James D Keyser
Biographic Data
| ID | 116352 |
|---|---|
| NAME | James D Keyser |
| GIVEN NAMES | James D |
| FAMILY NAME | Keyser |
| SIGNATURE | KEYSER J D |
| AFFILIATIONS | Oregon Archaeological Society |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 57 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 227 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 57 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1974 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2023 |
| H-INDEX | 9 |
When Charcoal Was Hung”
A petroglyph showing a hanging scene is incised at DgOv-2 at Writing-on-Stone in southern Alberta. Photographed in 1897 and recorded in 1976 as part of a wider documentation of rock art in the provincial park, the subject of the image remained unknown. Recent research and a better understanding of the Biographic art lexicon suggests this image documents the execution of the Blood (Káínawa) warrior Charcoal (Si’k-okskitsis) following a prolonged m…
A DStretch discovery
DStretch enhancement technology has enabled rock art researchers to identify and record previously obscure pictographs at thousands of sites worldwide. Recent DStretch enhancement of photographs from Writing-on-Stone, Alberta, exposed a previously unknown horse and rider pictograph at site DgOv-2. The pictograph can be identified as a “calling card” painted by a Crow warrior-artist to taunt his Blackfoot enemies at one of their most sacred places…
Stylistic Change and Emic Cultural Continuity in Archaic-Period Anthropomorphs at No Bear, Montana
A newly discovered rock art site in Montana (No Bear) displays eight anthropomorphic images from an Archaic-period artistic tradition named Foothills Abstract. We present two independent means of establishing the relative chronology and stylistic sequence of change across these anthropomorphs. Two different cultural processes may underpin this sequence of stylistic change: one involving emic and cosmological continuity versus a second involving e…
Changing patterns of stylistic diversity in Blackfoot biographic art across the nineteenth century
During the nineteenth century, biographic art was used to depict events representing a warrior's most prominent accomplishments. These compositions were narrative in form, designed to be read by anyone familiar with the conventions embedded within their animated scenes. Accordingly, these artifacts are genuine historical documents, which – as part of a chronological sequence – record true a history that unfolds over decades. Here, using an establ…
White Swan
Crow warrior-artist White Swan authored more biographic images than any other Historic-period Crow artist. It has even been suggested that he drew one rock art scene at the historically important petroglyphs at Joliet, Montana. Here, the authors evaluate the likelihood that the Joliet scene is a White Swan drawing, and they also evaluate the possibility that one of the "anonymous" ledger drawings in the Barstow collection was drawn by him. Unfort…
Ambrose Bierce’s Indian inscriptions
Western History is often understood primarily from the perspective of the United States westward expansion as reflected in the concept of manifest destiny. Rarely do we have the opportunity to view this period through the eyes of native artists who were fighting to maintain ownership of their ancestral lands. These two historical currents came together in 1866 with the Hazen Expedition, when the expedition’s cartographer, Ambrose Bierce, recorded…
Shield petroglyphs at Alcatraz Rock
Three petroglyph shields incised on Alcatraz Rock in southeastern Montana show the same heraldic design. Ethnohistoric information about the general site area, coupled with ethnographic knowledge concerning the acquisition of heraldic shield designs suggests that a supplicant originally obtained the first shield in a vision at this place and later made additional copies of the shield, commemorating them with additional petroglyphs. The shield her…
Dating Crow Rock Art through Multivariate Statistical Comparison with Biographic Artworks
Historic period Plains biographic art provides narratives of the deeds and actions of Indigenous peoples of the region. The Crow ( Apsáalooke ) are one such people with a rich record of biographic drawings in rock art and portable works. However, chronological and stylistic links between these two media have long been thought out of reach, even though such links are essential if the abundant Historic period rock art is to be fully incorporated in…
Time's Arrow
