Hunter-Gatherer Archaeology of the Colorado High Country

1. The Archaeology of Colorado's High Country

HISTORY OF RESEARCH This section describes several of the larger, better-reported archaeological projects in Colorado’s high country (Figure 1.1). This description will give the reader a sense of which kinds of sites archaeologists have thought to be most useful for research. I also briefly describe the research approaches and conclusions drawn by the investigators. I then describe work done in the Upper Gunnison Basin. Included are several smaller projects. Across the high country, innumerable small CRM (Cultural Resources Management) projects have been conducted; I describe only those done in the Upper Gunnison Basin. JENNINGS’S 1968 SUMMARY Jennings (1968) summarizes what was known about the Archaic stage in western Colorado. He describes what he considered the eleven most important Archaic sites, nine of which were rockshelter sites that had been excavated by various researchers in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. These eleven sites are located in two small clusters—one cluster near Dinosaur National Monument in northwestern Colorado and one cluster on the Uncompahgre Plateau, near Delta, Montrose, and Grand Junction. In the Dinosaur cluster are Hells Midden, Thorne Cave, Dripping Rocks Cave, and Lowell Spring. At the time of Jennings’s writing, the only radiocarbondated site was Thorne Cave, barely across the state line in Utah. Two samples gave ages of 4230±240 B.P. and 4170±250 B.P. (Jennings 1968:17). Thorne Cave deposits were redeposited alluvial materials, and interpretations other than social relationships with the Desert culture and the High Plains cultures are minimal (Day 1964). Dripping Rocks Cave and Lowell Spring, an open site, (Jennings and Wade 1970) are undated sites. 1 The Archaeology of Colorado’s High Country 2 Hunter-Gatherer Archaeology of the Colorado High Country Hells Midden (Lister 1951) is the best-reported site in the Dinosaur cluster. A deeply stratified rockshelter and adjacent open area site, it was excavated over two summer field seasons. The site was undated, and about twenty-eight square meters were excavated. Large amounts of material were recovered. Five hundred forty-seven artifacts were reported recovered from both years’ excavations, as well as 7,165 pieces of debitage saved from only one year’s excavation (Lister 1951:27). Interpretations by Lister (1951:45–48) briefly compare the recovered artifacts to similar material from California, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Texas. In the Uncompahgre Plateau cluster of sites are the Alva, Taylor, Moore, andCasebierSitesreportedbyWormingtonandLister(1956)andtheTabeguache Cave II, Cottonwood, and Dolores Cave Sites reported by Hurst (1943, 1944, 1945, 1947, 1948). The goal of excavations undertaken by Wormington and Lister (1956) was the elaboration of the sequence of prehistoric materials and cultures represented in western Colorado. After describing the plentiful material taken from the various caves, the authors conclude with interpretations of cultural (social) relationships among the groups in surrounding regions and groups of the Uncompahgre Fig. 1.1. The locations of sites discussed. Sites are identified by numbers. (1) Dinosaur group; (2) Alva and Taylor Sites; (3) Hurst’s sites; (4) Moore and Casebier Sites; (5) Buckles’s Uncompahgre sites; (6) Harris Site; (7) Sorrel Deer; (8) Sisyphus Shelter; (9) Kewclaw; (10) Yarmony; (11) Vail Pass; (12) Benedict’s Front Range sites; (13) Mt. Bump; (14) Casa de Nada; (15) the Upper Gunnison Basin. The Archaeology of Colorado’s High Country 3 Plateau. They suggest the Uncompahgre people were derived originally from a Great Basin source, but that through time “the separation of groups, by distance and geographic barriers, which favored independent development, environmental factors, and influences from other areas” (Wormington and Lister 1956:92) created the local Uncompahgre complex. Thus, this western Colorado Archaic complex had homologous similarities with the Great Basin, Wyoming, and Basketmaker cultures (Wormington and Lister 1956:91). The Tabeguache Cave sites were excavated in the 1940s by Hurst of Western State College. Large quantities of cultural material were removed during excavations of stratified deposits. Hurst was attempting to flesh out a sequence of cultures in the area based mainly on projectile point morphology. He was concentrating on linking the earlier hunter-gatherer peoples with the succeeding agricultural people. Hurst’s cave sites were undated until recently. These recent radiocarbon assessments are reported in a later chapter. Jennings (1968) gives his summary interpretation of these two clusters of archaeological material in culture-historical terms. The western Colorado Archaic is considered to be a regional variant of the Desert culture. This Desert culture may have been contemporaneous with the...