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CULTURE HISTORY AND PREVIOUS WORK <br />The following review of the Prehistoric and Historic contexts of the Project Area have been <br />adapted from the Colorado Office of Archaeology and Historic Preservation's (OAHP) published <br />prehistoric and historic contexts for the north central Colorado region (Eighmy 1984, Guthrie et <br />al. 1984, Mehls 1984). Recently, the Colorado Council of Professional Archaeologists (CCPA) <br />has published a context for the Northern Colorado River Basin (Reed and Metcalf 1999) <br />PREHISTORIC OVERVIEW <br />Paleo-Indian Stage <br />h-t Colorado, the Paleo-Indian Stage appeazs to have lasted 4,500 yeazs from 10,000 B.C. to 5,500 <br />B.C. (Colorado Historical Society 1992:22). The emphasis during this stage was on the hunting <br />of now extinct mammoth and bison by small groups of nomadic hunters (Colorado Historical <br />Society 1992; Mehls and Anderson 1995). Artifactual manifestations of this stage include fluted, <br />lanceolate project points either found in isolated situations or in association with the remains of <br />extinct big game animal remains. Paleo-Indian projectile points have been found in the Colorado <br />mountain locations (Benedict 1981; Black 1986; Chambellan 1984), but none have been located <br />with intact deposits. As of 1992, the majority of the Paleo-Indian associated sites or isolated- <br />finds had been found in the west central and mountain regions of Colorado (Colorado Historical <br />Society 1992:22). Generally, evidence of the Paleo-Indian Stage in the mountains is found in <br />mountain parks and valleys. The Paleo-Indian Stage consists of three distinct cultures <br />distinguished by projectile point types and fauna exploited (Reed 1982); these cultures are the <br />Llano Culture (11,000-9,000 B. C.), the Folsom Culture (9,000-7,000 B.C.) And the Plano <br />Culture (7,000-5,500 B. C.). <br />Archaic Stage <br />Sometime around 6000 B.C. a climatic change occurred resulting in the decline of megafauna <br />and the Paleo-Indian lifeway. This climatic change is called the Altithertnal and was a period of <br />hotter and drier conditions. Hunters were forced to change their focus from the lazge game of <br />pre-Altithermal times to smaller game and increased vegetal resources. The diversity in the <br />subsistence pattern is reflected in the archaeological record by the increase of ground stone, the <br />greater variety of projectile point styles and the diversity of tools found at Archaic sites. <br />Resources of the Archaic Period aze the second most common recorded resources in the state of <br />Colorado (Colorado Historical Society 1992:31). Archaic sites have been found in greates <br />abundance in the mountain and west central regions of Colorado (Colorado Historical Society <br />1992:31). <br />The Archaic Stage has been divided into three periods based on projectile point typology and <br />radiocarbon dates (Guthrie et al. 1984:23). The periods are: Eazly (5,000-3,000 B.C.}, Middle <br />(3,000-1,000 B.C.), and Late (1,000 B.C. - A.D. 200). This division of the Archaic Stage has <br />been recently challenged by Reed and Metcalf (1999:77-97). They divide this stage into four <br />periods: the Pioneer Period (8350-6450 B.P.), the Settled Period (6450-4450 B.P.), the <br />t <br /> <br />i <br />