Biographic artworks produced by Historic‐period Plains Indian warriors can be viewed as genuine historical documents, detailing important events in their lives. This is especially true because these documents contain a genuinely narrative component, telling their stories as much as depicting them. However, for individual lives to create a broader social history, they must be connected with the lives of others, especially over a temporal span. Her…
Cheval Bonnet
Cheval Bonnet, a small petroglyph site located along Cut Bank Creek in northern Montana, contains coup-counting and horse-raiding narratives from the early 1800s. By careful comparison to known Crow-style rock art and robe art imagery, most of the petroglyphs at the site can be identified as Crow drawings, begging the question of why they are located here, so far from Crow country and in the heart of Historic Blackfeet tribal territory. Detailed …
Beyond Oral History
Uinta Fremont rock art in southwestern Wyoming
The Fremont Culture, identified throughout eastern Utah and northwestern Colorado, is best known for Classic Vernal Style anthropomorphs. These figures show large trapezoidal bodies decorated with necklaces and crowned with elaborate horned headgear usually embellished with earrings or hairbobs. Recent research has identified Classic Vernal Style and other Fremont anthropomorphs at seven southwestern Wyoming sites extending from the Utah/Wyoming …
Assessing the chronology of post-contact rock art on the northern Plains via multivariate statistical comparison with Blackfoot biographic art
Plains Indian Rock Art
The Plains region that stretches from northern Colorado to southern Alberta and from the Rockies to the western Dakotas is the land of the Cheyenne and the Blackfeet, the Crow and the Sioux. Its rolling grasslands and river valleys have nurtured human cultures for thousands of years. On cave walls, glacial boulders, and riverside cliffs, native people recorded their ceremonies, vision quests, battles, and daily activities in the petroglyphs and p…
Bear Gulch style shield heraldry
The Bear Gulch and Atherton Canyon rock art sites in central Montana contain images of 1024 shield-bearing warriors and an additional 150 freestanding shields. More than 800 of these shields are decorated with heraldic designs characteristic of the Bear Gulch style, and form the largest corpus of Plains decorated shields. Using the system of basic meaningful units, Bear Gulch style designs can be grouped into five geometric and five representatio…
San rock art
In this small-format pocketbook, David Lewis-Williams provides a summary of his career's research into the San (Bushman) rock art of southern Africa. Using the Linton Panel, a spectacular painting
Giving Voice to the Past
Brothers in Arms
Central Montana’s Bear Gulch and Atherton Canyon sites together boast the largest collection of shield bearing warriors in the northern Plains, with 1,025 figures catalogued to date. From this large sample, the Bear Gulch style of shield bearing warriors stands out from other examples found at these sites and elsewhere on the Plains by their rich and diverse display of attributes and accoutrements. By applying a cluster analysis to identify meani…
Archaeologies of Art
Getting the Point
Metal projectile points were the earliest non-native made weapons to enter the Plains and would likely have caused significant changes in Protohistoric period warfare. Despite this there has been little effort to identify and study these artifacts in Plains rock art, even though it is almost our only archaeological record of warfare from this period. Recent research at Bear Gulch and Atherton Canyon, located in central Montana, has identified a n…
A Petroglyph Robe from Atherton Canyon, Montana
Atherton Canyon, an extensive rock art site located in central Montana, contains the first documented rock art image of a decorated hide robe. Showing a typical Box and Border motif, the robe dates from the Protohistoric period, prior to A.D. 1720. It cannot be definitely determined what animal’s hide was used for the robe, but its proportions suggest an animal smaller than a bison. The Atherton Canyon robe provides direct evidence of northern Pl…
Australian Apocalypse
Turner Rockshelter
Turner Rockshelter, located on the southeast flank of central Montana’s Bull Mountains, contains extensive panels of Biographic rock art showing both triangular and rectangular body style humans, mature style horses, battle pit fortifications, and a characteristic type of decorated halter. By comparison to known-age Blackfeet robe art, the images can be identified as Blackfeet and seriation dating indicates that they were most likely drawn in the…
Women in War
