Hunter-Gatherer Archaeology of the Colorado High Country
by Mark Stiger
University Press of Colorado, 2001 Paper: 978-0-87081-910-0 | Cloth: 978-0-87081-612-3 | eISBN: 978-0-87081-699-4 Library of Congress Classification E78.C6S75 2001 Dewey Decimal Classification 978.817
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
ABOUT THIS BOOK
Hunter-Gatherer Archaeology of the Colorado High Country offers data on 8,000 years of cultural change across a wide area of western Colorado and updates archaeological methodology in the mountain West.
Synthesizing research from several important, previously neglected sites, the book anchors its findings in a massive body of data that Mark Stiger gathered over eight years at Tenderfoot - a large lithic-scatter site once categorized as insignificant. Advances in spatial analysis, theoretical approaches, and excavation methods have allowed lithic-scatter sites, once considered less revealing than intact structures and similar sites, to yield startlingly rich cultural evidence.
Presenting artifactual data that reflects changes in houses, game drives, fire pits, stone tools, and debitage, Stiger explains the cultural sequence in the Upper Gunnison Basin and its connections to changes across the West. He relates environmental and cultural changes, relying on paleoenvironmental evidence, changes in floral and faunal usage patterns, and data recovered in multi-year, repetitive surface collections. An overview and critique of past research in the region complements discussion of the advantages of horizontally extensive block excavations and other contemporary ways of excavating and analyzing surface sites.
Stiger's findings hold promise for future research, as high-altitude surface sites are common, under-researched, and relatively well-preserved. The advances in archaeological method and theory that enabled Stiger's outstanding results in the Upper Gunnison Basin will allow many other Western sites to yield fascinating evidence.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Mark Stiger is Professor of Anthropology at Western Colorado University in Gunnison in Colorado's high country. He has worked in the western United States for over 25 years, specializing in hunter-gatherer archaeology in the mountains and Southwest.
REVIEWS
"Stiger shows how the high country's most common site type, the shallow multi-component lithic scatter, also can contribute essential information.
- Journal of the West
"A unique and thorough contribution."
- David A. Breternitz, Professor Emeritus, University of Colorado
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1: THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF COLORADO'S HIGH COUNTRY 1
History of Research 1
Jennings's 1968 Summary 1
Buckles's Ute Prehistory Project on the Uncompahgre Plateau 3
Vail Pass Camp 4
Sisyphus Shelter 4
Harris Site 5
Sorrel Deer 5
Yarmony Pit House Site 5
Benedict's Colorado Front Range Material 6
Mount Albion Complex (Benedict and Olson 1978) 6
Fourth of July Valley (Benedict 1981) 6
Arapaho Pass (Benedict 1985a) 7
Old Man Mountain (Benedict 1985b) 7
Coney Creek Valley (Benedict 1990) 7
Bode's Draw (Benedict 1993) 7
Game Drives of Rocky Mountain National Park (Benedict 1996) 7
Other Research in the Upper Gunnison Basin 8
Curecanti National Recreation Area 8
Monarch Pass 9
Cochetopa Dome 9
Lake Fork 9
Mount Emmons Project 10
Western Area Power Administration (WAPA) 10
Mill Creek Site Evaluation 10
Elk Creek Village 10
Uranium Mill Tailings Removal Act (UMTRA) Project 11
U.S. West Phone Line Project 11
Summary of Gunnison Basin Archaeological Research 11
2: CURRENT PERSPECTIVES IN COLORADO HIGH-COUNTRYARCHAEOLOGY 13
Formation Processes 13
Guthrie's Study Areas 16
Conventional Views of the Archaic 17
The Mountain Tradition as a Social Construct 18
