The Sky Aerie Promontory Charnel Site (5RB104) Colorado

Summary

Abstract/Management Summary

Fremont Archaeology on the Douglas Creek Arch,

Rio Blanco County, Colorado: The Sky Aerie Promontory Charnel Site (5RB104) by

Steven G. Baker

This document constitutes the final report on archaeological excavations conducted at the Sky Aerie Promontory (5RB104) by Centuries Research (CRI) in 1993. This work was completed on behalf of Chandler and Associates (CA) in conjunction with its exploration of the Calvert Reservoir natural gas field in Rio Blanco Co, Colorado. This development resulted in this very conspicuous and fragile site being made much more accessible by way of the upgrading of a primary access road which passed close to it. This improved access made this previously vandalized site much more vulnerable to additional vandalism. The work was undertaken in keeping with directives of the BLM to conserve archaeological data and to formally assess the eligibility for the National Register of sites which were made so more accessible by Chandler's operations. It was also undertaken in order to establish baseline documentation which could be used in long-term monitoring of the resource. Such a combined monitoring and data conservation program was a significant element in the Five Year Plan of Development prepared by Chandler. The cultural resource portion of this plan was designed by CRI at the request of the Bureau of Land Management as a means of complying with the National Environmental Policy Act (PL-91-190) as well as the National Historic Preservation Act (16 U.S.C. Sect. 470f 1985). Compliance with these legal instruments required that Chandler mitigate for secondary and longer range cumulative effects which might adversely impact the involved resources as a result of the then-envisioned intensive development of their leases on the Douglas Creek Arch.

The Sky Aerie Promontory consists of a highly aberrant Douglas Arch Fremont site where multiple episodes of perimortem manipulation of the dead suggestive of cannibalism were evident in an obviously long occupied structure of some kind. This was established on a small constrained shelf of the caprock on top of a small erosional outlier. Although the occupation in many ways resembles other Group Il Fremont households to date examined by the author on the Douglas Arch, it also has many attributes which clearly separate it from the emerging pattern of Fremont residences there. This particular occupation consisted of some manner of substantive structure which incorporated bedrock postholes and large slabs of sandstone in its construction. Associated with this structure was an unusual bedrock hole alignment on the caprock near the structure. This was most likely some manner of gaming surface which was used with small marble-like sandstone spheres which were plentiful in the caprock occupational deposits.

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