Environment And Archaeology Of The Central Osage Plains

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Abstract
Evidence for prehistoric environments of the Osage Plains of Oklahoma during the past 11,000 years is evaluated and summarized. The late Pleistocene climate was generally cooler but with less severe winters. Little is known about the early or middle Holocene except that, by inference, middle Holocene climate was exceptionally dry compared to average conditions for the past 11,000 years. A generally dry environment persisted until about 2000 years ago, when the climate became significantly moister. The period of moist climate coincides with Plains Woodland occupations. These people’s subsistence patterns are characterized by a greater reliance on deer and lesser reliance on bison. About 1000 years ago, the climate again changed-becoming drier. This climatic change coincided with channel erosion in many stream valleys. The dry interval, with less effective precipitation than today, peaked about 400 to 600 years ago, when Plains Village occupations flourished and bison populations expanded eastward. The late Holocene climatic history of drying conditions during the past 1000 years in the Osage Plains is in phase with the Central Plains and Southwest Plains. The Bryson-Baerreis-Wendland and SanchezKutzbach models of late prehistoric climate, applied to the central Osage Plains, are not substantiated.