Date of this Version
American Indian artifacts recovered from the gravel bars of the Kansas River in northeastern Kansas consist of pot sherds and projectile points. The dating of artifacts on stylistic grounds suggests a relatively continuous archeological record from the Kansas River ranging from the end of the Wisconsin glaciation to the Late Holocene. The remains of Pleistocene and Holocene fauna are abundant on the same gravel bars that yielded the artifacts. The presence of woodland musk oxen and stagmoose indicates that northeastern Kansas was part of the Symbos-Cervalces faunal province during the Wisconsinan. By inference, the Late Wisconsinan human occupants must have been adapted to the environmental conditions of this province. Early Holocene bison are abundant on the gravel bars, as are artifacts associated with Early Holocene bison hunting in the Central Great Plains.