Women are not commonly drawn in northern Plains rock art, but they do occur in both the Ceremonial and Biographic traditions. When shown in Ceremonial rock art they appear in structure and content roles equivalent to those of males. In contrast, in later Biographic art they appear in various roles—from vanquished enemy to kidnapped wife—but these are nearly always subordinate to the male actors in these scenes. The newly recorded La Barge Bluffs …
Sympathetic Magic in Western North American Rock Art
Much rock art worldwide was traditionally interpreted in terms of 'hunting magic,' in part based on the related concept of 'sympathetic magic' In the last forty years, these interpretations were disproven in many regions and now are largely ignored as potential explanations for the origin and function of the art. In certain cases this may be premature. Examination of the ethnographic and archaeological evidence from western North America supports…
A Lexicon for Historic Plains Indian Rock Art
Historic period Northern Plains Indian rock art consists of well-drawn biographic compositions showing warfare and hunting scenes. In style and content this art closely resembles the hide paintings and ledger drawings done by ethnographic groups throughout the Plains. Some ledger drawings done after 1870 were acquired by whites who also obtained the original artists’ inter. pretations of the messages these scenes were meant to convey. The result …
Sympathetic Magic in Western North American Rock Art
Much rock art worldwide was traditionally interpreted in terms of 'hunting magic,' in part based on the related concept of 'sympathetic magic' In the last forty years, these interpretations were disproven in many regions and now are largely ignored as potential explanations for the origin and function of the art. In certain cases this may be premature. Examination of the ethnographic and archaeological evidence from western North America supports…
Painted Bison Robes
Northern Plains Biographic style Indian art was done in rock art, hide paintings, and ledger books. Rock art and ledger art have been well studied and a preliminary lexicon to help interpret these drawings has been defined. Biographic robe art, although not as well known to scholars of Plains Indian art, provides the missing link to further develop the Biographic art lexicon. The importance of painted robes derives from their early date, coupled …
Plains Indian Rock Art
The Plains region that stretches from northern Colorado to southern Alberta and from the Rockies to the western Dakotas is the land of the Cheyenne and the Blackfeet, the Crow and the Sioux. Its rolling grasslands and river valleys have nurtured human cultures for thousands of years. On cave walls, glacial boulders, and riverside cliffs, native people recorded their ceremonies, vision quests, battles, and daily activities in the petroglyphs and p…
Dating the Deadmond Bison Robe
The Deadmond bison robe was only recently recognized to be a surviving example of late Historic period Plains Indian biographic art. Using characteristic motifs from the more than 20 biographic scenes painted on the robe, the authors identify it as Blackfeet. By using the Deadmond family history and a seriation chronology of other, better-known Blackfeet robe art, the Deadmond robe can be confidently dated to the last two decades of the nineteent…
Bird Rattle’s Petroglyphs at Writing-On-Stone
Writing-On-Stone is well-known for its Plains Biographic rock art, characterized by distinctive motifs and narrative compositions. Biographic rock art flourished from the Late Prehistoric period throughout the nineteenth century. Although related images were drawn on hides and paper well into the twentieth century, it was unclear whether Biographic rock art also persisted this late. The recent discovery of photographs and narrative of a 1924 trip…
Assessing the chronology of post-contact rock art on the northern Plains via multivariate statistical comparison with Blackfoot biographic art
Every Detail Counts
Plains Biographic rock art is directly related to robe and ledger drawings created by Historic period Indian artists. Rock art often shows compositions, objects, and conventions that are identical to those identified and explained by the artists responsible for the robe andledger art. Identifying items of material culture and symbols used in various rock art scenes has previously led to the development and refinement of the Biographic rock art le…
Decorated Bridles
Decorated horse bridles are probably the most common horse tack shown in Plains biographic art. Painted on robes, drawn in ledgers, and incised or painted as rock art from northern Mexico to southern Alberta, these images illustrate the emphasis placed on horse finery by Plains and Southwestern Indian cultures. Rock art is replete with these decorated bridles. A cursory literature review identified more than 25 sites with illustrated examples, lo…
