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These two modified bone tools were recovered in 1968 by Kansas Historical Society archeologists at the Sharps Creek village in McPherson County. These two tools were made on either bison or deer bones. The one on the left is a scored rib bone. Archeologists believe that artifacts like these could have been used as musical instruments by drawing a stick across the grooves. The artifact on the right may have also been a rasp or possibly a decorated bone. It was incised with a series of vertical and diagonal lines. The Sharps Creek site is part of the Little River focus of the Great Bend aspect (ancestral Wichita), whose people practiced fishing, hunting, gathering, and agriculture.
Date: 1500-1800 CE
Item Number: 444528
Call Number: 14MP408-E7 & E296
KSHS Identifier: DaRT ID: 444528
Collections - Archeology
Objects and Artifacts - Archeological Artifacts
Objects and Artifacts - Archeological Artifacts - Artifact Class - Bone
Objects and Artifacts - Archeological Artifacts - Artifact Type - Rasp
Objects and Artifacts - Archeological Artifacts - Site Name - Paint Creek
People - American Indians - Prehistoric Cultures - Great Bend aspect
Places - Counties - McPherson
Thematic Time Period - Early Peoples, 10000 BCE - 1820 CE - Late Ceramic, 1500 - 1820 CE
http://www.kansasmemory.org/item/444528