Related Research Articles
The Lindenmeier site is a stratified multi-component archaeological site most famous for its Folsom component. The former Lindenmeier Ranch is in the Soapstone Prairie Natural Area, in northeastern Larimer County, Colorado, United States. The site contains the most extensive Folsom culture campsite yet found with calibrated radiocarbon dates of c. 12,300 B.P.. Artifacts were also found from subsequent Archaic and Late pre-historic periods.
Prehistory of Colorado provides an overview of the activities that occurred prior to Colorado's recorded history. Colorado experienced cataclysmic geological events over billions of years, which shaped the land and resulted in diverse ecosystems. The ecosystems included several ice ages, tropical oceans, and a massive volcanic eruption. Then, ancient layers of earth rose to become the Rocky Mountains.
The LoDaisKa site is a prominent archaeological site in the U.S. state of Colorado, located within a rockshelter near Morrison. The rockshelter was first inhabited by people of the Archaic through the Middle Ceramic period, generally spanning 3000 BC to 1000 AD.
In the classification of Archaeological cultures of North America, the term Plainview points refer to Paleoindian projectile points dated between 10,000 and 9,000 Before Present. The point was named in 1947 after the discovery of a large cache of unfluted, lanceolate spear tips with concave bases that were found in a Bison antiquus kill site along the Running Water Draw river, near the town of Plainview in Texas, United States. The point is found primarily throughout the South Plains, however, this range may sometimes be misidentified, as "Plainview" was previously used as a general term to describe unfluted lanceolate points throughout the entirety of the Plains, as well as the eastern Upper Mississippi Valley.
Franktown Cave is located 25 miles (40 km) south of Denver, Colorado on the north edge of the Palmer Divide. It is the largest rock shelter documented on the Palmer Divide, which contains artifacts from many prehistoric cultures. Prehistoric hunter-gatherers occupied Franktown Cave intermittently for 8,000 years beginning about 6400 BC The site held remarkable lithic and ceramic artifacts, but it is better known for its perishable artifacts, including animal hides, wood, fiber and corn. Material goods were produced for their comfort, task-simplification and religious celebration. There is evidence of the site being a campsite or dwelling as recently as AD 1725.
The Jones-Miller Bison Kill Site, located in northeast Colorado, was a Paleo-Indian site where Bison antiquus were killed using a game drive system and butchered. Hell Gap complex bones and tools artifacts at the site are carbon dated from about ca. 8000-8050 BC.
The Jurgens Site is a Paleo-Indian site located near Greeley in Weld County, Colorado. While the site was used primarily to hunt and butcher bison antiquus, there is evidence that the Paleo-Indians also gathered plants and seeds for food about 7,000 to 7,500 BC.
The Magic Mountain site is an Archaic and Woodland village site in Jefferson County, Colorado dating from 4999 BC to 1000 AD. The site was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
The Trinchera Cave Archeological District (5LA9555) is an archaeological site in Las Animas County, Colorado with artifacts primarily dating from 1000 BC to AD 1749, although there were some Archaic period artifacts found. The site was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2001 and is located on State Trust Lands.
Panhandle culture is a prehistoric culture of the southern High Plains during the Middle Ceramic Period from AD 1200 to 1400. Panhandle sites are primarily in the panhandle and west central Oklahoma and the northern half of the Texas Panhandle.
The Goshen point is a medium-sized, lanceolate-shaped, Paleo-Indian projectile point with a straight or concave base. It exhibits characteristic fine flaking.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the prehistoric people of Colorado, which covers the period of when Native Americans lived in Colorado prior to contact with the Domínguez–Escalante expedition in 1776. People's lifestyles included nomadic hunter-gathering, semi-permanent village dwelling, and residing in pueblos.
The Apishapa culture, or Apishapa Phase, a prehistoric culture from 1000 to 1400, was named based upon an archaeological site in the Lower Apishapa canyon in Colorado. The Apishapa River, a tributary of the Arkansas River, formed the Apishapa canyon. In 1976, there were 68 Apishapa sites on the Chaquaqua Plateau in southeastern Colorado.
The Hell Gap complex is a Plano culture from 10,060 to 9,600 before present. It is named after the Hell Gap archaeological site, in Goshen County, Wyoming.
The Mount Albion complex was an early Archaic culture from about 4050 to 3050 BC, particularly distinguished by the Mount Albion side-notched projectile. It was called by James Gunnerson, the best known early Archaic culture in Colorado. It is related or similar to the Albion Boarding House phase.