Indian Rock Art of the Columbia Plateau
PrefaceIntroductionThe Columbia Plateau and Its ArtistsWestern Montana: The Eastern Columbia Plateau--Images of Forgotten DreamsBritish Columbia--Rayed Arcs: A Distinctive MotifThe Central Columbia Plateau--Twins: The Duality of Life --The Magic of the HuntThe Lower Columbia--She Who WatchesThe Southeastern Columbia Plateau: Hells Canyon and Central Idaho--The Horse Brings a New Way of LifeRock Art Sites Developed for the PublicConclusions--Of Ir…
Beyond Oral History
A Thing to Tie on the Halter
A distinctive type of decorated halter has been identified in Historic period Northwestern Plains rock art. This “rake type” halter decoration appears to represent an artistic rendering of one form of a Black-feet ȁChorse medicine” bundle. Its distribution in rock art suggests that it may be an ethnic identifier for Blackfeet artists, and as such, it adds a significant aspect to the lexicon for Plains Indian biographic art
Cheval Bonnet
Cheval Bonnet, a small petroglyph site located along Cut Bank Creek in northern Montana, contains coup-counting and horse-raiding narratives from the early 1800s. By careful comparison to known Crow-style rock art and robe art imagery, most of the petroglyphs at the site can be identified as Crow drawings, begging the question of why they are located here, so far from Crow country and in the heart of Historic Blackfeet tribal territory. Detailed …
Turner Rockshelter
Turner Rockshelter, located on the southeast flank of central Montana’s Bull Mountains, contains extensive panels of Biographic rock art showing both triangular and rectangular body style humans, mature style horses, battle pit fortifications, and a characteristic type of decorated halter. By comparison to known-age Blackfeet robe art, the images can be identified as Blackfeet and seriation dating indicates that they were most likely drawn in the…
Women in War
Women are not commonly drawn in northern Plains rock art, but they do occur in both the Ceremonial and Biographic traditions. When shown in Ceremonial rock art they appear in structure and content roles equivalent to those of males. In contrast, in later Biographic art they appear in various roles—from vanquished enemy to kidnapped wife—but these are nearly always subordinate to the male actors in these scenes. The newly recorded La Barge Bluffs …
McKean Complex Projectile Point Typology and Function in the Pine Parklands
McKean complex projectile point typology has been of keen interest to Plains archaeologists since the early 1950s. This article examines the typological and functional relationships of McKean complex points from the Lightning Spring, McKean, Red Fox and Scoggin sites in the Pine Parklands area of the northwestern Plains. Techno-morphological study of these assemblages demonstrates that Duncan and Hanna are a single form, while the McKean Lanceola…
A Shoshonean Origin for the Plains Shield Bearing Warrior Motif
The shield bearing warrior is a distinctive motif characteristic of the rock art of the Northwestern Plains. It also occurs commonly in the eastern Great Basin as an element of Fremont rock art. Detailed similarities between Plains and Great Basin shield figures suggest cultural relationships between the two areas. This has led some authors to propose that the motif originated in the Northwestern Plains and diffused to the Great Basin. Others arg…
Time's Arrow
Biographic artworks produced by Historic‐period Plains Indian warriors can be viewed as genuine historical documents, detailing important events in their lives. This is especially true because these documents contain a genuinely narrative component, telling their stories as much as depicting them. However, for individual lives to create a broader social history, they must be connected with the lives of others, especially over a temporal span. Her…
Faith in the past
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Tribal Affiliation of Shield Petroglyphs from the Black Hills and Cave Hills
This study compares 22 shield designs from Black Hills and Cave Hills rock art with 314 ethnographically recorded shield designs. Based on these comparisons, 11 of the petroglyphs were identified as Cheyenne, two as possibly Cheyenne, one as Lakota or Cheyenne, and one as either Cheyenne or Crow. The seven remaining designs could not be assigned a cultural affiliation
A War Shirt from the Schoch Collection
Prior to the development of Ledger Book art, Plains Indians painted Biographic art on buffalo robes and other items of clothing. One such piece, obtained in the 1830s by Lorenz Schoch, a Swiss merchant headquartered in St. Louis, is now in the collection of the Bernisches Historisches Museum in Bern, Switzerland. The Schoch war shirt is identified as Sioux and decorated with a series of Early Biographic style pictographs. Based on structural crit…
