Barton Gulch is an
archaeological site
An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology a ...
in southwest
Montana
Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columb ...
that has provided very important information concerning some of the earliest residents of the
Paleo-Indian period in the northwest
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
.
Geography
The Barton Gulch site is located in
Madison County on a tributary of the
Ruby River
The Ruby River is a tributary of the Beaverhead River, approximately 76 mi (122 km) long, in southwestern Montana in the United States. It rises in the Beaverhead National Forest in southwestern Madison County between the Snowcres ...
between the
Greenhorn Range and
Ruby Range. Dr. Les Davis excavated Barton Gulch from 1987 through 1993, and found 37 features that were each arranged into four distinct aggregations. Each of these aggregations contains a central oxidized pit that is 30-centimeters deep and surrounds each basin. A string of small features, representing a living floor site, form a circle around each oxidized basin.
History
Barton Gulch, also known as the Barton Gulch Alder Complex, was discovered in 1972 and first excavated in 1979. Barton Gulch is dated to 9400
RCYBP, and was actually during intensive mining projects in the late 1970s. Barton Gulch, along with the Alder site, are regarded as the
type site
In archaeology, a type site is the site used to define a particular archaeological culture or other typological unit, which is often named after it. For example, discoveries at La Tène and Hallstatt led scholars to divide the European Iron A ...
s for the Blackwater Draw Paleo-Indian archaeological culture, and believed to be a
Clovis culture
The Clovis culture is a prehistoric Paleoamerican culture, named for distinct stone and bone tools found in close association with Pleistocene fauna, particularly two mammoths, at Blackwater Locality No. 1 near Clovis, New Mexico, in 1936 a ...
. Most of the excavations of Barton Gulch were done by Dr. Les Davis, a professor at Montana State University, in the late 1980s and early 1990s. There has also been an intermediate amount of mining done at Barton Gulch for gold due to the presumption that the source of gold found in Barton Creek could have moved its way down the channel into the area.
Climate
During the late
Pleistocene period, the climate began a dramatic change. It is unknown how and why exactly the climate changed, but scientists speculate that the Earth's orbit around the sun changed, leading to an evident increase in the amount of sunlight exposed to the planet. As the Pleistocene period gave way to the Paleo-Indian period, so did the harsh winter climates give way to a suitable warm climate. Strong evidence for the warm climate is the many warm-weather plants that have been found during excavations at Barton Gulch.
Flora and fauna
Barton Gulch included various animals that have rarely been seen in Paleo-Indian cultures. Such animals included the
cottontail rabbit
Cottontail rabbits are the leporid species in the genus ''Sylvilagus'', found in the Americas. Most ''Sylvilagus'' species have stub tails with white undersides that show when they retreat, giving them their characteristic name. However, this ...
(Sylvilagus sp.),
hare (Lepus sp.),
mink (Mustela vison),
porcupine (Orithizon dorsatum) and
deer
Deer or true deer are hoofed ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. The two main groups of deer are the Cervinae, including the muntjac, the elk (wapiti), the red deer, and the fallow deer; and the Capreolinae, including the re ...
(Odocoileus sp.). The bones of the deer were used to make
hammerstone
In archaeology, a hammerstone is a hard cobble used to strike off lithic flakes from a lump of tool stone during the process of lithic reduction. The hammerstone is a rather universal stone tool which appeared early in most regions of the wo ...
s and other small tools. Small tools that were made from the bones of the animals include knives,
flake tool
In archaeology, a flake tool is a type of stone tool that was used during the Stone Age that was created by striking a flake from a prepared stone core.
People during prehistoric times often preferred these flake tools as compared to other tools ...
s,
end scrapers, abrading stones and points. Also, due to the warm weather, Barton Gulch contained many different
edible
An edible item is any item that is safe for humans to eat. "Edible" is differentiated from "eatable" because it does not indicate how an item tastes, only whether it is fit to be eaten. Nonpoisonous items found in nature – such as some mushroo ...
plant species. Identified at Barton Gulch were remains of charred seeds, stems, spines, and other elements from over thirty different plant species. These plans were recovered from a series of over one hundred cooking features. These discoveries suggest that the people of the area used plants for various purposes such as food, medicine, in ceremonies, tools and weapons.
People
The people of Barton Gulch are thought to have been seasonally semi
nomad
A nomad is a member of a community without fixed habitation who regularly moves to and from the same areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads (owning livestock), tinkers and trader nomads. In the twentieth century, the po ...
ic, meaning that although the people's living habits were largely nomadic, they do participate in planting crops at specific locations. Excavations suggest that the people were logistically organized, kin-related aggregates of
hunter-gatherers
A traditional hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living an ancestrally derived lifestyle in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local sources, especially edible wild plants but also insects, fungi, ...
. Remains of earth ovens at Barton Gulch were identified as a possible technique of processing plants and animals into food. The presence of earth ovens and other cooking features implies that the people had detailed procedures for preparing plant and animal remains.
[7. Nelson 2006, p. 817] The identification of the many different tools from the animal bones suggests that there were many different activities being done by the men and women of Barton Gulch. The first known Barton Gulch female was called Laura of the ChunN clan.
Notes
*Beauchamp, R; Boyce D (2007), Foragers of the Terminal Pleistocene in North America, U of Nebraska Press,
*Bruhns, K. O; Stothert, K. E (1999), Women in Ancient America, University of Oklahoma Press,
*Nelson, S. M (2006), Handbook of Gender in Archaeology, Rowman Altamira,
*Scarre, Christopher (2005), Human Past: World Prehistory and the Development of Human Societies, Thames & Hudson Publishing,
*Soffer, O (1993), From Kostenki to Clovis: Upper Paleolithic Paleo-Indian Adaptations, Plenum Publishers,
*Thomas, D. H (2000) Skull Wars: Kennewick Man, Archaeology, and the Battle for Native American Identity, Basic Books, {{ISBN, 0-465-09225-X
External links
Other
Montana Anthropology Student AssociationLESSON 2D-NARRATIVE: WHO ARE MONTANA'S ANCIENT PEOPLE
Archaeological sites in Montana
Geography of Madison County, Montana
Archaeological type sites