North-Central Section - 49th Annual Meeting (19-20 May 2015)

Paper No. 2
Presentation Time: 9:05 AM

MIDDLE HOLOCENE BISON IN THE UPPER MIDWEST


WIDGA, Chris1, HILL, Matthew G.2 and HAWLEY, Marlin F.1, (1)Illinois State Museum Research and Collections Center, 1011 East Ash St, Springfield, IL 62703, (2)Department of Anthropology, Iowa State University, 324 Curtiss Hall, Ames, IA 50011-1050, Marlin.Hawley@wisconsinhistory.org

Comprehensive analyses of bison remains from Itasca, Minnesota, and Nye and Interstate Park, Wisconsin, offer new information on the paleoecology of the Bison “occidentalis” in the Upper Midwest. These sites are taphonomically complex attritional assemblages, not catastrophic kill sites as originally described. Ten recent AMS radiocarbon dates on bison bone collagen span about 1,500 years, from 8540 cal. B.P. to 6890 cal. B.P., and when coupled with age-frequency mortality data, indicate that the region sustained resident herds during the middle Holocene. Serial stable isotope analyses (δ13C, δ18O, and 87Sr/86Sr) of tooth enamel carbonate suggest midwestern bison at this time were not obligate grazers like contemporary animals in the Great Plains. Rather, they were flexible herbivores who were able to utilize a variety of local habitats, and did not migrate seasonally.