Archaic Continuity in the Colorado Rockies: The Mountain Tradition

Abstract

The Paleo-Indian-Archaic transition has been shown to be relatively undramatic on the High Plains, where cultural continuity through maintenance of a bison hunting emphasis is apparent. In adjacent uplands of the Rocky Mountains, however, recent investigations have focused on a number of late PaleoIndian and Early Archaic period sites containing artifact assemblages and facilities difficult to categorize in known Plains complexes. Some of these early materials have distributions largely limited to upland areas, and the lithic technology represented may be derived from the Western Pluvial Lakes or Stemmed Point Tradition of the Great Basin. Subsequent cultural continuity in high altitude areas of the mountains leads to the definition of a unique Archaic adaptation called the Mountain Tradition. This tradition is widespread in the Rockies during the late Paleo-Indian and Early Archaic periods as far north as southern Montana, but Middle Archaic expansion of the McKean complex limits use of the tenn in the post-4500 B.P. era to the Southern Rocky Mountains. Archaic continuity in the Southern Rocky Mountains is expressed in archaeological remains as recent as 1000-700 B.P., after which explaining the presence of Numic sites may require a new influx of hunter-gatherer populations.

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