Bear Gulch style shield heraldry
The Bear Gulch and Atherton Canyon rock art sites in central Montana contain images of 1024 shield-bearing warriors and an additional 150 freestanding shields. More than 800 of these shields are decorated with heraldic designs characteristic of the Bear Gulch style, and form the largest corpus of Plains decorated shields. Using the system of basic meaningful units, Bear Gulch style designs can be grouped into five geometric and five representatio…
Dating Crow Rock Art through Multivariate Statistical Comparison with Biographic Artworks
Historic period Plains biographic art provides narratives of the deeds and actions of Indigenous peoples of the region. The Crow ( Apsáalooke ) are one such people with a rich record of biographic drawings in rock art and portable works. However, chronological and stylistic links between these two media have long been thought out of reach, even though such links are essential if the abundant Historic period rock art is to be fully incorporated in…
A Mathematical Technique For Dating Projectile Points Common To The Northwestern Plains
Using a collection of projectile points from well-dated contexts in Montana and Wyoming, we have developed a mathematical technique for dating projectile points to either the Archaic or the Late Prehistoric periods. Statistical analysis suggests that the technique may be used with 96% accuracy on points for which chronometric information is not available.Statistical analysis is documented, and instructions for dating points are given. The techniq…
The Plains Indian War Complex and the Rock Art of Writing-On-Stone, Alberta, Canada
The rock art at Writing-On-Stone located in southern Alberta, Canada, is a pictorial record of Late Prehistoric and Historical Period Plains Indian culture. Analysis of these petroglyphs and pictographs provides evidence relevant to a discussion of the changes in the Plains Indian war complex and status determination system that accompanied the introduction of the horse and gun into the Northwestern Plains region of North America
The LaMarche Game Trap
The LaMarche Game Trap, 24BE1011, is a stylized, high altitude game trap in the Beaverhead National Forest, southwestern Montana. The site complex includes a wooden pole corral and an extensive system of wooden fence wings. The preservation of the structure, and the age of the trees incorporated into it, indicate that the corral was built in the early 1800’s. Ethnographic evidence suggests that the trap is Shoshone in origin
A Shoshonean Origin for the Plains Shield Bearing Warrior Motif
The shield bearing warrior is a distinctive motif characteristic of the rock art of the Northwestern Plains. It also occurs commonly in the eastern Great Basin as an element of Fremont rock art. Detailed similarities between Plains and Great Basin shield figures suggest cultural relationships between the two areas. This has led some authors to propose that the motif originated in the Northwestern Plains and diffused to the Great Basin. Others arg…
The Risley Bison Kill
The Risley Bison Jump, a large kill site approximately 50 miles west of Great Falls, Montana, was test excavated in 1974. The badly vandalized site was scheduled to be destroyed by land subdivision.Even though the site was badly disturbed, our excavations show that the site was a well-used bison jump with at least four usages evident. Processing and butchering areas were located along the margins of the kill middens. Side-notched projectilepoints…
The Rock Art Of Western Montana
Western Montana rock art comprises 29 pictograph sites scattered throughout the mountainousPacific-drained portion of the state. The sites, composed of panels of simple red, yellow or black pictographs, cluster along the major streams in the region. A variety of zoomorphic, anthropomorphic and geometric designs predominate. Traditionally Western Montana rock art has beenassumed to be related to the rock art of the Northwestern Plains, however, th…
Audrey’s Overhang
Audrey’s Overhang, a small pictograph site in Montana’s Smith River Drainage, is part of a highly abstract rock art style localized in the Rocky Mountain foothills of central Montana. An abstract anthropomorph at Audrey’s Overhang is similar to those at several nearby sites. Site characteristics suggest that the pictographs of this rock art style were painted as part of a vision guest ceremony. Because the rock art of much of the surrounding area…
A Preliminary Shoreline Survey of Lima Reservoir
