MOUNTAINEER SITE THE

The Mountaineer Site provides a rich record of stone tool manufacture and use, architectural features, and insight into Folsom period adaptive strategies. It will be of interest to graduate students and archaeologists focusing on Paleoindian archaeology, hunter-gatherer mobility, lithic technological organization, and prehistoric households.

Format: Paperback
Length: 508 pages
Publication date: 15 July 2022
Publisher: COLORADO & UTAH STATE UNI PRES

The Mountaineer Site presents a comprehensive archaeological exploration spanning over a decade, conducted at Mountaineer, a Paleoindian campsite located in the Upper Gunnison Basin of Colorado. Mountaineer stands as one of the rare and extensively excavated long-term Folsom occupations, showcasing evidence of built structures. This site offers a rich tapestry of insights into stone tool manufacture and utilization, architectural features, and the adaptive strategies of the Folsom people during a period when the region was still grappling with the waning influence of the Ice Age. Contributors to this volume examine data related to the structures, occupation duration, and repetition, as well as the nature of the artifact assemblages, to provide a valuable new perspective on human activity in the Rocky Mountains during the Late Pleistocene. Chapters delve into the history of fieldwork at the site, comparing and explaining the various excavation techniques employed. They discuss the geology, taphonomy, and geochronology of the site, analyzing artifacts and other recovered materials. Architectural elements are examined, and comparisons are made between the present and past environments of the Upper Gunnison Basin to gain a deeper understanding of the setting in which Folsom groups operated and the resources at their disposal.

The Folsom archaeological record reveals a far greater level of adaptive behavior than previously acknowledged in traditional models. The Mountaineer Site exemplifies how accounting for reduced mobility, more generalized subsistence patterns, and variability in tool manufacture and use fosters a more comprehensive and accurate understanding of Folsom lifeways. This volume will hold significant appeal to graduate students and archaeologists specializing in Paleoindian archaeology, hunter-gatherer mobility, lithic technological organization, prehistoric households, prehistorians, and scholars engaged in interdisciplinary studies of the ancient world.

ISBN-13: 9781646423095