Episode 5: Paleoindian Lifeways / Les Davis: Search For the First Montanans

Les Davis: Search For the First Montanans / Episode 5: Paleoindian Lifeways

Tipi rings well before the introduction of the horse; game drives and buffalo jumps; various weapons including spear, atlatl, & bow and arrow; and kitchen hearth complexes all reflect over 13,000 years of life in Montana. More than any other archaeologist at the time, Les Davis pursued every opportunity to understand the lives of the earliest Montanans.

Early archaeologists tended to focus on big game kill sites, but Davis was more interested in discovering the daily lives and activities of these early peoples. In the early 1990s a site known as Barton Gulch was discovered by locals digging for sapphires. When Davis excavated the site, he discovered an 11,400 year old living surface replete with numerous hearth complexes, many varieties stone tools, bone needles for sewing and evidence of the extensive use of plants and small animals for sustenance. These were people much like ourselves, talented, diverse, and dependent on women and men alike to thrive in the wilds of Montana.

VIEW THE OTHER EPISODES:

   • Episode 1: Montana's Indiana Jones / Les D...  

   • Episode 2: Antiquity of Man / Les Davis: S...  

   • Episode 3: Archaeology in Montana / Les Da...  

   • Episode 4: Search For the First Montanans ...  

   • Episode 5: Paleoindian Lifeways / Les Davi...  

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