No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
The Archer and the Shield-Bearing Warrior
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 March 2023
Abstract
At the Painted Coulee site (24JT86), pictographs depicting both atlatl and bow technology are present. We utilized plasma oxidation followed by accelerator mass spectrometry to directly radiocarbon date the organic material in two paint samples. A red painting of an anthropomorph with a shield and a possible atlatl in conflict with a fleeing person holding a bow was dated to 1790 ± 50 RCYBP (cal AD 120–390). Another red anthropomorph wearing snowshoes and holding a bow was dated to 1710 ± 45 RCYBP (cal AD 240–425). Radiocarbon dates for underlying oxalate minerals provided maximum ages for the paintings that are consistent with the direct ages. This early example of Plains Biographic rock art is significant because it illustrates a scene between a Late Archaic shield-bearing warrior with a possible atlatl and an anthropomorph with a bow and arrow at a time when bows first came into use on the Northwestern Plains.
Resumen
En el sitio de Painted Coulee (24JT86), están presentes pictografías que representan tanto la tecnología del atlatl como la del arco. Utilizamos oxidación de plasma seguida de espectrometría de masas con acelerador para fechar directamente por radiocarbono el material orgánico en dos muestras de pintura. La pintura roja de un antropomorfo que sostiene un escudo y un posible atlatl y que está en conflicto con una persona que huye sosteniendo un arco data de 1790 ± 50 RCYBP (cal 120–390 dC). Otro antropomorfo rojo que usa raquetas de nieve y sostiene un arco data de 1710 ± 45 RCYBP (cal 240–425 dC). Las fechas de radiocarbono para los minerales de oxalato subyacentes proporcionaron edades máximas para las pinturas que son consistentes con las edades directas. Este ejemplo temprano de arte rupestre Plains Biographic es significativo porque ilustra una escena entre un guerrero con escudo, un posible atlatl y un antropomorfo con un arco y una flecha en un momento en que los arcos comenzaron a usarse por primera vez en las llanuras del noroeste durante el Arcaico tardío.
Keywords
- Type
- Report
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Society for American Archaeology
References
References Cited
Bamforth, Douglas. 2018. What Do We Know about Warfare on the Great Plains? In Archaeological Perspectives on Warfare on the Great Plains, edited by Clark, Andrew J. and Bamforth, Douglas B., pp. 3–34. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.Google Scholar
Bowman, Sheridan. 1990. Interpreting the Past: Radiocarbon Dating. University of California Press, Berkeley; British Museum, London.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, Christopher. 2009. Bayesian Analysis of Radiocarbon Dates. Radiocarbon 51:337–360.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, Christopher. 2022. Online OxCal version 4.4.4. Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, University of Oxford, Oxford. Electronic document, https://c14.arch.ox.ac.uk.oxcal.html, accessed 2022.Google Scholar
Davis, Leslie B. (editor). 1988. Avonlea Yesterday and Today: Archaeology and Prehistory. Saskatchewan Archaeological Society, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.Google Scholar
Francis, Julie, and Loendorf, Lawrence. 2004. Ancient Visions: Petroglyphs and Pictographs of the Wind River and Bighorn County, Wyoming and Montana. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Gebhard, David. 1966. The Shield Motif in Plains Rock Art. American Antiquity 31:721–732.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Geib, Phil R. 2016. Basketmaker II Warfare and Fending Sticks in the North American Southwest. PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Greer, John. 1978. Wortham Shelter: An Avonlea Site in the Bighorn River Canyon, Wyoming. Archaeology in Montana 19(2):1–104.Google Scholar
Greer, Mavis. 1995. Archaeological Analysis of Rock Art Sites in the Smith River Drainage of Central Montana. PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Missouri, Columbia.Google Scholar
