Current Research at Cherokee Mountain Rock Shelter, Douglas County, Colorado

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In 1971, excavations were conducted by avocational archaeologists at Cherokee Mountain Rock Shelter (5DA1001) in Douglas County Colorado. A 1973 published report showed an assemblage indicating three Late Prehistoric components. The middle component contained what was interpreted as Shoshonean ceramics likely from outside of the region. The collection was given for storage to the landowner, until their rediscovery in 2014. The authors are reanalyzing the 1971 collection and doing new research on the terrace south of the shelter. The rock shelter and terrace are the result of erosion of the upper Eocene Castle Rock Conglomerate. Radiocarbon assays on charcoal from the 1971 excavations confirm a Protohistoric occupation, no earlier than ca. AD 1700. Ceramics are reinterpreted as Ute. From 2014–2017 shovel tests, test units and auger tests were conducted on the terrace, showing cultural deposits to a minimum of 1.2m and an unusual mollic A horizon, 1.2 – 2.0m thick with a buried A horizon at 2.5-3.5m. The organic-rich A horizons are probably the result of stratigraphically- focused ground water flow to the terrace surface over thousands of years. An assay on charcoal from this paleosol returned a date of 9890 +/- 25 RCYBP or 11350-11230 cal BP.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 24824