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GCC Rio Grande, Inc., Cultural
<br />other evidence of age or cultural affiliation. The prehistory of the area is divided into three
<br />cultural stages, Paleoindian, Archaic, and Late Prehistoric. The concepts of these cultural stages
<br />and their subdivisions are chronological and evolutionary, but the assignment of particular sites
<br />' to these taxa is often narrowly based on technological styles of certain diagnostic artifacts, such
<br />as hafted bifaces and pottery. The earlier portions of this chronological scheme, the Paleoindian
<br />Stage, and the Early Archaic Period of the Archaic Stage, are very weakly represented.
<br />Beginning with the Middle Archaic period, more sites have been identified and a wider range of
<br />material remains has been recovered. A brief chronology summarized below (Zier and Kalasz
<br />1999) describes the hallmarks of the major chronological divisions:
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<br />• Paleoindian Stage--11,500 to 7800 Years Before Present (B.P.). The Paleoindian Stage
<br />includes the Clovis, Folsom, and Plano periods. Characterized by kills sites and game
<br />processing sites; tool assemblages consist of chipped stone tools -- dart points and
<br />specialized hide-processing tools -- used in hunting of large animals, primarily now-extinct
<br />megafauna such as mammoth, Bison antiquus, camels, and sloth.
<br />• Archaic Stage-77800 to 1850 B.P. This stage is divided into Early, Middle, and Late. The
<br />Archaic is. a time of changing environment from the preceding Paleoindian Stage that
<br />necessitated modifications of lifestyles to the warmer, drier conditions; resulted in intensive .
<br />foraging of plant resources and hunting of deer and smaller game; grinding stones and a
<br />general decrease in the size of dart points; both open sites and rockshelters, and features such
<br />as firepits, storage cists, and architectural structures.
<br />Late Prehistoric Stage--1850 to 500 B.P. For Southeast Colorado this Stage includes the
<br />Developmental Period and Diversification Period with the latter divided into the Sopris and
<br />Apishapa Phases; characterized by a change in technology, subsistence, trade, and
<br />demographics; marked by the appearance of pottery and the bow-and-arrow, with small
<br />corner-notched projectile points that were hafted to arrows; appearance of cord-marked and
<br />polished ceramics indicates the development of gardening or horticulture, with pots used to
<br />store both wild plants and cultigens; open sites, rock shelters, and various forms of
<br />architecture, which vary with jacal constructed structures to low stone walls that can contain
<br />any number of room divisions.
<br />' Protohistoric Stage--500 to 225 B.P. Defined by the abandonment of Apishapa phase and the
<br />arrival of Athapaskan groups and ends with the withdrawal of the Athapaskan groups (i.e.,
<br />Apachean) from the area; includes an increase in Spanish expeditions and Comanche
<br />incursions; open camps, rockshelters, and architectural sites; artifacts include a combination
<br />of traditional hunting, gathering, and horticultural items combined with later European
<br />contact articles.
<br />Principal traditional claims to the Arkansas River catchment area were by the Jicarilla Apache,
<br />' Southern Ute, Comanche, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Kiowa, and Kiowa-Apache, and any of these
<br />groups may have legitimate claim to traditional religious or cultural properties.
<br />' Prehistoric resources, if encountered, will be assessed as to contributing to research topics such
<br />as, settlement patterns, paleodemography, subsistence; trade and exchange, and chronology.
<br />1180-Red Rock Class III CR Inventory(Apr.17.02) 3
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