North America: Rocky Mountains (Geographic Keyword)

DOCUMENT Citation Only Rachel Egan. Shaun Rose. Jared Orsi.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The southern coalfield in Colorado played a significant role in the growth of the American steel industry in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. With the availability of bituminous coal, which can be refined into coke, the region became a key producer of high-grade coal, with Starkville Mine emerging as a major player. The mine and its...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Haley O'Brien.

This is an abstract from the "Current Zooarchaeology: New and Ongoing Approaches" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Species identification is one of the first steps in the analysis of bone fragments in archaeological and bioarchaeological contexts. Current methods for taxa identification include morphoscopic, histological, and DNA analyses in order to assess what is present in an assemblage for zooarchaeological research, forensic significance, and...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Craig Lee. Erick Robertson. Kathryn Puseman.

This is an abstract from the "Three Sides of a Career: Papers in Honor of Robert L. Kelly" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The release of cultural and biological materials from melting snow and ice is the foundation for the field of ice patch archeology, a sub-field of cryospheric archaeology—the archaeology of the frozen world. To better understand the nature and potential of the ice patch record in the mid-latitude Rocky Mountains, ice patches in...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Molly Herron. Madeline Mackie. Todd Surovell.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Although mammoth ivory appears distinctive from other organic materials when found in large pieces, many morphological characteristics that distinguish ivory – such as Schreger lines – cannot be easily identified in small fragments. However, other characteristics, including dental tubules and canals, can be microscopically identified. In this study, I...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Clifford White.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Thermoregulation was integral to the survival of the first and subsequent people who inhabited North America following the Last Glacial Maximum. Successive climate fluctuations necessitated the implementation of technologies that increased the probability of human survival. Previous research has examined the timing of thermoregulatory technologies in the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Andrea Shiverdecker.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. How do we ethically correct whitewashed historical interpretations and understandings of federal landscapes? By utilizing noninvasive community archaeological practices, a new understanding of the diversity and intersectionality of a turn-of-the-century Montana mining boom town is unveiled. The Garnet Ghost Town Community Archaeology Project is a...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Savanna Agardy.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The public interpretation of archaeological sites is crucial to the understanding, appreciation, stewardship, and preservation of archaeology by the public. Significant archaeological sites, such as the privately-owned Spotten Cave, a prehistoric rockshelter site in Utah County, should be interpreted to the public even if they have an uncertain future....

DOCUMENT Citation Only Neil Hauser.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Uncompahgre Plateau has been utilized by humans for at least the last 10,000 year, based on dates from excavated sites in the region. Projectile point styles that have formally been defined and named from type sites throughout the Great Basin occur on the Plateau. However, many that have not been formally defined or named also occur on the Plateau....

DOCUMENT Citation Only Douglas MacDonald.

This is an abstract from the "A Further Discussion on the Role of Archaeology in Resource and Public Land Management" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Archaeologists are in a unique position to challenge the contemporary view of wilderness as defined by the United States in the 1964 Wilderness Act. Following the postmodern critique of William Cronon, Mark David Spence’s 1999 book “Dispossessing the Wilderness: Indian Removal and the Making of the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Robert Rowe. Jennifer Pelache. Bradley Byrnes.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. 5GA2312, the Lone Spruce Site, is located within the upper reaches of the Colorado River Basin in Grand County, Colorado, at 8,200 feet above sea level. The site was partially excavated in 2016 when 5,021 artifacts, 32% being identified as various types of scrapers, were recovered. Ninety-five percent of the assemblage is of Table Mountain jasper, which is...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Karin Larkin. Fawn-Amber Montoya. Robert Butero.

This is an abstract from the "Archaeological Congress: Multivocal Conversations Furthering the World Archaeological Congress Agenda" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The 1913–1914 southern Colorado coalfield strike and Ludlow Massacre had lasting impacts on labor law reforms that occurred in Colorado and the United States over the subsequent decades. The Colorado Coalfield War Archaeological Project (CCWAP) worked with the United Mine Workers of...

DOCUMENT Citation Only A. Dudley Gardner.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Recent excavations in Northwest Colorado indicate that between 1100 BP and 800 BP, some Fremont structures in the area contained elements similar to sites found throughout the upper Colorado Plateau. Adobe rimmed hearths, grass and cedar in roof construction, and rock slab coverings on roofs are evident in Northwest Colorado and elsewhere. The question is,...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jason LaBelle. Kelton Meyer.

