An Alpine Archaeological Landscape in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, Wyoming

The alpine archaeological record above 3000m of Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem has received much less research attention than the adjacent plains, basins, and foothills. We have been working in an area of NW Wyoming where dense surface stone tool scatters, stone features (including some of the highest elevation habitation stone circles in the region) are associated with dwindling ice patches that have yielded both perishable artifactual material and an array of wood and bone that provides information on past environments. Since 2014, a 175 ha area at elevations from roughly 3200-3500m has been inventoried from the artifact-based documentation perspective. Locational and basic descriptive data on nearly 20,000 items have been recorded and provide a glimpse of the complexity and diversity of this high elevation landscape. While there is indeed evidence of big game hunting, there are also indications that the area was used by residential groups in addition to task-specific hunting parties. Data from this inventory are examined in the context of regional landscape distributional patterns.