Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Baker Cave Bison Remains: Bison Diminution And Late Holocene Subsistence On The Snake River Plain, Southern Idaho, Ryan P. Breslawski

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This thesis investigates that paleoecology of southern Idaho bison and their role in prehistoric subsistence with two articles. The first article investigates the trajectory of bison diminution in southern Idaho with bison morphometrics from Baker Cave, a late Holocene archaeological site. Results indicate that local bison followed a diminution trend mirroring the diminution trend documented on the Great Plains. This suggests that similar bottom up ecosystem controls acted on bison in both the Great Plains and in southern Idaho through the Holocene.

The second article examines the role of bison in seasonal subsistence strategies. I hypothesize that winter fat scarcity …