Synopses & Reviews
George Frisons Prehistoric Hunters of the High Plains has been the standard text on plains prehistory since its first publication in 1978, influencing generations of archaeologists. Now, a third edition of this classic work is available for scholars, students, and avocational archaeologists. Thorough and comprehensive, extensively illustrated, the book provides an introduction to the archaeology of the more than 13,000 year long history of the western Plains and the adjacent Rocky Mountains. Reflecting the boom in recent archaeological data, it reports on studies at a wide array of sites from deep prehistory to recent times examining the variability in the archeological record as well as in field, analytical, and interpretive methods. The 3rd edition brings the book up to date in a number of significant areas, as well as addressing several topics inadequately developed in previous editions.
Review
Praise for the First Edition "Frison has gathered together in this volume a well-organized, clearly written, and beautifully illustrated set of insights into the subsistence systems of the aboriginal inhabitants. This constitutes a solid, down-to-earth attempt at an ethnography of the many human groups who successfully lived in this region from the Clovis mammoth hunters until the final heyday of the Plains buffalo...Any Plains archaeologist must have this book, and any professional person interested in the history of man the hunter will find it fascinating reading." --SCIENCE
Synopsis
A comprehensive revision of the classic prehistory of the North American high plains.
About the Author
Marcel Kornfeld is a professor of anthropology and director of the George C. Frison Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Wyoming. He is the author of seven monographs, most recently On Shelters Ledge: Histories, Theories and Methods of Rockshelter Research, and coeditor of Islands on the Plains: Ecological, Social, and Ritual Use of Landscapes (University of Utah Press 2003). George C. Frison is professor emeritus of anthropology at the University of Wyoming and past president of the Society for American Archaeology. He served as first state archaeologist of the state of Wyoming. Unquestionably the best known researcher on the prehistory of the high plains, he has been responsible for significant excavations of the Glenrock, Casper, Agate Basin, Carter-McGee and Mill Iron sites, and many others. Frison is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a prolific author.Mary Lou Larson is a professor of anthropology and associate director of the George C. Frison Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Wyoming. She has coedited Aggregate Analysis in Chipped Stone (University of Utah Press 2004) and Changing Perspectives on the Archaic in the Rocky Mountains and Northwestern Plains.
Table of Contents
1-The Northwestern Plains and the Central Rocky Mountains: An Ecological Area for Prehistoric Hunters and Gatherers
2-The Archeological Record for the Northwestern Plains and Mountains
3-Methodology for the High Plains: Experimentation, Animal Behavior and High Tech Approaches
4-Mammoth and Bison Hunting
5-Prehistoric Hunting of Other Game and Small Animals
6-Prehistoric Lifeways on the Plains and in the Rockies. Mary Lou Larson
7-Paleoindian Flaked Stone Technology on the Plains and in the Rockies, Bruce A Bradley
8-The State of the Art: Wyoming Rock Art Research in the 21st Century,Julie E Francis
9-Advances in Northwestern Plains Bioarcheology and Skeletal Biology, George W Gill
10-Lithic Resources, James C Miller
11-Final Thoughts and Remarks
References
Author Index Subject Index