Paleoindian archaeology of the Upper Gunnison Basin, Colorado Rocky Mountains

Abstract

The past two decades have seen a fluorescence of work at Paleoindian sites in Colorado's Upper Gunnison Basin (UGB). This article presents and synthesizes the results of that work in two parts, the first, a landscape-scale analysis of 82 UGB Paleoindian components as reported in Colorado state site files; the second, a higher-resolution analysis of Paleoindian sites excavated in recent years. Conclusions include that starting as early as Folsom time, Paleoindian groups occupied the UGB year-round, and that UGB Paleoindian settlement strategies varied significantly both synchronically and diachronically. Both findings relate in large part to the enormously diverse resource base of the Late Pleistocene/Early Holocene Rocky Mountains in general and UGB in particular.

The Symbiosis of Lichenometry and Radiocarbon Dating: A Bayesian Chronology of Alpine Hunting in Colorado’s Southern Rocky Mountains, Usa

“…The set of dates from Devil's Thumb Valley proves that there is at least some degree of preservation of Late Paleoindian-aged materials near hunting features, suggesting that natural landscape changes over time did not completely erase organic materials from the early Holocene. Researchers have dated Late Paleoindian occupations elsewhere in the Southern Rocky Mountains at the subalpine/alpine ecotone (Pitblado 2000;Benedict 2005b;Brunswig and Doerner 2021), which demonstrate the importance of high-altitude landscapes for peoples living 10 ka-7500 BP. I do not question the technological capabilities of Late Paleoindian groups; sites of this age throughout the Rocky Mountain region show a diverse range of subsistence strategies involving communal hunting and intercept tactics (Morris 1990;Pitblado 1999;Kornfeld and Larson 2008;Lee and Puseman 2017).…”

A new legacy: potential of zooarchaeology by mass spectrometry in the analysis of North American megafaunal remains

“…A number of these sites were suggested to be megafaunal 'kill sites', meaning primary sites where megafauna were dispatched by ancient hunters, although this identification has remained contested. All six of the sites investigated are in Colorado, in a region characterized by Clovis and Folsom, and in some cases perhaps pre-Clovis, cultural occupation (see Pitblado and Brunswig, 2007). These traditions represent early cultural phenomena in North American prehistory, often centered around distinctive projectile point technologies used by Paleoindians.…”