John D. Reynolds
Published: 1982
Total Pages: 235
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Archeological site 140S347, the Cow-Killer site, is an important multicomponent prehistoric archeological site that was discovered during removal of fill from a highway borrow area in conjunction with the realignment of highway U.S. 75 in Osage county, Kansas. The site is located on the left or north side of the Marais des Cygnes river on U.S. Army Corps of Engineer land just downstream from Melvern dam. Cultural materials attributable to at least three temporally distinct prehistoric cultures have been identified in the site area. The earliest cultural level represented is an Archaic period component that was buried 9 to 12 1/2 ft below the original ground surface. Test excavations performed in this deposit revealed the presence of a stratified level which yielded stone lined fire hearths, basin-shaped and trash-filled pits, postmolds, chipped and ground stone tools, animal bone, stone debitage, charcoal, a few charred seeds and burned earth. On the basis of distinctive chipped stone bifaces and points, an affiliation with the Munkers Creek phase is suggested. A date of circa 3,000 B.C. is suggested. The second oldest cultural zone recognized, and the focus of this report, is a stratified Plains Woodland component of the Greenwood phase which is dated within the latter part of the Early Ceramic period.
