Cooper Bison Kill Site
Nearest cityFort Supply, Oklahoma
NRHP reference No.02000171[1]
Added to NRHPOctober 7, 2002

The Cooper Bison Kill Site is an archaeological site near Fort Supply in Harper County, Oklahoma, United States. Located along the Beaver River, it was explored in 1993 and 1994 and found to contain artifacts of the Folsom tradition, dated at c.10800 BCE to c. 10,200 BCE in calibrated radiocarbon years.[2] Findings include projectile points (for spears), the bow and arrow not yet being in use at this date.[3] The projectile points are the results of hunters killing bison in an arroyo. Known artifacts at the site from this culture are believed to be the results of three different hunts.[4]

Archaeology in America described the Cooper Site as "...a gully feeding the North Canadian River," which contained evidence of three separate kills, with between twenty and thirty animals in each kill.[lower-alpha 1] All three kills occurred during late summer or early fall, and each kill contained the remains of cows, calves and young bulls. Tools found at the site consisted only of projectile points and large flake knives.[5]

In 2002, the site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.[1]

A unique find at the site was that of a Bison antiquus skull, painted with a red zigzag.[6] The Cooper Bison Skull is oldest known painted object in North America.[7][5][lower-alpha 2] The skull is currently in the collection of the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History at the Norman campus of the University of Oklahoma.

Notes

  1. ↑ The article reported speculation that the remains represented less than half the total number of animals in each kill, since erosion of the gully over time could have carried away the remains of at least the number found in the excavation.[5]
  2. ↑ The paint was made of hematite.[4]

References

  1. 1 2 "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
  2. ↑ Surovell, Todd; Hodgins, Gregory; Boyd, Joshua; Haynes, C. Vance Jr. (April 2016). "On the Dating of the Folsom Complex and its Correlation with the Younger Dryas, the End of Clovis, and Megafaunal Extinction". PaleoAmerica. 2 (2): 7. doi:10.1080/20555563.2016.1174559. S2CID 45884830.
  3. ↑ Cooper Bison Kill Site (34HP45) Archived 2011-07-20 at the Wayback Machine, Oklahoma Center for Geospatial Information. Accessed 2009-06-14.
  4. 1 2 Bement, Leland C. "Cooper Site." Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture. Accessed May 30, 2016.
  5. 1 2 3 Cordell, Linda S., Kent Lightfoot, Francis McManamon and George Milner. Archaeology in America. p. 237. Accessed November 26, 2016.
  6. ↑ Bement, 37
  7. ↑ Bement 176

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