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High-Altitude Archaeology in the Uncompahgre Wilderness

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High-Altitude Archaeology in the Uncompahgre Wilderness High-Altitude Archaeology in the Uncompahgre Wilderness Mark D. Mitchell PCRG PaleoCultural Research Group High-Altitude Archaeology in the Uncompahgre Wilderness: Archaeological Investigations During 2010 at the Uncompahgre Cirque Site, Hinsdale County, Colorado by Mark D. Mitchell With Contributions by Christopher M. Johnston Prepared by Paleocultural Research Group P. O. Box 745309, Arvada, Colorado 80006 Under Challenge Cost Share Agreement 09-CS-11020400-047 and Archaeological Assessment Grant 2010-AS-005 Submitted to History Colorado State Historical Fund 1200 Broadway, Denver, Colorado 80203 and the U. S. Forest Service Grand Mesa, Uncomphagre, and Gunnison National Forests 2250 Highway 50, Delta, Colorado 81416 October 2012 Research Contribution No. 87 PCRG PaleoCultural Research Group Abstract In 2010, Paleocultural Research Group and the Grand near the base of a prominent paleosol. The presence Mesa, Uncompahgre, and Gunnison National Forests of well-defined chipped stone features primarily jointly carried out an archaeological assessment of the representing the reduction of individual raw material Uncompahgre Cirque site (5HN1098), an extensive nodules testifies to the remarkable integrity of the site’s quarry workshop located high on the east flank of cultural deposits. Uncompahgre Peak. Funding for the project was The principal activity at Uncompahgre Cirque was provided by the Forest Service and History Colorado’s reduction of chert nodules quarried on the high, narrow State Historical Fund. ridge immediately north of the site. Blanks prepared The site, located at an elevation of 3,840 m, consists for off-site transport and use include large flakes, of a dense scatter of flaking debris and chipped stone multi-directional cores, and both early- and late-stage tools covering 1.15 ha (2.8 ac). Artifacts are scattered bifaces. Flint knappers at Uncompahgre Cirque also throughout this area but are visible primarily in manufactured a variety of tools for on-site use in hide four concentrations. The 2010 effort focused on the processing, woodworking, animal butchery, or other largest and densest of the four, designated Locus 1. tasks. These include expedient flake tools as well as Archaeological fieldwork in Locus 1 included small- patterned end scrapers and bifaces. Some of the tools scale hand excavation, intensive surface mapping, produced from local stone for on-site use were made and targeted surface collection. The research team from heat-treated flakes or nodules. also surveyed a small portion of the valley adjacent to A notable feature of the workshop is the presence Uncompahgre Cirque. Subsequent laboratory analyses of cores, tools, and flaking debris made from imported of recovered artifacts included minimum analytical raw materials, including obsidian from northern nodule analysis of surface-collected debris aggregates; New Mexico and quartzite, chert, and possibly other individual flake analysis and mass analysis of excavated materials likely from the Gunnison basin and central flaking debris; technological analysis of stone tools; Colorado. The diversity of imported raw materials and compositional and hydration analysis of obsidian suggests that multiple groups from different regions artifacts. came together to use the chert quarry at Uncompahgre Multiple lines of evidence together indicate that the Cirque. Imported stone arrived as both finished tools site was occupied briefly between about 5900 and 5700 and as cores, and was used at Uncompahgre Cirque calendar years ago. All four radiocarbon dates from in much the same way as the local chert. Initial core the site are statistically equivalent, yielding a weighted reduction of imported stone is indicated by the presence mean age of 5038±19 14C yr B.P. This mean age spans at of large, unused flakes bearing cortex. Exhausted cores two standard deviations the period from 3944 cal B.C. to of obsidian, rhyolite, and chalcedony also occur in 3776 cal B.C., or a total of 168 calendar years. Obsidian the collection, as do smaller flakes of imported stone artifact hydration rim thickness distributions point to a indicative of tool manufacturing or maintenance. These brief occupation or short series of brief occupations latter items include thinning flakes produced during within this period. Stratigraphic data bolster the the late stages of biface manufacture as well as flakes inference that the occupation at Uncompahgre Cirque produced by soft-hammer percussion and pressure was brief. Artifacts primarily occur in a single zone flaking during tool rejuvenation. Table of Contents 1. Introduction and Context ..................................................................................................................................... 1 Prior Documentation .................................................................................................................................... 1 Overview of the Field Effort ........................................................................................................................ 2 Archaeological Context ................................................................................................................................ 3 Paleoindian Period ............................................................................................................................. 3 Archaic Period ................................................................................................................................... 4 Post-3000 B.P. Period ........................................................................................................................ 5 Post-A.D. 1300 Period ....................................................................................................................... 6 Environmental Context ................................................................................................................................. 6 Paleoenvironment .............................................................................................................................. 8 2. Archaeological Field Investigation ...................................................................................................................... 9 Uncompahgre Cirque Site Investigations ..................................................................................................... 9 Mapping and Surface Collection ..................................................................................................... 10 Surface Collection ................................................................................................................. 11 Surface Features .................................................................................................................... 12 Test Excavations .............................................................................................................................. 15 Excavation Unit 1 ................................................................................................................. 17 Excavation Unit 2 ................................................................................................................. 18 Excavation Unit 3 ................................................................................................................. 19 Excavation Unit 4 ................................................................................................................. 19 Excavation Unit 5 ................................................................................................................. 20 Excavation Unit 6 ................................................................................................................. 21 Stratigraphic Summary ................................................................................................................... 21 Stratigraphic Distribution and Orientation of Artifacts ........................................................ 22 Pedestrian Inventory ................................................................................................................................... 25 3. Site Chronology and Modified Stone Analysis ................................................................................................. 27 Site Chronology .......................................................................................................................................... 27 Analytic Units ............................................................................................................................................. 32 Overview of Technological Analysis Methods ........................................................................................... 32 Collection Summary ................................................................................................................................... 34 Raw Material Usage ................................................................................................................................... 34 Post-Occupation Weathering ........................................................................................................... 38 Surface Features ......................................................................................................................................... 38 Excavated Flaking Debris ........................................................................................................................... 42 Stone Tools ................................................................................................................................................
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