2018-03-19_PERMIT FILE - C1981019 (2)

Home Browse Search

Data Recovery Repot for Three Sites at the Collom Project Colowyo Coal Company 2.2 Paleoindian Era The Paleoindian Era dates from 11,500 to 6,400 B.C. Material evidence dating to this era is traditionally been interpreted as a megafauna hunting -centric adaptation during the terminal phases of the Pleistocene into the early Holocene (Reed and Metcalf 1999). Paleoindian bands are argued to have been highly mobile hunter -gatherers and their food economy was based on the availability of big game that ranged across a broad landscape (Simms 2008). In western Colorado, Paleoindian Era landscape utilization is not well known and largely speculated upon based on archaeological findings from outside the region. Paleoindian archaeological sites are few and far between compared to other parts of Colorado. The material cultural that has been recovered is limited to isolated Paleoindian projectile point types and/or surface scatters of varying densities of debitage with associated Paleoindian projectile point types. 2.3 Archaic Era The Archaic Era dates from approximately 6,400 to 400 B.C. Reed (1984) originally described the Archaic Era as adaptively like the Paleoindian's highly mobile hunter -gatherers but technologically adapted to the new Holocene climate. The Era's climatic is argued to have been different from the preceding and succeeding eras due to the Altithermal climatic event (Bently 1983). The original Archaic Era conceptualizations have changed in the last few decades as the result of a significant increase in data resulting from cultural resource management projects completed within the region (Larson and Francis 1997). Recent climatic reconstructions based on regional evidence suggest that the classically defined persistent hot and dry Altithermal climatic event did not even occur in the upper Colorado River Basin. Currently, the era is generally described as a period of shifting smaller scale hot and cold, and and moist climatic shifts that necessitated changes in hunting and gathering subsistence practices and landscape use. Fluctuations in the strength and duration of the summer monsoon season appears to have had a greater impact on the local environment than the previously defined broader climatic trends. The appearance of groundstone technology is argued to reflect the human population adaptive shift toward broader based foraging that focused on plant resources and small game hunting as compared to the Paleoindian Era (Reed and Metcalf 1999). Pit house and projectile point discoveries also challenge original theories that the region was lightly populated by groups coming from surrounding cultural areas and engaging in logistical resource exploitation. The findings have led several researchers to propose a more continuous, more sedentary and region -specific adaptation for northern Colorado River Basin specifically and the Intermountain West generally (Black 1991; Larson and Francis 1997; and Stiger 2001). Overall, the region's Archaic Era sites have most frequently been identified along major drainages, associated terraces, and other landforms in open basin settings. Utilization of foothill and mountain areas appear to vary in intensity and coincide with climatic conditions that made higher elevation environments more favorable to human habitation (Reed and Metcalf 1999). Pit features proliferate and diversify during this period. Pit types defined to date include shallow stained soil basins, deep stained soil basins, rock and heat -altered rock filled basins, bell shaped basins, and rock or slab -lined basins (Stiger 2001). Projectile point types are distinct from and more diverse compared to the previous Paleoindian or future Formative eras with varieties including corner -notched, side -notched, lanceolate, and tri -notched. Archaeologists have not been able to develop a comprehensive point type chronology based on regional data and the reasons for such spatial, temporal and morphological point diversity during this era are still debated (Reed and Metcalf 1999). Tetra Tech February 2018