The Concept of Social Relationships in Regional Archaeology 19
The Definition of Culture as a Mental Phenomenon 20
Social Processes as the Interchange of Ideas 20
Problems with Detecting Social Relationships 22
in the Archaeological Record
Theoretical Basis for Ethnic Explanations 23
Culture History of the Upper Gunnison Basin 26
Colorado Mountains Study Region Prehistory 26
(Guthrie et al. 1984)
The Oshara (Irwin-Williams 1973) 28
The Northern Colorado Plateau (Schroedl 1979) 29
The Western Archaic-General Statements 29
3: THE UPPER GUNNISON BASIN 33
Natural History of the Upper Gunnison Basin 33
Environmental Dynamics 34
Terminal Pleistocene 35
Post Pleistocene 36
Pollen 36
Macrofossils 36
Multiple Lines of Evidence in the San Juans 37
Summary of Natural History 38
The Tenderfoot Site 38
History of Investigations 40
Fieldwork 40
Excavations 41
Features 41
Lithic Artifact Analysis 43
Flotation Analysis 45
4: PREHISTORIC USE OF FAUNA IN THE UPPER GUNNISON BASIN 47
The Nature of Big Game Exploitation 49
as Evidenced by Pelvis and Scapula Elements
Species Trends 50
Fauna at the Tenderfoot Site-A Spatial Analysis 51
Summary of Basin Faunal Exploitation 57
5: FLORAL EXPLOITATION IN THE UPPER GUNNISON BASIN 59
Temporal Patterns of Plant Use 59
Charcoal 59
Seeds 60
Summary 61
6: INTERPRETATION OF ARTIFACTS 63
Assemblage Structure-Theory and Definitions 63
Recognizing Assemblage Organization 64
Expectations for Assemblage Organization 66
Spatial Maintenance and Technological Organization 67
Assemblage Organization-Empirical Evidence 68
Summary of Burial Assemblages as Organizational Indicators 68
Summary of Hafted Tools 69
Archaeological Patterning of Bifaces at Tenderfoot 71
Lithic Technology in the Upper Gunnison Basin 75
Site Structure Analysis 79
Lithic Artifacts and Spatial Structure at Tenderfoot 80
All Artifacts 80
Artifact Size 81
Raw Materials 84
Technological Attributes 86
Tools 89
Bifaces 89
Projectile Points 92
Flake Tools 93
Unifaces 93
Hammerstones and Abraders 93
Ground Stone Tools 94
Cores 95
Summary of Tenderfoot Artifact Distributions 95
7: INTERPRETATION OF FEATURES 101
Firepits-Methods and Reasons 101
Summary of Ethnographic Fuel and Fire Use 101
Summary of Experimental Firepit Construction 102
Regional Patterning of Features 102
Classification of Features in the Upper Gunnison Basin 102
Feature Types 103
Fire-Cracked-Rock (FCR) Features 103
Big-Deep Fire-Cracked-Rock Features 103
Small-Shallow Fire-Cracked-Rock Features 109
FCR-Outside Features 110
Rock-Lined Firepits 110
Unlined Firepits 111
Boiling Pits 111
Structures 112
Amorphous Stains 112
Game Drives 113
Interpretation of Feature Variability 113
Numbers of Features Through Time 113
Sequence of Boiling Pits and Fire-Cracked-Rock Features 114
8: ABOUT SURFACE SITES 117
Surface Collections at the Tenderfoot Site 117
Comparison of Surface to Subsurface Materials 119
The Dynamic Nature of Surface Materials as 123
Shown by Repetitive Collections
Finer Spatial Scales of Analysis for the Surface Collection 125
The Research Value of Surface Sites 127
9: SITE COMPARISONS 129
Structures 130
Site 5GN205 130
Elk Creek Village 130
Checkers 131
Site 5GN247 131
VanTuyl Village 131
Zephyr Site 132
Tenderfoot Site 132
Abiquiu Reservoir, New Mexico 132
Site LA25358 132
Summary of Site LA25358 134
Site LA47940 134
Summary of Site LA47940 135
Site 5MT2731-Casa de Nada 135
Summary of Site 5MT2731 137
Kewclaw 137
Yarmony 137
Other Sites and Components 138
Site 5GN207 138
Mt. Bump Camp 138
Tenderfoot 139
Assemblage Interpretations 139
Site 5GN205 139
Tools 139
Elk Creek Village Block C 139
Abiquiu 139
Site LA25358, Area 1 140
Site LA25358, Area 2 140
Site LA25358, Area 3 141
Site LA25358, Area 4 141
Site LA25358, Area 6 141
Tools-Site LA25358 143
Site LA47940 143
Tools 147
Casa de Nada 147
Tools 149
Kewdaw 149
Tools 151
Site 5GN207 151
