Overview

Ancestors of today�s Native Americans populated the Great Plains about 14,000 years ago, about the time glaciers of the last Ice Age began melting back to the north. Prehistoric people living on the dry plains east of the Rocky Mountains were hunter-gatherers�they moved from place to place in search of animals to hunt and seeds, roots, and berries to gather. Archaeologists have reconstructed the history of these hunter-gatherers by studying old camp sites and tools made of stone and antler. Author Lauri Travis introduces readers to the science of archaeology, shedding light on how field scientists find evidence of people who did not build permanent houses and how researchers determine the age of an arrowhead and what it was used to kill. Archaeological illustrator Eric Carlson brings to life the day-to-day activities of these early people, such as how they used drive lines to funnel animals over buffalo jumps, how sinew was used to attach points to spears, and how grinding stones were used to mash seeds into flour. The book also includes photographs of artifacts and excavation sites, as well as a list of archaeological sites you can visit while exploring the vast plains where mammoths used to roam.

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9780878426928

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Reviews

Beautifully illustrated and impressively informative, Arrowheads, Spears, and Buffalo Jumps is a thoroughly engaging read from cover to cover and one that is unreservedly recommended for personal, school, and community library American Archaeology collections in general, and Native American History supplemental studies reading lists in particular. Jack Mason, The Bookwatch

Beautifully illustrated and impressively informative, Arrowheads, Spears, and Buffalo Jumps is a thoroughly engaging read from cover to cover and one that is unreservedly recommended for personal, school, and community library American Archaeology collections in general, and Native American History supplemental studies reading lists in particular.�Jack Mason, The Bookwatch

Author Information

Lauri Travis received her PhD in anthropology from the University of Utah and lives in Helena, Montana. She has been working in the Intermountain West for over three decades and leads research each summer in Montana's Big Belt Mountains. Her research concentrates on evolutionary ecology and human adaptation to environmental changes in the past. Eric S. Carlson, an archaeological illustrator, earned a degree in anthropology from the University of Montana. Imaging Montana landscapes at the end of the Ice Age was not difficult for Eric, who hails from Juneau, Alaska, where modern glaciers extend to the sea. He lives and sketches in Missoula, Montana.

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