2009-08-24_REVISION - C1982056 (4)

Home Browse Search

Pioneer Period. In regional context, the Pioneer Period begins after the demise of fully nomadic Paleoindian adaptations. Full-time occupants established a mixed base subsistence lifeway (Reed and Metcalf 1999:79). Traits that distinguish these occupations from traditional Paleoindian occupations include less group mobility, the frequent use of prepared pit features, exploitation of a wider range of fauna, evidence for plant procurement and processing, use of non-specialized chipped stone tool-kits, and the disappearance oftraditional well-made Paleoindian projectile points. In a record developed for the Uinta Basin Lateral in Northwestern Colorado and the Wyoming Basin, 48SW8842 and 5MF3003 have assemblages reflective ofan emerging Archaic life style. At 48SW8842, located south of Wamsutter, Wyoming, an Archaic life style is indicated in the earliest components dated about 9360 BP and 8500 BP (Pool 2001). An excavated component in the Yampa Basin was in the lower cultural unit at 5MF3003 dated to about 8200 BP (O'Brien and McDonald 2000). This component includes a complex of pit features along with a diverse mammalian fauna, groundstone artifacts, and an expedient chipped stone assemblage. A small Deception Creek point, a lanceolate Archaic type, was also found in the unit. Finally, the lowest excavated component at the Red Army Rockshelter had an occupation dating about 7300 BP (Pool 1997). These occupations reflect an Archaic lifeway emerging during what has traditionally been viewed as late Paleoindian time. The fact that the Pioneer Period includes a major erosional event at about 7300 BP, along with the general paucity of excavated sites, suggests that we do not yet fully understand the cultural variability captured within the period. For example, occupations after 7300 BP at 48SW8842 were much more intensive than prior occupations, and a shift from lanceolate projectile points to the use of stemmed and notched projectile points is evident. Prehistoric house pits have been excavated at 5MF5655 (Slaughter n.d.) and at Red Army (Pool 1997). These changes likely reflect adaptive response to a changed environment. Additional research may show that the Pioneer Period can be divided into an early period' where changes from traditional Paleoindian patterns to those defined as Archaic can be defined, and a later period where lifeways had become fully Archaic in character. Settled Period. The Settled Period is more widely represented than the former period. The approximate dates for the period range from about 6500 BP to 4450 BP. It was termed the "Settled Period" by Reed and Metcalf (1999:79) because by this time a distinctive subsistence pattern was fully in place across the region. Attributes of this pattern include abundant use of pit features to cook and process a variety of foods, use of roots and seeds, exploitation of a range of smaller mammals in addition to larger mammals, the presence of groundstone in most site types, use of a wide variety of stemmed and notched projectile points, and a settlement pattern that reflects the use of shallow basin houses as 'dwellings on a seasonal basis. Manifestations of this pattern in the Wyoming Basin led researchers to define a "Western Wyoming Interior Basin Adaptation Type" based on a distinctive settlement and subsistence strategy oriented toward resource use of the broad semiarid interior basins and intervening uplifts. This adaptation was geared toward utilization of plant and animal resources of mixed desert shrubs, especially those in sand dune communities (McNees 1999:3-62). As defined, this "adaptation type" existed throughout the Archaic and early Late Prehistoric periods in the Wyoming Basin, with the adaptation fluorescing periodically over time. Through much of the Settled Period, a pattern of central-place foraging seems to have dominated (e.g. Zeanah 2000). 5