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e <br />ESPEY, HUSTON & ASSOCIATES, INC. <br />l J <br />stones, which indicate the utilization of plant resources. Plano tradition tools are <br />typically recovered in conjunction with extinct and modern forms of bison. Hunting <br />techniques included the methods mentioned above as well as the utilization of <br />artificially constructed bison traps (Jennings, 1968). Several Plano points have been <br />found in northwestern Colorado, but none were in context (Leach, 1970; Breternitz, <br />1970; Walton, 1979; Jennings and Ritcher, 1979). The basal portion of a lanceolate <br />projectile point, tentatively assigned to the Plano tradition, was recovered in the <br />Piceance Basin to the southwest of the study area (Jennings, 1974). <br />Concurrent to the extinction or evolution of the lazge game mammals <br />which constituted the basis of Paleo-Indian subsistence was a shift to dependence <br />upon smaller game and a wide variety of plant resources. This period, termed the <br />Archaic, extended from 5500 B.C. to approximately A.D. 500, when horticulture <br />began to be practiced is some areas of northwestern Colorado. The Archaic life <br />• style continued in many portions of the region until the middle of the nineteenth <br />century. Archaic populations were composed of migratory bands which seasonally <br />exploited diverse ecozones within a smaller territory. Alterations in subsistence <br />patterns were reflected by changes in the aztifact assemblages. Projectile points <br />decreased in size in accordance with changes in function from speaz to dart to arrow <br />points, and milling stones were more abundant. The chronological scheme for pro- <br />jectile point types defined for the Archaic in southern Wyoming appeazs to be appli- <br />cable to northwestern Colorado, and references to this sequence follow (Frision et <br />al., 1974). <br />Large corner- and side-notched projectile points are diagnostic of the <br />Eazly Plains Archaic stage, which coincided with the Altithermal, a period of hotter <br />and drier weather than was known before or after this period. Dates for this period <br />range from 5000 B.C. to 3000 B.C. No Altithermal sites have been found on the <br />High Plains to date, although this may be due to an incomplete sample of material <br />remains (Frison, 1978). Benedict provided the alternate hypothesis that during the <br />Altithermal period, lowland inhabitants of the region sought refuge at higher eleva- <br />• <br />E-9 <br />