During the summer of 1974 an archaeological reconnaissance of the Centennial Valley, located in Southwestern Montana, resulted in the location of 35 archaeological sites. These sites include occupation sites, tipi rings, and three obsidian quarries—the first verified obsidian sources in Montana. Numerous artifacts were recovered from these sites. Projectile points of the Cody Complex, McKean Complex and numerous corner-notched varieties indicate …
The Plains Indian War Complex and the Rock Art of Writing-On-Stone, Alberta, Canada
The rock art at Writing-On-Stone located in southern Alberta, Canada, is a pictorial record of Late Prehistoric and Historical Period Plains Indian culture. Analysis of these petroglyphs and pictographs provides evidence relevant to a discussion of the changes in the Plains Indian war complex and status determination system that accompanied the introduction of the horse and gun into the Northwestern Plains region of North America
Variations in Stone Ring Use at two Sites in Central Montana
Until recently, tipi rings received little attention from archaeologists. All of the classic studies of these structures were done more than 20 years ago, and there was little agreement concerning any aspects of stone circles. Recently Plains archaeologists have begun to recognize the importance of tipi rings and to test the hypotheses of earlier authors. During the summer of 1973 the University of Montana Statewide Archaeological Survey conducte…
Jackson Fall-Leaf
The Jackson Fall-Leaf site is a deeply buried multi-component occupation site located in the Little Caney River Valley of Northeastern Oklahoma. The site, situated in the Cross Timbers province on the southeastern periphery of the Southern Plains, contains cultural debris from the Woodland and Plains Village periods. Excavation produced a large quantity of chipped stone artifacts and allowed the delineation of an activity area within the site. Ty…
Pictographs At The Desrosier Rockshel Ter
The DesRosier rockshelter is located in the Smith River drainage in central Montana, just east of the Continental Divide. Although the deep, stratified, culture-bearing deposit in the shelter has been test excavated and the recovered artifacts described, pictographs in the shelter and in an associated rock structure have never been discussed. My analysis of these pictographs demonstrates that they are representative of the Columbia Plateau rock a…
Ceramics From the Highwalker Site
The Highwalker site is a two component prehistoric encampment located in the Pine Parklands region of southeastern Montana. The Late Prehistoric period occupation represents a briefly used, special purpose site occupied by a Native American group primarily engaged in the final butchering of bison and the processing of its by-products. Two radiocarbon samples date the Late Prehistoric period occupation between A.D. 1000 and A.D. 1100. Ceramics rec…
Three Small Points
Three small points which resemble larger Cody Complex projectile points are related to this Complex on the basis of technological and shape attributes. It is concluded that several factors underlie occurrence of tiny Cody points. Resharpening of larger points accounts for one pattern. In addition, diminutive points were produced using two alternative sets of technological procedures. It is suggested that these points were not used in subsistence …
A Mathematical Technique For Dating Projectile Points Common To The Northwestern Plains
Using a collection of projectile points from well-dated contexts in Montana and Wyoming, we have developed a mathematical technique for dating projectile points to either the Archaic or the Late Prehistoric periods. Statistical analysis suggests that the technique may be used with 96% accuracy on points for which chronometric information is not available.Statistical analysis is documented, and instructions for dating points are given. The techniq…
Reply to Patterson
The Archaeological Identification Of Local Populations
Lightning Spring and Red Fox are large, multicomponent occupation sites in the Grand River drainage of North and South Dakota. Both include contemporaneous McKean phase components that yielded large artifact assemblages including numerous blanks and finished projectile points representing the projectile point manufacturing sequence utilized by the McKean phase occupants. Technological analyses of these specimens in conjunction with other signific…
The Evidence for Mckean Complex Plant Utilization
Northwestern Plains archaeologists often characterize McKean as a foraging, archaic type economy with resemblances to the Desert Culture adaptation of the Great Basin even though direct evidence of plant procurement and processing is limited to four sites where preserved floral remains have been recovered. The data from these sites — Leigh Cave, George Hey, Lightning Spring, and Mummy Cave — are summarized and placed in regional perspective in or…
