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<br />1180 B.C., two large corner-notched knives, bird and dog <br />remains, and rabbit bone beads and an awl (Hand and Gooding <br />1980). <br />A pithouse excavated at SGF126, the ~(ewclaw Site, in the <br />townsite of Battlement Mesa, had a roughly circular floor four <br />meters in diameter, a central hearth, and walls that rose <br />abruptly 30 to 60 centimeters. The walls showed evidence of <br />having been smoothed with water or mud glazed. Eight small, <br />shallow holes around and within the pithouse and a single <br />large hole at the center of the floor implied the presence of <br />a superstructure, presumably constructed of wooden poles. <br />This site dated ca. 1100 B.C. and may be a cultural relative <br />of the Dotsero burial site (Conner and Langdon 1987:7.44). <br />The Sisyphus Rockshelter, located just north of the <br />Colorado River and east of the town of Debeque, contained the <br />ruins of a structural feature of Late Archaic origin dating <br />550 B.C. (Gooding and Shields 1985). Uncovered were a <br />sandstone slab-lined oblong floor and three stone foundation <br />walls. It is assumed that this was a habitation structure, <br />and its presence implies at least a semi-sedentary lifestyle. <br />• Late Prehistoric and Historic Periods <br />The San Miguel River has for many years been considered <br />the dividing line between the Anasazi Culture of the south and <br />the Uncompahgre Complex and possible Fremont Culture <br />occupation areas to the north. Because rectangular and <br />circular stone surface structures have both been found along <br />the San Miguel, it is unclear as to which horticulturalist <br />(Formative) groups occupied the area, but overlapping of the <br />Anasazi and Fremont along this contact zone certainly must <br />have occurred. The lack of clearly definable Anasazi traits <br />at many sites, however, suggests the likelihood that some are <br />Fremont--possibly an undefined variant or San Rafael type. <br />The definition for the rr^remont Culture may be applicable <br />to those groups which occupied the San Miguel River Drainage. <br />It is generally agreed that various horticulturalist <br />(Formative) groups--possibly of diverse origins and languages, <br />but sharing similar material traits and subsistence <br />strategies--occupied IItah and western Colorado between about <br />A.D. 500 and A.D. 1300 (Madsen 1979:717). These people were <br />contemporaneous with the Anasazi and adopted many of their <br />traits, yet remained distinct in several characteristics <br />including a one-rod-and-bundle basketry construction style, a <br />• moccasin style, trapezoidal shaped clay figurines and rock art <br />7 <br />