Greer, Mavis, and Greer, John. 2018. Northwestern Plains Contact-Era Warfare as Reflected in Ethnohistory and Rock Art Studies. In Archaeological Perspectives on Warfare on the Great Plains, edited by Clark, Andrew J. and Bamforth, Douglas B., pp. 37–65. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.Google Scholar
Keyser, James D. 1975. Shoshonean Origin for the Plains Shield Bearing Warrior Motif. Plains Anthropologist 20(69):207–216.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keyser, James D., Kaiser, David A., Poetschat, George, and Taylor, Michael W.. 2012. Fraternity of War: Plains Indian Rock Art at Bear Gulch and Atherton Canyon, Montana. Oregon Archaeological Society Press, Portland.Google Scholar
Keyser, James D., and Klassen, Michael A.. 2001. Plains Indian Rock Art. University of Washington Press, Seattle.Google Scholar
Keyser, James D., and Poetschat, George. 2014. Northern Plains Shield Bearing Warriors: A Five Century Rock Art Record of Indian Warfare. Oregon Archaeological Society Press, Portland.Google Scholar
Kornfeld, Marcel, Frison, George C., and Larson, Mary Lou. 2010. Prehistoric Hunter-Gatherers of the High Plains and Rockies. 3rd ed. Left Coast Press, Walnut Creek, California.Google Scholar
Loendorf, Lawrence. 2004. Shields and Shield Warrior Pictographs and Petroglyphs in the Intermountain West. In New Dimensions in Rock Art Studies, edited by Matheny, Ray T., pp. 103–118. Occasional Paper Series No. 9. Museum of Peoples and Cultures, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.Google Scholar
Loendorf, Lawrence, and Castaneda, Amanda. 2021. Rock Art Recording at the Rocky Ridge Site (42DA14) Manila, Utah. Report prepared by Sacred Sites Research Inc., Albuquerque, New Mexico.Google Scholar
Loendorf, Lawrence, Castañeda, Amanda, Kaiser, David, Willis, Mark, and Steelman, Karen. 2022. The Painted Canyon Rock Art Sites, Judith Basin County, Montana. Report prepared by Sacred Sites Research Inc., Albuquerque, New Mexico.Google Scholar
MacDonald, Douglas. 2012. Montana before History: 11,000 Years of Hunter-Gatherers in the Rockies and Plains. Mountain Press, Missoula, Montana.Google Scholar
Mulloy, William T. 1958. A Preliminary Historical Outline for the Northwestern Plains. University of Wyoming, Laramie.Google Scholar
Reeves, Brian O. K. 1983. Culture Change in the Northern Plains: 1000 B.C.–A.D. 1000. Archaeological Survey of Alberta, Alberta Culture, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.Google Scholar
Reimer, Paula J., Austin, William E. N., Bard, Edouard, Bayliss, Alex, Blackwell, Paul G., Ramsey, Christopher Bronk, Butzin, Martin, et al. 2020. The IntCal20 Northern Hemisphere Radiocarbon Age Calibration Curve (0–55 cal kBP). Radiocarbon 62(4):725–757.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rennie, Patrick J., and Johnson, Ann M.. 2017. Timber Ridge (24BL101): Montana's First Avonlea Site. Archaeology in Montana 58(2):1–56.Google Scholar
Russ, Jon, Loyd, David H., and Boutton, Thomas W.. 2000. A Paleoclimate Reconstruction for Southwestern Texas Using Oxalate Residue from Lichen as a Paleoclimate Proxy. Quaternary International 67:29–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Russ, Jon, Pohl, Mary D., von Nagy, Christopher L., Steelman, Karen L., Hurst, Heather, Ashby, Leonard, Schmidt, Paul, Padilla Gutiérrez, Eliseo F., and Rowe, Marvin W.. 2017. Strategies for 14C Dating the Oxtotitlán Cave Paintings, Guerrero, Mexico. Advances in Archaeological Practice 5:170–183.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Steelman, Karen L., Boyd, Carolyn E., and Allen, Trinidy. 2021. Two Independent Methods for Dating Rock Art: Age Determination of Paint and Oxalate Layers at Eagle Cave, TX. Journal of Archaeological Science 126. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2020.105315.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Steelman, Karen L., Boyd, Carolyn E., and Bates, Lennon. 2021. Implications for Rock Art Dating from the Lower Pecos Canyonlands, TX: A Review. Quaternary Geochronology 63. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quageo.2021.101167.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Loendorf et al. supplementary material
Loendorf et al. supplementary material
File
46.5 MB