The McKean Site in Northeastern Wyoming

Abstract

THE McKEAN SITE affords definite evidence for a segment of the sequence of culture horizons in the northwestern Plains which we have presented elsewhere in tentative form.' This is a campsite with two well-defined, separated levels containing assemblages of the Middle Prehistoric Period, respectively assignable as Early and Late. A single carbon 14 date for the upper (Late) level reads 3287 -600 years. The assemblages agree with those of horizons of other sites in the general region, in particular with Signal Butte I and II. There are, however, discrepancies of dating for the McKean and Signal Butte analogues. A fragmentary skull from the lower level shows characteristics which have been suggested as belonging to Neumann's Deneid type. Archaeological investigations at the McKean Site were carried out by the National Park Service and the University of Wyoming in the area now inundated by the pool of the Keyhole Dam recently constructed on the Belle Fourche River in Crook County, northeastern Wyoming. Excavation occupied a three-month period in 1951 and 1952.2