My research expands the current body of knowledge of what life was like for prehistoric people living in the Ozarks Province as it concerns subsistence practices between the Middle Archaic and Terminal Prehistoric periods 6700 to 400 Radio Carbon Years Before Present (RCYBP). The primary data for my research is an archaeofaunal assemblage excavated from Skull Cave (Ray 2011) located in Lawrence County, Missouri. I used archaeofaunal data from test excavations at Skull Cave (23LA1310) and compared it to archaeofaunal samples from five other sheltered sites in the southwestern Ozarks to make comparisons between prehistoric people that lived at Skull Cave to groups of other prehistoric people living in the Ozarks Province. Specifically, this research seeks to understand the variation of archaeofaunal material found at sheltered sites in southwest Missouri. This study addressed the following research questions:
• How many species are represented in the Skull Cave sample?
• Which species are most prevalent in the sample, and what does this tell us about the people that occupied Skull Cave?
• Are there temporal trends in species diversity among sheltered sites located in the Ozarks?
Based on the available sample of faunal data, I suggest that the faunal remains from Skull Cave are the result of hunter-gatherers practicing a localized foraging strategy designed to target deer populations as a staple food resource and smaller game as buffer resources. The Late Archaic period (4500 to 3000 RCYBP) in southwest Missouri saw a return to climatic conditions favoring the previous forest/prairie environment. With this climatic shift, there would have been more “edge areas” that provided deer and other ungulates with the niche spaces they require to survive.