The Jurgens Site is a Paleo-Indian site located near Greeley in

Weld County, Colorado Weld County is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 census, the population was 328,981. The county seat is Greeley. Weld County comprises the Greeley, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is included in the Denver ...

. While the site was used primarily to hunt and butcher ''

bison antiquus ''Bison antiquus'', the antique bison or ancient bison, is an extinct species of bison that lived in Late Pleistocene North America until around 10,000 years ago. It was one of the most common large herbivores on the North American continent dur ...

'', there is evidence that the Paleo-Indians also gathered plants and seeds for food about 7,000 to 7,500 BC.

Geography

The site is located on a

South Platte River The South Platte River is one of the two principal tributaries of the Platte River. Flowing through the U.S. states of Colorado and Nebraska, it is itself a major river of the American Midwest and the American Southwest/ Mountain West. It ...

terrace Terrace may refer to: Landforms and construction * Fluvial terrace, a natural, flat surface that borders and lies above the floodplain of a stream or river * Terrace, a street suffix * Terrace, the portion of a lot between the public sidewalk an ...

in northeastern Colorado, east of Greeley near the town of Kersey.Gibbon, Ames, p. 404. There are three sites located nearby; The Frazier site is away and the Dent site is southwest.

History

Paleo-Indian

Cody complex knife and projectile points

Paleo-Indians were primarily hunters of large mammals, such as the

Bison antiquus ''Bison antiquus'', the antique bison or ancient bison, is an extinct species of bison that lived in Late Pleistocene North America until around 10,000 years ago. It was one of the most common large herbivores on the North American continent dur ...

,Griffin-Pierce, 130. during a transitional period from

Ice Age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gre ...

to Ice Age summer. As the climate warmed, glacial run-off created lakes and

savanna A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland- grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to ...

s. At the end of the summer period the land became drier, food was not as abundant, and they became extinct. People adapted by hunting smaller mammals and gathering wild plants to supplement their diet. The items found at the site were identified as Cody complex culture.Zimmerman, Vitelli, Hollowell-Zimmer, p. 121. The Cody complex was first identified at a

kill site near

Cody, Wyoming Cody is a city in Northwest Wyoming and the seat of government of Park County, Wyoming, United States. It is named after Colonel William Frederick "Buffalo Bill" Cody for his part in the founding of Cody in 1896. The population was 10,066 at th ...

in 1951. In addition to the Cody and Jurgens site, other Cody bison kill sites include Green River Basic (WY), Carter/Kerr-McGee (WY) and Frasca (CO). The sites are distinguished by their campsites, tools and butchering process. The tools, dated between about 6,000 and 8,000 BC, include Cody knives and Scottsbluff and diamond shaped Eden projectile points.Shortt, p. 5. Shaft abraders, used to straighten spear shafts, were found at the Jurgens Site and a few other Cody complex sites.Shortt, pp. 7, 10. According to Noel Justice, the site was inhabited first by people of the

Agate Basin Site The Agate Basin Site is a Paleoindian archeological site in Niobrara County, Wyoming. The location was discovered by William H. Spencer of Spencer, Wyoming in 1916, who found well-preserved stone blades and points in Moss Agate Arroyo. In 1941 Sp ...

culture and a second time by people defined as the "Kersey culture".

Bison kill site

Although ''

'' were dying off as the result of climate changes at the end of the

, the Jurgens site was evidence of their ability to acquire significant numbers of bison about 7150 B.C.

Archaeology

Artifacts

Artifacts were found in distinct areas within the site: There was also an area where tools were resharpened or replaced. In addition to the bison bones at the site, there were also butchered mammal (such as antelope, elk, deer), fish and bird bones.Dixon, p. 235. Tools at the site included:Justice, p. 119. * 63 Kersey

lanceolate The following is a list of terms which are used to describe leaf morphology in the description and taxonomy of plants. Leaves may be simple (a single leaf blade or lamina) or compound (with several leaflets). The edge of the leaf may be regular ...

projectile point In North American archaeological terminology, a projectile point is an object that was hafted to a weapon that was capable of being thrown or projected, such as a javelin, dart, or arrow. They are thus different from weapons presumed to have ...

s, like the Eden projectile points. The raw material for the points was

quartzite Quartzite is a hard, non- foliated metamorphic rock which was originally pure quartz sandstone.Essentials of Geology, 3rd Edition, Stephen Marshak, p 182 Sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure usually related to tec ...

, found locally, and Alibates from northern

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

. * 271 utilized and 2,023

debitage In archaeology, debitage is all the material produced during the process of lithic reduction – the production of stone tools and weapons by knapping stone. This assemblage may include the different kinds of lithic flakes and lithic blades, bu ...

flakes * 84 end scrapers * 32 knives, some of which appear to have been fashioned from previous projectile points * 30 ground-stone (anvil, hammerstone, etc.) * 9 bone tools (

atlatl A spear-thrower, spear-throwing lever or ''atlatl'' (pronounced or ; Nahuatl ''ahtlatl'' ) is a tool that uses leverage to achieve greater velocity in dart or javelin-throwing, and includes a bearing surface which allows the user to store ene ...

hooks, an engraved unla, antler flaking hammer) * 55 stone or mineral items

Excavation and studies

In 1967 Wormington excavated the Frazier site where she found

(WY) artifacts and bison bones. Malde was the geologist on the Dent and Frazier sites.Mandel, pp. 219-220.

Notes

References

Bibliography

* Dixon, E. James. (1999) ''Bones, Boats & Bison: Archaeology of the first colonization of western North America.'' University of New Mexico Press. . * Gibbon, Guy E.; Ames, Kenneth M
''Archaeology of Prehistoric Native America: An Encyclopedia''.
1998. . * Griffin-Pierce, Trudy. (2010)
''The Columbia Guide to American Indians of the Southwest.''
New York:Columbia University Press. . * Mandel, Rolfe D. (2000) ''Geoarchaeology in the Great Plains.'' Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press. * Shortt, Mack W
''Record of Early People on Yellowstone Lake: Cody Complex Occupation at Osprey Beach''
Yellowstone Science. 11(4). Retrieved 10-3-2011. * Zimmerman, Larry J.; Vitelli, Karen D.; Hollowell-Zimmer, Julie. (2003) ''Ethical Issues in Archaeology.'' Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press for the Society for American Archaeology. .