Mt. Bump 152
VanTuyl Village 152
10: SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 155
Who Were Those Guys? 155
The Nature of Surface Sites 156
and Their Value to Archaeological Research
Multiple Occupations 157
The Size of the Prehistoric System as Shown by Obsidian Distributions 157
Projectile-Point Styles 159
Stone Tools 161
Personal Gear 161
Site Furniture 162
Expedient Gear 162
Sequence of Technological Organization 162
Raw Material Use 162
Features 163
Game Drives in the High Country 163
Flora and Fauna 167
Explanation of the Cultural Sequence 168
The Early Paleoindian 169
The Late Paleoindian 169
The Archaic 170
Post-300 B.P. 171
Appendices
A: Tenderfoot Feature Descriptions by Erik Bjornstad 175
B: Lithic Sources in the Upper Gunnison Basin 215
C: Identified Sources of Archaeological Obsidian 223
Found in Colorado
D: Faunal Remains Found in the Upper Gunnison Basin 229
E: Floral Remains Found in the Upper Gunnison Basin 235
by Provenience
F: Burial Assemblages from Archaic and Basketmaker II Contexts 241
G: Hafted Stone Tools in the Ethnographic 245
and Archaeological Records
H: Tenderfoot Tool Illustrations 251
I: Ethnographic Record of Fuel and Firepit Use 271
J: Experimental Firepit Construction 277
K: Descriptions of Features at Abiquiu and Casa de Nada 281
References Cited 289
Index 311
REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
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Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
Hunter-Gatherer Archaeology of the Colorado High Country
by Mark Stiger
University Press of Colorado, 2001 Paper: 978-0-87081-910-0 Cloth: 978-0-87081-612-3 eISBN: 978-0-87081-699-4
Hunter-Gatherer Archaeology of the Colorado High Country offers data on 8,000 years of cultural change across a wide area of western Colorado and updates archaeological methodology in the mountain West.
Synthesizing research from several important, previously neglected sites, the book anchors its findings in a massive body of data that Mark Stiger gathered over eight years at Tenderfoot - a large lithic-scatter site once categorized as insignificant. Advances in spatial analysis, theoretical approaches, and excavation methods have allowed lithic-scatter sites, once considered less revealing than intact structures and similar sites, to yield startlingly rich cultural evidence.
Presenting artifactual data that reflects changes in houses, game drives, fire pits, stone tools, and debitage, Stiger explains the cultural sequence in the Upper Gunnison Basin and its connections to changes across the West. He relates environmental and cultural changes, relying on paleoenvironmental evidence, changes in floral and faunal usage patterns, and data recovered in multi-year, repetitive surface collections. An overview and critique of past research in the region complements discussion of the advantages of horizontally extensive block excavations and other contemporary ways of excavating and analyzing surface sites.
Stiger's findings hold promise for future research, as high-altitude surface sites are common, under-researched, and relatively well-preserved. The advances in archaeological method and theory that enabled Stiger's outstanding results in the Upper Gunnison Basin will allow many other Western sites to yield fascinating evidence.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Mark Stiger is Professor of Anthropology at Western Colorado University in Gunnison in Colorado's high country. He has worked in the western United States for over 25 years, specializing in hunter-gatherer archaeology in the mountains and Southwest.
REVIEWS
"Stiger shows how the high country's most common site type, the shallow multi-component lithic scatter, also can contribute essential information.
- Journal of the West
"A unique and thorough contribution."
