The Plano cultures is a name given by

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

s to a group of disparate

hunter-gatherer 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, ...

communities that occupied the

Great Plains The Great Plains (french: Grandes Plaines), sometimes simply "the Plains", is a broad expanse of flatland in North America. It is located west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, an ...

area of

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

during the Paleo-Indian or Archaic period.

Distinguishing characteristics

The Plano cultures are characterised by a range of unfluted projectile point tools collectively called Plano points and like the

Folsom people Folsom may refer to: People * Folsom (surname) Places in the United States * Folsom, Perry County, Alabama * Folsom, Randolph County, Alabama * Folsom, California * Folsom, Georgia * Folsom, Louisiana * Folsom, Missouri * Folsom, New Jersey ...

generally hunted '' Bison antiquus'', but made even greater use of techniques to force stampedes off of a cliff or into a constructed corral. Their diets also included pronghorn,

elk The elk (''Cervus canadensis''), also known as the wapiti, is one of the largest species within the deer family, Cervidae, and one of the largest terrestrial mammals in its native range of North America and Central and East Asia. The common ...

, deer, raccoon, and

coyote The coyote (''Canis latrans'') is a species of canis, canine native to North America. It is smaller than its close relative, the wolf, and slightly smaller than the closely related eastern wolf and red wolf. It fills much of the same ecologica ...

. To better manage their food supply, they preserved meat in berries and animal fat and stored it in containers made of hides.

History

The Plano cultures existed in the North American Arctic during the Paleo-Indian or Archaic period between

9000 BCE The 9th millennium BC spanned the years 9000 BC to 8001 BC (11 to 10 thousand years ago). In chronological terms, it is the first full millennium of the current Holocene epoch that is generally reckoned to have begun by 9700 BC (11.7 thousand ...

and 6000 BCE. The Plano cultures originated in the plains, but extended far beyond, from the Atlantic coast to modern-day British Columbia and as far north as the Northwest Territories. "Early Plano culture occurs south of the North Saskatchewan River in Saskatchewan and in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains north to the Peace River Valley of Alberta and adjacent British Columbia. At this time, most of Manitoba was still covered by

Glacial Lake Agassiz Lake Agassiz was a large glacial lake in central North America. Fed by glacial meltwater at the end of the last glacial period, its area was larger than all of the modern Great Lakes combined. First postulated in 1823 by William H. Keating, i ...

and associated glacial ice." Bison herds were attracted to the grasslands and parklands in the western region. Around 9,000 B.P. as retreating glaciers created newly released lake regions, the expansion of plant and animal communities expanded north and east, and the barren ground caribou in the tundra, boreal woodland caribou in the boreal forests and plains, and mountain caribou replaced

bison Bison are large bovines in the genus ''Bison'' (Greek: "wild ox" (bison)) within the tribe Bovini. Two extant and numerous extinct species are recognised. Of the two surviving species, the American bison, ''B. bison'', found only in North Ame ...

as the major prey animal. In the Great Plains, the following are Plano cultures from 10,000 to 7,000 years ago, distinguished by long, lanceolate projectile points:Cassells, E. Steve. (1997). ''The Archeology of Colorado'', Revised Edition. Boulder, Colorado: Johnson Books. p. 79. . * Agate Basin complex, named for the Agate Basin Site.Cassells, E. Steve. (1997). ''The Archeology of Colorado'', Revised Edition. Boulder, Colorado: Johnson Books. p. 81. . * Cody complex, named for the Horner site near Cody, Wyoming, includes the Olsen-Chubbuck Bison Kill Site and the

Jurgens Site The Jurgens Site is a Paleo-Indian site located near Greeley in Weld County, Colorado. While the site was used primarily to hunt and butcher '' bison antiquus'', there is evidence that the Paleo-Indians also gathered plants and seeds for food ...

.Cassells, E. Steve. (1997). ''The Archaeology of Colorado'', Revised Edition. Boulder, Colorado: Johnson Books. pp. 81-86. . *

Hell Gap complex Hell Gap complex is a Plano culture from 10,060 to 9,600 before present. It is named after the Hell Gap archaeological site, in Goshen County, Wyoming. Other Hell Gap complex sites In addition to the Hell Gap archaeological site, other Wyoming ...

, such as the Hell Gap, Wyoming site for which it was named and the Jones-Miller Bison Kill Site. * Foothills / Mountain complex

Citations

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Plano Cultures Archaeological cultures of North America Archaic period in North America Indigenous culture of the Great Plains Native American history of Colorado Paleo-Indian period Pre-Columbian cultures Prehistoric cultures in Colorado Archaeology of the United States 7th millennium BC 8th millennium BC