDonald and the other students spent the first week hiking and observing the grounds. This week they tapered off of the actual survey to focus on creating maps and cataloging photos, she said. Photos and feature coordinates be plotting on digital maps of the park.
They will include their findings in a report that will be given to the Montana State Parks’ Heritage Resources Program.
Not only will the report provide a complete, up-to-date record of the park and its features, it will also allow the state to monitor changes, which are sometimes caused by humans.
“It’s really a win-win for the state parks and the university,” MacDonald said, adding that his students benefit by getting out of the classroom and into a field setting.
“For my job, this is one of the things I’m most proud of,” he said. “It’s really a pretty exhilarating experience.”
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Information from: Bozeman Daily Chronicle, https://www.bozemandailychronicle.com
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