<< Our Photo Pages >> Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump - Ancient Mine, Quarry or other Industry in Canada
Submitted by bat400 on Sunday, 24 May 2009 Page Views: 40611
Multi-periodSite Name: Head-Smashed-In Buffalo JumpCountry: Canada
NOTE: This site is 33.914 km away from the location you searched for.
Type: Ancient Mine, Quarry or other Industry
Nearest Town: Fort MacLeod, Albert
Latitude: 49.706500N Longitude: 113.6535W
Condition:
5 | Perfect |
4 | Almost Perfect |
3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
0 | No data. |
-1 | Completely destroyed |
5 | Superb |
4 | Good |
3 | Ordinary |
2 | Not Good |
1 | Awful |
0 | No data. |
5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
4 | Short walk on a footpath |
3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
2 | A long walk |
1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
0 | No data. |
5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
0 | no data |
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MartinJEley would like to visit
TheCaptain visited on 15th Apr 1989 - their rating: Access: 5
bat400 have visited here
A North American Bison (Buffalo) bull will weigh 800 kg and is 3 m from its sharp pointed horns to tail and just under 2 m from hoofs to back hump. In massive herds, this animal was nearly impossible for a few hunters on foot to bring down with stone tipped weapons. But a complex culture used topography and their understanding of Bison behavior to gather, entice, and finally stampede the animals over what is now an 18m high cliff. This hunt was repeated regularly by multiple bands of people who gathered for the job.
The Gathering Basin is a large drainage area west of the cliffs where grass grows heavier than on drier surrounding areas. The ancient hunters augmented this natural area by stacking periodic low piles of stone, probably to anchor brush piles, or mats to provide both hiding places for themselves and visible obstructions that would tend to make the bison move toward the cliff instead of along it. These small cairns can still be seen and start 14 km from the cliff itself.
In historic times the Southern Peigan (Aamsskaapipiikani) people - part of the Blackfoot Indian tribes - told and showed Europeans how they could lure a Bison herd to follow someone mimicking the sound of a bison calf. This is how a naturally gathered herd could be persuaded to move toward the Jump. Others people slowly stalking and surrounding the herd could spook it into a run. At some jump sites, the animals would be killed by the fall. At Head-Smashed-In it is likely that many animals would only be disabled, and would have to be finished off by hunters at the base of the cliff.
As great as the effort to stalk and start the herd was, the job of processing the kill required larger number of people. Digs showed the bone pile at the base of the cliff to be up to10 meters deep! The stench of the kill area in the days following the stampede and the hard labor of butchering is hard to imagine. (The word for these Jump sites in one Plains language translates as "deep bucket of blood.") Mixed among the bones are dart and spear points, and pieces of stone knife blades and choppers. In more recent layers arrowheads are found. On the flat plain below the cliffs digs have revealed the remains of extensive camp sites and stone tools. Hammers were used to crack open large bones for marrow. Tons of heat-cracked rock are found in this area, indicating the large scale boiling of bones and carcass pieces to render fat.
These hunts continued into the area's early historic period. Although by the time ethnic Europeans saw this, the hunt and processing must have dramatically changed. The Plains Indians had integrated the horse into their culture. This and the use of firearms had reduced the necessity of a large number of people to participate in any type of hunt or depend of the Jump itself.
The name of this site comes from a story about a young man who wanted to see the kill "up close" and hid below the cliff in a cleft close by the rock face. It was not secure, and he was found dead by the hunters and teams butchering the kill.
An innovative museum is built into the cliff south of the Kill Site. The area's geography, geology and biology are presented as background to the archeological and anthropological record. This is an amazing site and should not be missed if you are in southern Alberta or northwest Montana.
website
[Information from "Buffalo Tracks," a pamphlet of articles authored and edited by the Archeological Survey of Alberta and the Research Unit of the Historic Sites branch of Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, a Unesco World Heritage site.]
Note: Several more pictures now in of this intriguing place.
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