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Early Fremont period: AD 1-550; characterized by the semi permanent structures, use <br />of the bow and arrow, the presence of corn horticulture, but the absence of <br />ceramics–a Basketmaker II-like adaption. <br />Uintah (or Scroggin) Fremont period: AD 550-1050; the “classic” period <br />characterized by substantial residential architecture, gray ware ceramics, the <br />presence of corn horticulture, and human aggregation into small hamlets. <br />Late (or Wenger) Fremont period: AD 1050-1300; characterized by the probable <br />return to hunting and gathering; however, the lack of dated sites makes this <br />period hypothetical. <br />Texas Overlook Site period: AD 1300-1600; due to the lack of data, this is a <br />classification that is tentative at best and subject to further review. <br />Protohistoric Era <br />The dissipation of the Fremont Culture is roughly coincident with the drought of AD <br />1275-1300 and the influx of new people from the western and central Great Basin. The <br />newcomers are referred to as the Numic speakers of the Uto-Aztecan language phylum <br />(Smith 1974:10). Their appearance in Fremont territory ca. AD 1200 is indicated by finds <br />of Shoshone pottery mixed with the upper strata of Fremont artifacts in numerous cave sites <br />(Jennings 1978:235). Aikens and Witherspoon (1986) have proposed a model that includes <br />an environmentally induced extinction of non-Numic inhabitants and an expansion of <br />Numic foragers that occupied the Great Basin for at least 5000 years. They contend that the <br />Numic were coexisting with non-Numic foragers and horticultralists during the Formative <br />period when the regional climates were relatively warm and wet. During times of aridity, <br />non-Numic farmers and wetlands foragers would have abandoned optimal areas, which, in <br />turn, were re-occupied by Central Numic foragers. Similarly, Simms' (1986, 1990) suggests <br />that Numic speaking foragers may have coexisted with Fremont farmer-foragers throughout <br />the Formative Stage, and Jorgensen (1994:85) using linguistic and ethnographic data placed <br />the Numic spread at about 2000 years ago. <br />The Numic Speakers brought to the Great Basin and Colorado Plateau a change in <br />subsistence pattern. According to Bettinger and Baumhoff (1982:496-500), the Numic <br />Speakers concentrated more heavily on small seed gathering and the hunting of large game <br />over shorter distances, and thus exploited a smaller catchment. The technology for small <br />seed gathering and processing was more advanced than was known to pre-Numic peoples <br />and allowed support of larger populations. This strategy brought economic pressure to bear <br />upon groups who did not practice it. Thus, the subsistence pattern that had been followed <br />throughout the Archaic Period and altered slightly by the Fremont horticulturalists was <br />supplanted entirely by the Numic scheme of procurement. Such a strategy was probably <br />born of the needs created by changing climatic conditions and/or by increased population <br />densities in the southwestern Great Basin (Bettinger and Baumhoff 1982:496-500). <br />The Numic expansion began in earnest beginning about 1000 years ago with the <br />onset of the Little Ice Age (Petersen 1981). Cooler temperatures affected the growing of <br />corn and the horticulturalists retreated to the south, which is reflected in the fact that there <br />31