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6 <br />• The Late Pleistocene is generally characterized as having a climate <br />that was cooler and moister than at present. Growing seasons would have <br />been shorter due to cooler temperatures. Biotic provinces would have <br />had a lower altitudinal distribution than they do at present because <br />of cooler temperatures and the consequent shorter growing season. <br />These conditions probably remained until roughly 6000 BC, when <br />climatic conditions became warmer and drier in the Altithermal. During <br />the Altithermal, the boundaries of the biotic provinces of the region <br />may have been located at higher elevations than at the present. When <br />conditions moderated in the Medithermal, biotic distributions approached <br />the modern configuration. <br />• METHODS <br />Strategy <br />The general strategy employed in the survey was oriented toward <br />obtaining the maximum archaeological information about the study area <br />in the shortest time. To this end, a procedure was used which enabled <br />the survey teams to expend the most effort in locales where sites were <br />assumed more likely to exist. Since this procedure was not a random <br />method, it included some inherent bias toward areas which had environ- <br />mental characters presumed more habitable. Areas lacking these char- <br />acters were not as thoroughly examined. <br />The procedure, in essence, identifies areas that have a small <br />likelihood of containing sites, or areas in which it would be difficult <br />. to discern whether or not a site was present, even though it was in <br />~ fact there. The basis for determining the possibilities depends on the <br />