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Welcome Home Ranch Rockshelter: Examinations of Prehistoric Cultural Transitions in the Palmer Divide, Colorado

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Welcome Home Ranch Rockshelter: Examinations of Prehistoric Cultural Transitions in the Palmer Divide, Colorado University of Denver Digital Commons @ DU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Graduate Studies 1-1-2014 Welcome Home Ranch Rockshelter: Examinations of Prehistoric Cultural Transitions in the Palmer Divide, Colorado Katherine V. Mayo University of Denver Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd Part of the Archaeological Anthropology Commons, and the Human Geography Commons Recommended Citation Mayo, Katherine V., "Welcome Home Ranch Rockshelter: Examinations of Prehistoric Cultural Transitions in the Palmer Divide, Colorado" (2014). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 411. https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd/411 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate Studies at Digital Commons @ DU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ DU. For more information, please contact [email protected],[email protected]. Welcome Home Ranch Rockshelter: Examinations of Prehistoric Cultural Transitions in the Palmer Divide, Colorado __________ A Thesis Presented to The Faculty of Social Sciences University of Denver __________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts __________ by Katherine V. Mayo November 2014 Advisor: Dr. Lawrence Conyers Author: Katherine V. Mayo Title: Welcome Home Ranch Rockshelter: Examinations of prehistoric cultural transitions in the Palmer Divide, Colorado Advisor: Dr. Lawrence Conyers Degree Date: November 2014 ABSTRACT Welcome Home Ranch rockshelter is located in the Palmer Divide region of Colorado. The archaeological evidence on site suggests that this rockshelter was occupied between the Late Archaic period (c. 1000 BC – AD 150) and Early Ceramic period (c. AD 150- 1150). Excavations at Welcome Home Ranch provided a dataset of lithics, ceramics, and features with which to test ideas about prehistoric life during this transitional time frame between the Archaic stage and the Late Prehistoric stage. It is during this transitional time period, c. AD 150, that the Palmer Divide region and its prehistoric residents experienced a variable climate, a change in demographics, technology, settlement, and economy. Through a combination of methods and methodologies, this paper seeks to use Welcome Home Ranch as a case study in order to test hypotheses surrounding these changes in prehistoric life. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Much, if not all, of this thesis could not have been done without the consistent help and guidance from Larry Conyers. From his endless patience and constant encouragement, I am a better writer; for his wealth of knowledge and persistent Socratic Method, I am a better student. Thank you for keeping me focused on completing this thesis. I would also like to acknowledge and appreciate a long list of advisers, volunteers, colleagues, friends and family. Thanks to Bonnie Clark for all the countless resources she helped provide me; Michelle Lappegard, for her amazing work at Welcome Home Ranch and her students at Metro State University, including Scott Sprague and Aaron Lamb; volunteers Adrianna Kowalski and David Ambrose, whose labor for the love of archaeology helped me reach my goals; to the property manager of Welcome Home Ranch; to the DU Museum of Anthropology for their guidance in the archives; to Kevin Gilmore, who is a forerunner in the field of archaeology and environmental research in the Palmer Divide region; as well as to the graduate students from 2011-2012 who kept me sane; to Vincent Wray who kept me going; and lastly a limitless-thanks to my family for their never-ending love and support. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................ 1 A CONTEXT OF THE PLAMER DIVIDE ................................................................................ 6 RESEARCH ORIENTATION ..................................................................................................... 8 PROJECT DESIGN ................................................................................................................... 11 HYPOTHESES .......................................................................................................................... 18 CHAPTER 2 BACKGROUND ........................................................................................ 23 GEOLOGY ................................................................................................................................ 24 ECOLOGY ................................................................................................................................ 26 CULTURE HISTORY ............................................................................................................... 27 Early Archaic 5500-3000 B.C. (7450-4950 BP) .................................................................... 28 Middle Archaic 3000-1000 B.C. (4950-2950 BP) ................................................................. 29 Late Archaic 1000 B.C. - A.D. 150 (2950-1800 BP) ............................................................. 29 Early Ceramic A.D. 150-1150 (1800-800 BP) ...................................................................... 30 Middle Ceramic A.D. 1150-1540 (800-410 BP) .................................................................... 33 PREVIOUS CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................................... 35 FRANKTOWN CAVE BACKGROUND ................................................................................. 40 CHAPTER 3 FIELD METHODS ..................................................................................... 45 EXCAVATIONS ....................................................................................................................... 45 UTILIZING GROUND-PENETRATING RADAR .................................................................. 48 CHAPTER 4 PALEOENVIRONMENTAL RECONSTRUCTION ................................ 70 TREE-RING RECORD ............................................................................................................. 71 AEOLIAN RECORD................................................................................................................. 73 POCKET-FEN RECORD .......................................................................................................... 75 COMPILATION OF PALEOCLIMATE DATA ...................................................................... 78 Late Archaic Paleoclimate 1000 BC – AD 150 ..................................................................... 78 Early Ceramic Paleoclimate AD 150 – 1150 ......................................................................... 78 INFLUENCES OF A VARIABLE CLIMATE ......................................................................... 79 iv CHAPTER 5 ANALYSIS AND RESULTS .................................................................... 90 CHRONOLOGY AND CULTURAL IDENTITY .................................................................... 91 TECHNOLOGY AND SITE FUNCTION .............................................................................. 105 SUBSISTENCE STRATEGIES .............................................................................................. 123 MOBILITY AND SETTLEMENT .......................................................................................... 131 CHAPTER 6 LANDSCAPE ANALYSIS ...................................................................... 145 APPROACH TO A LANDSCAPE ANALYSIS ..................................................................... 146 RESOURCES IN THE PALMER DIVIDE............................................................................. 149 SITE-CATCHMENT ANALYSIS .......................................................................................... 152 TERRITORIALITY ................................................................................................................. 160 VIEWSHED ANALYSIS ........................................................................................................ 165 COLLECTIVE SOCIAL MEMORY ...................................................................................... 171 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................... 178 CHAPTER 7 DISCUSSION AND INTERPRETATIONS ............................................ 182 DEMOGRAPHY AND CLIMATE ......................................................................................... 183 CHRONOLOGY AND CULTURAL IDENTITIES ............................................................... 184 TECHNOLOGY AND SITE FUNCTION .............................................................................. 185 SUBSISTENCE STRATEGIES .............................................................................................. 189 SETTLEMENT PATTERNS ................................................................................................... 192 CULTURAL LANDSCAPE .................................................................................................... 195 DISCUSSION .......................................................................................................................... 198 CHAPTER 8 CONCLUSIONS ...................................................................................... 201 IMPACTS OF THIS STUDY AND FUTURE RESEARCH .................................................. 209 BIBLIOGRAPHY ..........................................................................................................
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