Investigations at Goodson Shelter, Oklahoma

Goodson Shelter is a small sandstone rockshelter site located in Craig County, Oklahoma, situated alongside a minor tributary stream. Excavations at Goodson Shelter yielded over 2 m of largely intact deposits, which, based on radiocarbon and optically stimulated luminescence dating, along with a substantial record of temporally diagnostic projectile points, indicate the site was periodically occupied from the Archaic through the Woodland period. An extensive record of faunal remains suggests that over the course of the site’s occupations it was used primarily as a deer hunting and field processing locale. That this site was repeatedly used for such a specialized activity is likely due to the topography in the vicinity the shelter, which made it an opportune spot for intercept hunting, and thus one that played a long-term role in settlement and subsistence strategies.