Vore Buffalo Jump

4 weeks ago

Kassandra Dutro and Shayla McNeal prepared this week's post. Did you know that dogs have likely been in North America as long as people have been here? For the next two weeks we will be doing a two-part series telling you all about the role of canids at the Vore Buffalo jump site. The Vore Site collection includes over 300 pieces of canid bone. Wolves, dogs, coyotes, and hybrid wolf/dogs are thought to make up the species of the collection (Walker 1980; Walker & Frison 1982). Identification is a bit tricky though and, in the future, the Vore team would like to perform genetic testing to see exactly what kind of species are present. The photographs below are of a skull from the collection. To see the rest of the collection we encourage you to check out our Sketchfab website (sketchfab.com/uwar/models). Dogs were especially important to life on the plains. Some of the bones show broken canine teeth and worn down back teeth. This is because Indigenous peoples are thought to have purposefully changed their dog’s teeth as a part of cultural practices (Gade n.d.). One of the biggest roles that dogs played is known as beasts of burden, that is, they carried all kinds of things for the Plains people including tipis (Gade n.d.). The dogs would be hooked up to what in French is called a travois, which was a harness with two wooden poles attached to it. Farther down the poles would be attached to a platform with the two ends dragging on the ground behind (Gade n.d.).

Bibliography
Gade, Gene. “Wolves, Dogs, Hybrids and Plains Indians,” vorebuffalojump.org/.

Walker, Danny N. “The Vore Site Local Fauna.” Plains Anthropologist 25, no. 88 (May 1980): 154–154. doi.org/10.1080/2052546.1980.11908988. ... See MoreSee Less

Vore Buffalo Jump

1 month ago

While working on curation of the Vore Collection, Vore Scholar Brenden O’Haire came across a rather interesting bone. This bone was likely broken to allow marrow to be extracted. The marrow, found at the epiphyses, is full of fat (Outram 2000:400). This radius is rather interesting as the bone did not spiral fracture when broken. Instead, the brake is rectangular. The hole does not look overly clean in its cut. If it was clean, it would be likely that the bone was used for lab testing of some sort, and there should be a record of it. According to our records, this bone was found in unit E1 during the excavations that took place in the 1970s. Furthermore, it was from sub-unit three and was 46 cm below the surface.

Outram,Alan K. (2000). A new approach to identifying bone marrow in grease exploitation: why the “indeterminate“ fragments should not be ignored. Journal of Archeological science (401-410). ... See MoreSee Less

Vore Buffalo Jump

1 month ago

This week’s post comes from Vore Scholar Shayla McNeal who wanted to compare the radius of an adult to that of a sub-adult (juvenile) bison. In adult bison, the radius and ulna are fused together, unlike in humans where our radius and ulna are two separate bones that work in unison. In adult bison, the radius is wider than the ulna and the ulna is longer than the radius. The image on the left is an adult bison radius, with the ulna being broken off on the bottom left. The image on the right is a sub-adult radius, and in sub-adults the radius and ulna have not fused yet, therefore there is no ulna attached to this radius. Also shown is the bottom of the sub-adult radius. In identifying whether or not a bone is an adult or sub-adult, we look at a few factors such as size and whether or not the epiphyses have been fused and an epiphyseal line is present. What exactly is an epiphysis? An epiphysis is the wide end of a long bone that articulates with other bones at joints. In the picture that shows the bottom of the bone, you can see grooves and the epiphysis is missing, which shows that this bone has not fused with the rest of the radius, and thus this is a sub-adult bone. In adults the epiphysis would be attached at that end and there would be an epiphyseal line, visible in the adult bone on the left, which means the bones have fused fully which happens by adulthood. In comparing the two bones, you can also see the adult bone on the left is much bigger than the juvenile bone on the right. Determining age is important because it can help determine when during the year the bison jump occurred. We know the time that bison usually give birth during the year (a few weeks during the spring), so knowing the age of the bison killed in a jump can reveal what time of year the bison jump took place. ... See MoreSee Less

Vore Buffalo Jump

2 months ago

This week, we are excited to have 62 new Vore bison crania and one canid cranium at UWAR! Two weeks ago, Spencer and Marcia of OWSA visited the Vore site to bring these remains back to Laramie to be processed. Many of these crania are some of the best specimens from the Vore site, and the UWAR curation team is excited to clean, model, and rehouse each one (be sure to check out our sketchfab to see those we have already modeled: sketchfab.com/uwar/models)! These skulls are spending their first month at UWAR in the walk-in freezer as a general precaution to kill any pests before processing. Freezing is an active form of pest management and a common practice in curation. Depending on the insects present, it can take anywhere from one week to one month at -40 degrees Fahrenheit to ensure the insects are dead. Some insects have a natural cold response during which they increase the glycerol and sugars in their tissues, ensuring they can survive very cold temperatures for an extended period. However, this cold response must be established well before the insect is frozen. As the skulls from the Vore site were housed in a building, the insects present in the totes likely did not develop an effective cold response. In two weeks, we will bring one tote out of the freezer and observe it for two days to ensure all insects are dead. If they are, all totes will be removed, and processing will begin. If some insects are revived by room temperature, then it indicates that they have developed an effective cold response. To address this, all of the totes will be taken out of the freezer and kept at room temperature for two weeks before being put back into the freezer - this cycling of temperature will typically destroy any remaining cold response present. Freezing of collections and monitoring insects are major parts of proper collections management, and they ensure the preservation of the rest of the collections housed at the repository and the safety of personnel.

Research of the Vore collection is funded in part by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and in part by donations from supporters to the Vore Buffalo Jump Foundation. ... See MoreSee Less