- David A. Breternitz, Professor Emeritus, University of Colorado
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1: THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF COLORADO'S HIGH COUNTRY 1
History of Research 1
Jennings's 1968 Summary 1
Buckles's Ute Prehistory Project on the Uncompahgre Plateau 3
Vail Pass Camp 4
Sisyphus Shelter 4
Harris Site 5
Sorrel Deer 5
Yarmony Pit House Site 5
Benedict's Colorado Front Range Material 6
Mount Albion Complex (Benedict and Olson 1978) 6
Fourth of July Valley (Benedict 1981) 6
Arapaho Pass (Benedict 1985a) 7
Old Man Mountain (Benedict 1985b) 7
Coney Creek Valley (Benedict 1990) 7
Bode's Draw (Benedict 1993) 7
Game Drives of Rocky Mountain National Park (Benedict 1996) 7
Other Research in the Upper Gunnison Basin 8
Curecanti National Recreation Area 8
Monarch Pass 9
Cochetopa Dome 9
Lake Fork 9
Mount Emmons Project 10
Western Area Power Administration (WAPA) 10
Mill Creek Site Evaluation 10
Elk Creek Village 10
Uranium Mill Tailings Removal Act (UMTRA) Project 11
U.S. West Phone Line Project 11
Summary of Gunnison Basin Archaeological Research 11
2: CURRENT PERSPECTIVES IN COLORADO HIGH-COUNTRYARCHAEOLOGY 13
Formation Processes 13
Guthrie's Study Areas 16
Conventional Views of the Archaic 17
The Mountain Tradition as a Social Construct 18
The Concept of Social Relationships in Regional Archaeology 19
The Definition of Culture as a Mental Phenomenon 20
Social Processes as the Interchange of Ideas 20
Problems with Detecting Social Relationships 22
in the Archaeological Record
Theoretical Basis for Ethnic Explanations 23
Culture History of the Upper Gunnison Basin 26
Colorado Mountains Study Region Prehistory 26
(Guthrie et al. 1984)
The Oshara (Irwin-Williams 1973) 28
The Northern Colorado Plateau (Schroedl 1979) 29
The Western Archaic-General Statements 29
3: THE UPPER GUNNISON BASIN 33
Natural History of the Upper Gunnison Basin 33
Environmental Dynamics 34
Terminal Pleistocene 35
Post Pleistocene 36
Pollen 36
Macrofossils 36
Multiple Lines of Evidence in the San Juans 37
Summary of Natural History 38
The Tenderfoot Site 38
History of Investigations 40
Fieldwork 40
Excavations 41
Features 41
Lithic Artifact Analysis 43
Flotation Analysis 45
4: PREHISTORIC USE OF FAUNA IN THE UPPER GUNNISON BASIN 47
The Nature of Big Game Exploitation 49
as Evidenced by Pelvis and Scapula Elements
Species Trends 50
Fauna at the Tenderfoot Site-A Spatial Analysis 51
Summary of Basin Faunal Exploitation 57
5: FLORAL EXPLOITATION IN THE UPPER GUNNISON BASIN 59
Temporal Patterns of Plant Use 59
Charcoal 59
Seeds 60
Summary 61
6: INTERPRETATION OF ARTIFACTS 63
Assemblage Structure-Theory and Definitions 63
Recognizing Assemblage Organization 64
Expectations for Assemblage Organization 66
Spatial Maintenance and Technological Organization 67
Assemblage Organization-Empirical Evidence 68
Summary of Burial Assemblages as Organizational Indicators 68
Summary of Hafted Tools 69
Archaeological Patterning of Bifaces at Tenderfoot 71
Lithic Technology in the Upper Gunnison Basin 75
Site Structure Analysis 79
Lithic Artifacts and Spatial Structure at Tenderfoot 80
All Artifacts 80
Artifact Size 81
Raw Materials 84
Technological Attributes 86
Tools 89
Bifaces 89
Projectile Points 92
Flake Tools 93
Unifaces 93
Hammerstones and Abraders 93
Ground Stone Tools 94
Cores 95
Summary of Tenderfoot Artifact Distributions 95
