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Bison Hunting at Cooper Site: Where Lightning Bolts Drew Thundering Herds

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When they unearthed the Bison skull with the red stripe of lightning on the skull they knew this was just not another Folsom site. The red stripe had been put there by Paleoindian Folsom hunters and down through the years spoke to the excavators of the site as the ancient hunter's wish for success in hunting. Nothing of its type has to this point ever been found at a Folsom site.

The Cooper Site in northwestern Oklahoma has been worked on since 1993 with 3 distinct levels of Bison bones, Folsom points, and other evidence of hunting activity going back between 10,200 and 10,900 years ago.

Three levels had to be excavated to uncover the activities of these Paleoindian people who obtained their meat supply at this ravine. The site also represents "the largest Folsom-age kill sites in the southern plains.". In total 33 projectile points have been uncovered, with indication that these Folsom hunters used a "selective or 'gourmet' butchering technique.".

There are three types of bison: Bison bison, modern day species; Bison occidentalis, an ancient intermediate bison now exinct, and the one found at the Cooper Site, Bison antiquus, a species having long, straight horns which both the Clovis and Folsom peoples hunted, with the now extinct Bison antiquus being a large, robust animal.

The book has many photographs which help to further the reader's understanding of the narrative, but one minor flaw to the book is that these photos are not very clear, and there are no color ones. But since books of this nature do not come off press very often this small flaw doesn't count too much against the book.

I studied Anthropology in college and find this book to be terribly interesting, possibly others lacking interest in anthropology and archaeology may not be as enthusiastic as myself. But as with all books from U of Ok this book will be well worth the time spent by most readers.

Semper Fi.