The Sopris phase is a Late Ceramic period hunter-gatherer culture of the Upper Purgatoire, also known as the Upper Purgatoire complex. It was first discovered in the southern Colorado, near the present town of Trinidad, Colorado. The Sopris phase appeared to be greatly influenced by Puebloan people, such as the Taos Pueblo and Pecos Pueblo, and through trade in the Upper Rio Grande area.
Tipi rings are circular patterns of stones left from an encampment of Post-Archaic, protohistoric and historic Native Americans. They are found primarily throughout the Plains of the United States and Canada, and also in the foothills and parks of the Rocky Mountains.
Bradford House II is a prehistoric rockshelter, 24 kilometres (15 mi) southwest of Denver. It is situated on land owned by the Ken-Caryl Ranch Master Association. It was excavated in the summer and fall of 1973 by the Denver Chapter of the Colorado Archaeological Society. The excavations found several cultural features and recovered thousands of chipped stone artifacts, dozens of ground stone artifacts, a few ceramic sherds, bone tools, and faunal remains. The site was used by prehistoric groups during the Middle and Late Archaic periods, as well as the Early Woodland, and Middle Woodland periods. This is a span of 4,500 years. Bradford House II is located in the Ken-Caryl Valley. The Front Range foothills to the west and the Lyons and Dakota hogbacks to the east frame the valley. An abundance of archaeological sites, attests to the valley's attraction for the earliest inhabitants of the area. They frequented the area for its abundant resources, including shelter under the many bedrock monoliths scattered across the valley, lithic materials for chipped stone tools, and edible plants and animals. West of the valley, the arkosic sandstones of the Pennsylvanian Fountain formation lie unconformably upon uplifted Precambrian metamorphic rocks of the Front Range. Although mostly covered by recent to pre-Wisconsin alluvium, the Fountain formation forms southwest facing escarpments, or monoliths, with undercut shelters or caves, many of which were inhabited by prehistoric peoples. The elevation of the site is approximately 1878 m (6160 ft.) above mean sea level. Elevations surrounding the site range from about 1828 m (6000 ft.) in the Dutch Creek water gap to 1992 m (6536 ft.) on the highest point of the Dakota hogback ridge. The valley has a sunny, mild, and semiarid climate that has neither the extreme cold of the higher elevations to the west nor the hot summer afternoons of the eastern plains. A south-facing rock shelter like Bradford House II absorbs a great deal of solar radiation, further mitigating the winter cold. Precipitation is moderate, averaging 15 to 18 inches, and winter snows melt quickly with frequent down slope (chinook) winds. The valley consists of various grasses and forbs. The surrounding hogbacks and foothills support a pine-Douglas fir vegetation community. The recovery of floral materials from Bradford House II and other archaeological sites in the valley indicates that local plants such as sunflower, wild plum, acorn, and chokecherry were gathered and used by prehistoric peoples. Many animals, including elk, mule deer, and occasional Big Horn sheep, as well as a variety of carnivores, rabbits, rodents, birds, amphibians, reptiles, and fish are found in the hogbacks and foothills. Unworked animal, mostly mammal, bone was found in abundance in the Archaic and Early Ceramic levels. Mule deer dominates the assemblage, followed by elk, bison, and rabbit, with little change in dietary preferences from the earlier to later time periods. Several bone tools and antler flakers were recovered from all cultural levels in the site.
The Griesmer site (La-3) is located on the Kankakee River in Lake County, Indiana, about a mile southeast of Schneider, in Northwestern Indiana. It is classified as a Prehistoric, multi-component site with Middle Woodland, Late Woodland and Upper Mississippian occupations. The deposits were not stratified, but observation of the types of artifacts present, together with radiocarbon dates, helped to define the sequence of occupations at the site.
The Oak Forest Site (11Ck-53) is located in Oak Forest, Cook County, Illinois, near the city of Chicago. It is classified as a late prehistoric to Protohistoric/Early Historic site with Upper Mississippian Huber affiliation.
References
- ↑ Gunnerson, James H. (1987). Archeology of the High Plains. Denver: Rocky Mountain Region, USDA Forest Service. p. 33.
- ↑ Nelson, Sarah M.; Carillo, Richard F.; Clark, Bonnie J.; Rhodes, Lori E.; Saitta, Dean (2009-01-02). Denver: An Archaeological History. Boulder: University Press of Colorado. p. 83. ISBN 9780870819353.
- ↑ Gunnerson, pp. 33-34.
- 1 2 Justice, Noel D. (2002). Stone Age Spear and Arrow Points of the Southwestern United States. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. p. 137. ISBN 9780253108821.