7: INTERPRETATION OF FEATURES 101
Firepits-Methods and Reasons 101
Summary of Ethnographic Fuel and Fire Use 101
Summary of Experimental Firepit Construction 102
Regional Patterning of Features 102
Classification of Features in the Upper Gunnison Basin 102
Feature Types 103
Fire-Cracked-Rock (FCR) Features 103
Big-Deep Fire-Cracked-Rock Features 103
Small-Shallow Fire-Cracked-Rock Features 109
FCR-Outside Features 110
Rock-Lined Firepits 110
Unlined Firepits 111
Boiling Pits 111
Structures 112
Amorphous Stains 112
Game Drives 113
Interpretation of Feature Variability 113
Numbers of Features Through Time 113
Sequence of Boiling Pits and Fire-Cracked-Rock Features 114
8: ABOUT SURFACE SITES 117
Surface Collections at the Tenderfoot Site 117
Comparison of Surface to Subsurface Materials 119
The Dynamic Nature of Surface Materials as 123
Shown by Repetitive Collections
Finer Spatial Scales of Analysis for the Surface Collection 125
The Research Value of Surface Sites 127
9: SITE COMPARISONS 129
Structures 130
Site 5GN205 130
Elk Creek Village 130
Checkers 131
Site 5GN247 131
VanTuyl Village 131
Zephyr Site 132
Tenderfoot Site 132
Abiquiu Reservoir, New Mexico 132
Site LA25358 132
Summary of Site LA25358 134
Site LA47940 134
Summary of Site LA47940 135
Site 5MT2731-Casa de Nada 135
Summary of Site 5MT2731 137
Kewclaw 137
Yarmony 137
Other Sites and Components 138
Site 5GN207 138
Mt. Bump Camp 138
Tenderfoot 139
Assemblage Interpretations 139
Site 5GN205 139
Tools 139
Elk Creek Village Block C 139
Abiquiu 139
Site LA25358, Area 1 140
Site LA25358, Area 2 140
Site LA25358, Area 3 141
Site LA25358, Area 4 141
Site LA25358, Area 6 141
Tools-Site LA25358 143
Site LA47940 143
Tools 147
Casa de Nada 147
Tools 149
Kewdaw 149
Tools 151
Site 5GN207 151
Mt. Bump 152
VanTuyl Village 152
10: SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 155
Who Were Those Guys? 155
The Nature of Surface Sites 156
and Their Value to Archaeological Research
Multiple Occupations 157
The Size of the Prehistoric System as Shown by Obsidian Distributions 157
Projectile-Point Styles 159
Stone Tools 161
Personal Gear 161
Site Furniture 162
Expedient Gear 162
Sequence of Technological Organization 162
Raw Material Use 162
Features 163
Game Drives in the High Country 163
Flora and Fauna 167
Explanation of the Cultural Sequence 168
The Early Paleoindian 169
The Late Paleoindian 169
The Archaic 170
Post-300 B.P. 171
Appendices
A: Tenderfoot Feature Descriptions by Erik Bjornstad 175
B: Lithic Sources in the Upper Gunnison Basin 215
C: Identified Sources of Archaeological Obsidian 223
Found in Colorado
D: Faunal Remains Found in the Upper Gunnison Basin 229
E: Floral Remains Found in the Upper Gunnison Basin 235
by Provenience
F: Burial Assemblages from Archaic and Basketmaker II Contexts 241
G: Hafted Stone Tools in the Ethnographic 245
and Archaeological Records
H: Tenderfoot Tool Illustrations 251
I: Ethnographic Record of Fuel and Firepit Use 271
J: Experimental Firepit Construction 277
K: Descriptions of Features at Abiquiu and Casa de Nada 281
References Cited 289
Index 311
REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
with an electronic file for alternative access.
Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
It can take 2-3 weeks for requests to be filled.
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE