Spearhead
found in 5,000-year-old
bison skull
By
Grant Slater
Oklahoma Daily
NORMAN, Okla. (U-Wire) — Rows and rows of dusty animal skulls adorn the
walls of the Oklahoma Archaeological Survey, but one skull made its television
debut Monday on the PBS show “History Detectives.”
University of Oklahoma (OU) archaeologist Leland Bement said this 5,000-year-old
bison skull and a spearhead embedded in it represent the missing evolutionary
link between two species and a wealth of information about an ancient people.
The show focused on the effort to prove the authenticity of the skull, depicting
a historical mystery solved by high-tech scientific sleuths.
“Things do get faked sometimes,” said Don Wyckoff, curator of archaeology
at the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History, where the skull is displayed
in the Peoples’ Room.
He stressed the most important thing was to determine the authenticity of the
object.
“On the show, they basically ask, ‘Is this thing real?’” Bement
said.
He and other archaeologists set out to answer that question two years ago,
immediately after the bison skull was found.
Collector Kim Holt found the object on a gravel bank of the Arkansas River
near Tulsa. He contacted the Oklahoma Archaeological Survey after he noticed
a spearhead about three inches across embedded in the skull. This type of object
could have been a hoax or a key to unlocking an ancient hunting culture.
To prove that it was not a hoax, archaeologists at OU enlisted the help of
colleagues at the University of Texas. The skull was taken to Austin for a
CAT scan. This scan revealed the intricate interior of the bison skull and
details about its demise.
In his office, Bement reached across his cluttered desk and retrieved a small
plastic bag. He pulled two small white fragments out of the bag and turned
them over in his hand.
These fragments were exact copies of the two pieces of the spearhead, which
remain lodged in the skull at the museum.
The CAT scan also produced three-dimensional renderings of the bison skull
in great detail, which can be viewed at the Web site of the Oklahoma Archaeological
Survey.
A press release on the Web site describes how the spearhead fractured as it
entered the skull. The lack of damage to the back wall of the skull leads the
archaeologists to believe the initial strike only knocked the bison senseless,
enabling the hunters time to inflict a mortal wound, Bement said.
All the results of the CAT scan indicated a specimen of extreme rarity and
importance.
To be sure, the archaeologists sent the skull to a lab for radiocarbon testing.
This test showed that the skull dated back about 5,120 years. This final piece
of evidence solved the mystery and affirmed the importance of this specimen.
“This is pretty much the pinnacle,” said Marjy Duncan, an archaeologist
at the Oklahoma Archaeological Survey. “It really tells us a lot.”
The bison skull provides crucial information about the lifestyle of the Calf
Creek culture dating from 3,500 to 5,000 years ago. It also links two species
of animals through evolution, the bison occidentalis and bison bison species.
“It is the transition between the two species,” Bement said.
“ It has characteristics that are more aligned to bison occidentalis.”
Bison occidentalis lived from 8,000 to 5,000 years ago and developed into the
modern version of the bison. This particular specimen was 1 to 2 years old
at the time when it was overtaken and killed by a group of Calf Creek hunters. |