This is an abstract from the "A Tribute to the Contributions of Lawrence C. Todd to World Prehistory" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Over the past 10 years, survey crews from CSU’s Center for Mountain and Plains Archaeology examined the alpine ecosystem of the Colorado Front Range, recording a variety of sites such as game drives, lithic and ceramic scatters, and ice patches within Rocky Mountain National Park and adjacent wilderness areas. We...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Daniel Dalmas. Lawrence Todd.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Differential use of obsidian sources by pre-contact peoples has been used to infer mobility patterns and occupations in the Absaroka mountains, Wyoming. Identifying sources of obsidian involves measuring the relative abundances of trace elements using eXRF and analyzing clusters to differentiate sources. Using a large dataset of 1,842 obsidian artifacts,...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Scott Dersam. Sari Dersam.

This is an abstract from the "A Further Discussion on the Role of Archaeology in Resource and Public Land Management" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Contemporary public land and wilderness management strategies in North America have long indulged the myth of the pristine, untouched ecosystem devoid of human interaction. Modern wilderness areas of the mountain West are not devoid of human influence; rather they represent ecosystems in which an apex...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Lawrence Loendorf.

This is an abstract from the "Painting the Past: Interpretive Approaches in Global Rock Art Research" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The shield-bearing warrior, a widely recognized rock art motif on the Northwestern Plains, has a more complex pedigree than archeologists originally recognized. Examples in northcentral Montana are radiocarbon dated to the Late Archaic while other sites in southwestern Montana may date to the same time. Adding to the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Ethan Ryan. Anna Prentiss.

This is an abstract from the "A Tribute to the Contributions of Lawrence C. Todd to World Prehistory" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This research uses obsidian data from a single site in the GYE to test existing land tenure and territoriality models based on the sourcing and subsequent movement of obsidian. While on a spectrum, existing studies have generally polarized between two major schools of thought. These perspectives diverge over whether...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Paul Buckner.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The transition from the Late Archaic (1200 B.C. to A.D. 150) to the Early Ceramic (A.D. 150 – A.D. 1150) in northern Colorado and southern Wyoming is characterized by decreasing mobility, a trend reflected by the adoption of ceramic technology, limited stone architecture, and longer site occupation. Contrasted against this shift to longer occupations is...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Chase Mahan.

This is an abstract from the "Old Technology, New Methodology" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The first people who occupied the western hemisphere are characterized as being highly mobile and for having a propensity for using high quality cherts. Many of these high-quality lithic sources have been described and documented, while Eocene cherts of the Wyoming Basin have yet to have the same attention nor are they recognized as being a favorable...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Marilyn Martorano.

This is an abstract from the "Entangled Legacies: Human, Forest, and Tree Dynamics" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Ponderosa pine trees with cultural modifications, primarily bark peeling and wood removal, were first officially documented in Colorado at Great Sand Dunes in the late 1970s by the author for her master’s thesis. At that time, CMTs were not recorded as cultural resources in Colorado. Since then, several hundred ponderosa pine CMTs...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Craig Lee. Michael Neeley. Elizabeth (Beth) Horton.

This is an abstract from the "A Further Discussion on the Role of Archaeology in Resource and Public Land Management" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Drivelines are a recognizable aspect of indigenously engineered landscapes on the High Plains and Rocky Mountain Front. Frequently associated with bison “kills,” these features are a subject of persistent interest to archaeologists. While the traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) of many Indigenous...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jordan Thompson. Rachel Horowitz. John Blong.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Bitterroot Mountains mark both an ecological and social margin between the Southern Columbia Plateau and the Plains region. The Nez Perce (Nimíipuu) Tribe traditionally followed a seasonal subsistence cycle routinely crossing these ecological and social boundaries, referencing long-term landscape and resource knowledge while negotiating complex social...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Holly Norton. Heather Shotten.

This is an abstract from the "Collaborative and Community Archaeology" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Between 1880 and 1920, Colorado hosted nine institutions that focused on the assimilation of Native youth, including day schools, on-reservation boarding schools, and off-reservation boarding schools. One institution in particular, Fort Lewis Indian Boarding School, became a state college with the intent to serve the Native population. Today Fort...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Michael Bies. Linea Sundstrom.

This is an abstract from the "From the Plains to the Plateau: Papers in Honor of James D. Keyser" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Jim Keyser has been a key figure in recording and interpreting rock art in Wyoming, Montana, and South Dakota for many years. This paper highlights some of his many contributions in understanding Late Prehistoric and Protohistoric narrative rock art. Jim has expanded his impact on the field of rock art research by...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Rachel Reckin.

This is an abstract from the "Three Sides of a Career: Papers in Honor of Robert L. Kelly" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The study of high elevation archaeology in the Rocky Mountains continues to enhance our understanding of the seasonal rounds of precontact hunter-gatherers in the region. Yet the specific seasonality and quantity of time Indigenous people spent at high elevations each year is unclear. Ethnographically, we know that...