Mummy Cave

A deeply stratified site in northwest Wyoming, containing 38 distinct cultural levels from which a series of radiocarbon dates was taken. There is evidence of intermittent occupation from at least 7300 BC-1580 AD. Subsistence activities were not based on the Big Game Hunting Tradition normally associated with the Plains area, but was a general hunting and gathering lifestyle. The cave is named for the desiccated body of an adult male who died there some 1200 years ago.

A deeply stratified site located in northwest Wyoming, USA, containing an almost ideal stratigraphy from which a series of radiocarbon dates was taken. 38 distinct cultural levels, each sealed by sterile alluvial deposits, evidence an intermittent occupation from at least 7300 be to ad 1580. Subsistence activities were not based on the Big Game Hunting Tradition normally associated with the Plains area, but rather on a generalized hunting and gathering life-style (see also Medicine Lodge Creek). Very little material has been recovered from the thin, lower levels; however, later levels revealed small mammal bones, basketry fragments, manos and other material typical of the Archaic. The cave is named from the dessicated body of an adult male who died there some 1200 years ago.