THESIS BRINGING IT ALL BACK HOME: EARLY CERAMIC PERIOD RESIDENTIAL OCCUPATION AT THE KINNEY SPRING SITE (5LR144C), LARIMER COUNTY, COLORADO Submitted by Benjamin Perlmutter Department of Anthropology In partial fulfillment of the requirements For the Degree of Master of Arts Colorado State University Fort Collins, Colorado Spring 2015 Masters Committee: Advisor: Jason M. LaBelle Mary Van Buren Jennifer Fish Kashay Copyright by Benjamin Perlmutter 2015 All Rights Reserved ABSTRACT BRINGING IT ALL BACK HOME: EARLY CERAMIC PERIOD RESIDENTIAL OCCUPATION AT THE KINNEY SPRING SITE (5LR144C), LARIMER COUNTY, COLORADO The Kinney Spring site (5LR144c) was excavated by the Colorado State University archaeological field school during the summers of 1983 through 1985. Rich cultural deposits were recovered which indicated reoccupation of the site from the Middle Archaic period through the Early Ceramic period, however the densest concentrations of artifacts were associated with Early Ceramic occupations (A.D. 150-1150). This research focuses on the Early Ceramic period at the site. The first part of this thesis aims to define the Late Prehistoric period chronology for the site by first defining where the Late Prehistoric component begins in the stratigraphic column. Analysis determined that there is sparse evidence for Middle Ceramic and possibly Protohistoric period occupation of the site based on diagnostic artifacts, although this is not sufficient to define any Middle Ceramic or Protohistoric components. The second part of this thesis explores the Early Ceramic component in greater detail. Artifact accumulations and radiocarbon dates suggest that Kinney Spring was reoccupied multiple times during the Early Ceramic period, suggesting that the site was an important part of the regional Early Ceramic era settlement system. Multiple lines of evidence suggest that occupational intensity increased here during the Early Ceramic, likely in response to increasing regional population pressure. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This project would not have been possible without the contributions and hard work of a number of people. First and foremost, I would like to thank Jason LaBelle for pushing, challenging, supporting, and encouraging my thinking about Kinney Spring and all things archaeological. I consider it one of the great privileges to have had the opportunity to develop into an archaeologist under his mentorship, and I place great value on the relationship we have built over the course of my time at C.S.U. I would also like to thank my thesis committee members, Mary Van Buren and Jennifer Fish Kashay, for their helpful comments and suggestions on this work. This research was supported by generous grants from three local archaeological organizations. Thanks to the Colorado Council of Professional Archaeologists Ward F. Weakly Scholarship, the Colorado State University Karen S. Greiner Scholarship, and the Loveland Archaeological Society Dorothy Mountain Memorial scholarship for awarding me funds to help pay for AMS dating of charcoal samples. Additional support for these dates came from the James and Audrey Benedict Fund for Mountain Archaeology, which continues to generously support archaeological research of the Colorado’s High Plains and Rocky Mountains. Thanks are also due to the Roberts family for their support of archaeological research and allowing C.S.U. access to their property. Gratitude must naturally be extended to Dr. Liz Morris and her field school students who conducted the original excavations and made this research possible. Field school students from the original excavations Mary Williams and “Trapper” John Rudd also generously shared their recollections of working at Kinney Spring with me. Dr. Jason iii LaBelle and students from several Anth 457/Lithic Technology classes were responsible for the initial organization and sorting of artifacts from the site. Numerous undergraduates contributed countless hours helping me count and weight thousands of flakes, and catalog hundreds of tools, but in particular I would like to thank Connor Johnen and Ashley Packard for their dedication and hard work. Chris Johnston generously donated his time and computer skills to helping with many of the graphics and maps in this thesis. My graduate school cohort has turned into a crew of life long friends and I am thankful for all of them, however I am especially indebted to Chris Johnston, Spencer Pelton, and Michael Troyer for so many engaging conversations on life and archaeology that made this experience so much fun. I would like to thank Susan Bender for introducing me to hunter-gatherer archaeology and Colorado. In the 10 years that we have known each other she has been a bottomless source of encouragement and support, and has provided me with so many invaluable experiences, opportunities, and great days in South Park. Finally, I owe everything to my parents, Richard and Barbara, who have supported me on every level throughout the writing of this thesis, and my entire life leading up to this point. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................................................... ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................................................................... iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ......................................................................................................................................... v LIST OF TABLES................................................................................................................................................... vii LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................................................... viii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION, BACKGROUND, AND RESEARCH OBJECTIVES ............................ 1 Physical Environment ...................................................................................................................................................... 3 CHAPTER 2: NORTHERN COLORADO PREHISTORY AND THE EARLY CERAMIC PERIOD . 17 The Early Ceramic Period ............................................................................................................................................. 21 Early Ceramic Period Settlement Systems ............................................................................................................. 28 CHAPTER 3: THEORY AND METHODS ..................................................................................................... 31 Theoretical Perspectives ............................................................................................................................................... 31 Methods ................................................................................................................................................................................ 38 CHAPTER 4: DEFINING THE LATE PREHISTORIC COMPONENT................................................... 52 Diagnostic Artifacts ......................................................................................................................................................... 52 Radiocarbon dates ........................................................................................................................................................... 56 House Stratigraphy .......................................................................................................................................................... 58 Summary .............................................................................................................................................................................. 65 CHAPTER 5: IDENTIFYING MIDDLE AND LATE CERAMIC PERIOD COMPONENTS .............. 70 AT KINNEY SPRING ........................................................................................................................................... 70 Projectile Points ................................................................................................................................................................ 70 Pottery .................................................................................................................................................................................. 74 Radiocarbon Dates ........................................................................................................................................................... 77 Summary .............................................................................................................................................................................. 78 CHAPTER 6: EXPLORING EARLY CERAMIC PERIOD RESIDENTIAL STABILITY AT KINNEY SPRING ................................................................................................................................................................... 79 Radiocarbon Dates ........................................................................................................................................................... 81 Debitage ............................................................................................................................................................................... 83 Hearth Features ...............................................................................................................................................................