THE LANGE/FERGUSON SITE (39SH33)
Shannon County, South Dakota
Excavations conducted between 1980 and 1984 at the Lange/Ferguson
site revealed a mammoth kill-butchering locality situated on the edge of
a Late Pleistocene pond or marsh in the White River Badlands of South Dakota.
Aerial view of the White River Badlands and Lange/Ferguson
site location
Remnant buttes, paleosols at the Lange/Ferguson site
These investigations established the presence of a Clovis technocultural
complex.
Plan of the bone bed
One human activity area at the site contained the associated remains
of an adult and a juvenile mammoth. Both animals had been systematically
butchered using culturally modified elements of mammoth bone.
Reconstruction of the butchering process at Lange/Ferguson
A second activity area at the site, in a context stratigraphically
related to the first area, revealed three Clovis points.
The recovery of bone implements, coupled with the recovery of well-preserved
proboscidean, nonproboscidean, and invertebrate fauna, as well as fossil
pollen and phytoliths, has expanded our insights into butchering systematics
associated with the Clovis culture.
The four images below show examples of the mammoth bone tools and bone flaking
represented at the Lange/Ferguson site
Bone cleaver
Bone core and flake
Three views of bone core
Ovoid bone flake
An important aspect of the research at Lange/Ferguson involved paleoenvironmental
reconstruction. Fine-scale recovery techniques were used to collect molluscan
remains which provide important insights into the past environment.
 |
Snail shells (188k) These species were adapted to open water
or wet shoreline conditions. |
 |
Snail shells (265k) These species were adapted to woodlands,
gallery forests or grasslands. |
For more information on Lange/Ferguson please see the following references
by L. Adrien Hannus:
- "The Lange/Ferguson Site - An Event of Clovis Mammoth Butchery
With the Associated Bone Tool Technology: The Mammoth and its Track".
Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Utah, 1985. (Available from University
Microfilms, Ann Arbor, Michigan).
- Flaked Mammoth Bone from the Lange/Ferguson Site, White River Badlands
Area, South Dakota. Abstracts, First International Conference on Bone Modification,
pp. 16-17. Center for the Study of Early Man, University of Maine at Orono,
1984.
- Bone Tools in Clovis Context. Mammoth Trumpet 1(2):1,5. Center
for the Study of Early Man, University of Maine at Orono, 1984.
- Utensilios De Hueso De Mamut En La Localidad Lange-Ferguson Del Periodo
Pre-Clovis. In Origenes del Hombre Americano, compiled by Alba Jacome,
pp. 69-78. Publication of the Secretary of Public Education, Mexico City,
Mexico, 1988.
- Flaked Mammoth Bone from the Lange/Ferguson Site, White River Badlands
Area, South Dakota. In Bone Modification, edited by R. Bonnichsen
and M. Sorg, pp. 395-412. Center for the Study of the First Americans,
University of Maine, Orono, 1989.
- Mammoth Hunting in the New World. In Hunters of the Recent Past,
edited by L.B. Davis and B.O.K. Reeves, pp.47-67. Unwin Hyman, Ltd., London,
1990.
- The Lange-Ferguson Site: A Case for Mammoth Bone Butchering Tools.
In Megafauna and Man, Discovery of America's Heartland, edited by
L. Agenbroad, J. Mead, and L. Nelson, pp. 86-99. Mammoth Site of Hot Springs,
SD and Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, 1990.
- Ecological and Climatic Implications of Fossil Mollusks at the Lange/Ferguson
Mammoth Site. In The Lange/Ferguson Site - An Event of Clovis Mammoth
Butchery With the Associated Bone Tool Technology: The Mammoth and its
Track Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Utah, 1985
or contact:
Dr. L. Adrien Hannus
2032 S. Grange Ave, Sioux Falls, SD 57105
Phone (605) 274-5494
E-mail to HANNUS@inst.augie.edu
Return to the Archeology
Laboratory, Augustana College .
Bone cleaver
Bone core and flake
Three views of bone core 
Ovoid bone flake 
