Abstract

Bone Bed is a Palaeo-Indian bison processing site located in southwestern Saskatchewan. Situated within a glacial lake basin, this occupation has yielded several stemmed projectile points and has been radiometrically dated to approximately 9000 years ago. A weathered bison bone bed with a few examples of articulated segments is present immediately beneath a cultivation layer. In the eastern portion of the site, the bone bed becomes scattered even though the dark palaeosol continues. Results from mechanical soils analysis display intra-site variability in particle size distribution. This points to a number of different processes contributing to the formation of the site. This paper will discuss the use of microscopic analysis of undisturbed soil sections to identify some of the processes that have affected the Heron Eden bone bed. Sampling with tin Kubiena boxes and the use of soil thin sections is also discussed.