Fire Reveals Human Stone Effigy, Bison-Kill Site in Montana

[bluedigger]

A grass fire in northern Montana has uncovered an ancient complex of stone alignments and other features that have likely not been seen for centuries — and certainly never from the air. The features emerging from the blackened plains appear to have served both ceremonial and practical uses, forming a site that land managers described as “exceedingly rare and unique.”

Among the formations are two large effigies —or figures made from arrangements of stones — one of a human and the other, perhaps, of a turtle. The burn also exposed six rock cairns, a multitude of stone tipi rings, and dozens of so-called drive lines — alignments of large boulders that ancient hunters used to chase bison into a killing pen.

The 800 acres of prairie in Phillips County, known as the Henry Smith site, were first identified as a prehistoric bison-hunting site in the 1960s, but it was never extensively recorded. Partial excavations at the time revealed a portion of the impoundment where the animals were trapped, as well as butchering tools and stemmed stone points that were indicative of a cultural complex from the Northern Plains known as the Avonlea phase. The artifacts — along with radiocarbon dates from six discrete layers of cast-off bison remains — showed that the site was used regularly from 770 to 1040 CE.
http://westerndigs.org/fire-reveals-human-stone-effigy-bison-kill-site-in-montana/