A Lexicon for Historic Plains Indian Rock Art
Historic period Northern Plains Indian rock art consists of well-drawn biographic compositions showing warfare and hunting scenes. In style and content this art closely resembles the hide paintings and ledger drawings done by ethnographic groups throughout the Plains. Some ledger drawings done after 1870 were acquired by whites who also obtained the original artists’ inter. pretations of the messages these scenes were meant to convey. The result …
Esp
Archaeological work at the .East Short Pines (ESP) site in Harding County, South Dakota, is the first intensive effort to study procurement and processing operations for Tongue River Silicified Sediment (TASS). Investigations at the site show a source area of TASS and an associated workshop with large quantities of lithic debris and numerous firepits. Analysis of debitage, rejected quarry blanks, hammerstones, and pits used for annealing raw TASS…
A Thing to Tie on the Halter
A distinctive type of decorated halter has been identified in Historic period Northwestern Plains rock art. This “rake type” halter decoration appears to represent an artistic rendering of one form of a Black-feet ȁChorse medicine” bundle. Its distribution in rock art suggests that it may be an ethnic identifier for Blackfeet artists, and as such, it adds a significant aspect to the lexicon for Plains Indian biographic art
A War Shirt from the Schoch Collection
Prior to the development of Ledger Book art, Plains Indians painted Biographic art on buffalo robes and other items of clothing. One such piece, obtained in the 1830s by Lorenz Schoch, a Swiss merchant headquartered in St. Louis, is now in the collection of the Bernisches Historisches Museum in Bern, Switzerland. The Schoch war shirt is identified as Sioux and decorated with a series of Early Biographic style pictographs. Based on structural crit…
Indian Rock Art of the Columbia Plateau
PrefaceIntroductionThe Columbia Plateau and Its ArtistsWestern Montana: The Eastern Columbia Plateau--Images of Forgotten DreamsBritish Columbia--Rayed Arcs: A Distinctive MotifThe Central Columbia Plateau--Twins: The Duality of Life --The Magic of the HuntThe Lower Columbia--She Who WatchesThe Southeastern Columbia Plateau: Hells Canyon and Central Idaho--The Horse Brings a New Way of LifeRock Art Sites Developed for the PublicConclusions--Of Ir…
Painted Bison Robes
Northern Plains Biographic style Indian art was done in rock art, hide paintings, and ledger books. Rock art and ledger art have been well studied and a preliminary lexicon to help interpret these drawings has been defined. Biographic robe art, although not as well known to scholars of Plains Indian art, provides the missing link to further develop the Biographic art lexicon. The importance of painted robes derives from their early date, coupled …
Tribal Affiliation of Shield Petroglyphs from the Black Hills and Cave Hills
This study compares 22 shield designs from Black Hills and Cave Hills rock art with 314 ethnographically recorded shield designs. Based on these comparisons, 11 of the petroglyphs were identified as Cheyenne, two as possibly Cheyenne, one as Lakota or Cheyenne, and one as either Cheyenne or Crow. The seven remaining designs could not be assigned a cultural affiliation
McKean Complex Projectile Point Typology and Function in the Pine Parklands
McKean complex projectile point typology has been of keen interest to Plains archaeologists since the early 1950s. This article examines the typological and functional relationships of McKean complex points from the Lightning Spring, McKean, Red Fox and Scoggin sites in the Pine Parklands area of the northwestern Plains. Techno-morphological study of these assemblages demonstrates that Duncan and Hanna are a single form, while the McKean Lanceola…
Bird Rattle’s Petroglyphs at Writing-On-Stone
Writing-On-Stone is well-known for its Plains Biographic rock art, characterized by distinctive motifs and narrative compositions. Biographic rock art flourished from the Late Prehistoric period throughout the nineteenth century. Although related images were drawn on hides and paper well into the twentieth century, it was unclear whether Biographic rock art also persisted this late. The recent discovery of photographs and narrative of a 1924 trip…
Archaeology (54 works) · Archaeology and Rock Art Studies (40 works) · History (40 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (37 works) · Geography (33 works) · Art (32 works) · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology (32 works) · Geology (29 works) · Geology (27 works) · Rock art (27 works)