2016-10-20_PERMIT FILE - C1981035A (18)

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corn and squash, tubular stone pipes, expanding -stem and spindle drills, sandals made of cross -woven yucca fibers, plaited rush stems, leather and close -coiled basketry. The structures tend to be shallow pithouses, some with a second chamber, which foreshadows the formalization of the antechamber in later Basketmaker III pithouses. Lipe (1999:152) notes that the general inability to confirm the presence of BMII and Archaic sites from surface manifestations precludes the recognition of a region -wide settlement pattern in lieu of more data. In the La Plata River drainage, 6.2 percent of identified components have been classified as Basketmaker II. Three undifferentiated Archaic/BM II components (15.78%) were documented during the current cultural resource inventory. 4.1,3.2 Basketmaker 111 Period The Basketmaker III (BMIII) period (AD 500-750) is well documented within the LPDU and ADU. Wilshusen (1999a:184-185) notes that early BMIII sites are primarily concentrated in the west of and including the La Plata Drainage Unit. Most of the BMIII remains in the ADU occur rather late in the BMIII period and are usually defined as transitional BMIII-Pueblo I (PI) sites as they consistently post- date AD 750 and exhibit traits of both periods (p.184). Farther east, Sambrito phase sites, the Basketmaker III phase correlate of the Upper San Juan -Piedra Drainage Unit, are also very rare and often only identified through excavation. Wilshushen (1999a) suggests that the abnormally high population growth following AD 600 indicates migrations into the area, in addition to local population expansion. Basketmaker III sites from the La Plata River westward are generally one to three household habitations located in close proximity to arable mesa top loess and upland resources. The pithouses are typically dual-chambered, relatively shallow structures with a variety of food processing features, indicative of agricultural intensification. A series of shallow discontinuous storage rooms are often placed in an arc north of the pithouse with a midden area to the south. This habitation site pattern foreshadows the layout for later Pueblo periods. Pottery becomes abundant by the BMIII period and consists primarily of plain graywares with some vessels exhibiting "stitched" basketry designs painted with mineral pigments. Chapin Gray, Chapin B/W, and Abajo R/O are common pottery types on BMIII sites in the western drainage units. A variety of ephemeral site types and isolated occurrences occur as well and suggest that, in addition to agriculture, BMIII populations exploited virtually all habitats from desert scrublands to montane forests for native plant and animal resources. Evidence of cultivated beans in the region first appears in the archaeological record during BMIII times. Dependence on corn, beans, and squash increases dramatically during the BMIII period, although exploitation of wild resources is still significant. In addition, the clearing of farm fields and agricultural disturbance led to the proliferation of productive, ruderal (weedy, short-lived) plant and animal species (generally rodents/rabbits) in active and fallow fields. Agricultural disturbance, for the first time, concentrated edible ruderal plant and animal resources in a predictable manner well beyond what generally occurs in undisturbed natural landscapes (Ford 1984; Seme 1984). Archaeological evidence indicates that a consistent pattern of harvesting these incidental ruderal resources from an increasingly anthropogenic landscape was well established by BMIII times. Exploitation of ruderal resources continues throughout the Ancestral Pueblo sequence into historic Pueblo times (e.g., see Castetter 1935), and ultimately served to decrease agricultural risk while providing a greater variety of foodstuffs. As noted previously, 21.5 percent of identifiable components in the LPDU are BMIII. One site (LA 11050), a large seasonal encampment, was found in the project area and is attributed to the BMIII period. An Intensive CRI for GCC Energy's Proposed Groundwater Monitoring Wells on State and Private Lands in La Plata County, CO SEAS 16-098 October 2016 9