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Worked BoneThirty-two bone and antler tools and pieces of worked bone were recovered from the Cowan site. Though few in number, these worked bone pieces represent a wide range of forms and a variety of tool types. Though the number of worked bone pieces from the Cowan site is small, a great range of tools forms are represented. These items represent a diverse range of activities including hideworking (awls and the bison rib tools from Feature 25), mat making (matting needles), cutting (scapula knife), fishing (fishhook), flintknapping (pressure flakers) and excavation and cultivation (digging stick tip and possible scapula hoe). In addition, four pieces illustrate some of the processes employed in manufacturing tools. These tool making scraps demonstrate the use of cutting and grooving techniques in blanking out bone pieces for tool manufacture. The variety of bone tools from the site is reminiscent of worked bone assemblages recovered from Mill Creek sites in northwest Iowa (Baerreis 1970; Dallman 1977, 1983; Fugle 1962) and there are also some similarities to specimens recovered from the Larson site (Henning and King 1996b). There is a general impression in the archaeological literature that diverse bone tool assemblages are characteristic of Mill Creek components while Great Oasis populations made and used fewer bone tools (Tiffany 1983:97). This might be the case, however, taphonomic factors might also contribute to this view. Bone preservation on Great Oasis sites in central Iowa is typically rather poor (Gradwohl 1974), and this is also characteristic of some Great Oasis sites in northwest Iowa like the Lawrence Vondrak site (13PM62) (Henning 1996). In general, bone appears to be more abundant and better preserved on most Mill Creek sites. Thus the comparative scarcity of bone tools on Great Oasis components could, at least in part, be a factor of preservation. Cowan | General Contracts Program Webpage originally by Tim Reed March 19, 1999. Designed by Tricia R. Bender
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