Dissertation Research: The Rocky Mountains as Part of a Regional Model of Paleoindian Adaptations in the Western United States.

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Under the direction of Dr. C. Vance Haynes MS Bonnie Pitblado will collect data for her doctoral dissertation. Working with already excavated archaeological materials she will study lithic artifacts from the U.S. Plains, Rocky Mountains and Great Basin. She will focus on the Paleoindian period - from approximately 10,000 to 7,500 BP. - and conduct a detailed analysis of projectile points from Colorado and Utah since these two states together span the three geographic zones. She will also conduct a broad scale analysis of all lithic materials from nine sites, three from each of the areas. Through examination of raw material origin, manufacturing process and form of completed objects she hopes to determine the relationships between these three areas. A great deal of excavation has been conducted in both the Great Basin and the Plains and the archaeology of these areas during the Paleoindian period is fairly well understood. Much less however is known about the Rocky Mountains. Some archaeologists believe that this environmentally difficult area was inhabited year round and that separate groups of people developed a distinctive adaptation to this region. Others believe that cultures at a Paleoindian level of technology were unable to meet such a challenge. MS Pitblado will address this question through her analysis. This research is significant for a number of reasons. First it will provide information of great interest to archaeologists and help to illuminate a little understood period of U.S. prehistory. Secondly, it will shed new light on human-environment interactions and the basic ability of populations to adapt at simple levels of technology. Third, the work has the potential to make a significant contribution to archaeological methodology since it will further the development and application of techniques for the analysis of lithic materials. Finally this grant will assist in the training of a promising young archaeologist.