Bonnie L. Pitblado

Peak to peak in Paleoindian time : Occupation of southwest Colorado

One-hundred and sixty-six Paleoindian projectile points from surface contexts in southwest Colorado are documented, analyzed, and evaluated in terms of existing models of Paleoindian adaptation to the Rocky Mountain environment. The southwestern Colorado projectile points-morphologically and in terms of raw material use-appear to share much in common with mountain traditions defined for other Rocky Mountain regions, and there is some basis for pursuing the notion that the roots of this mountain tradition may lie to the west, in the Great Basin.

How Archaeologists and Artifact Collectors Can—and Should—Collaborate to Comply with Legal and Ethical Antiquities Codes

Abstract In a recent American Antiquity forum (Pitblado 2014), I argued that not only is it possible for archaeologists to engage in ethical collaborations with members of the artifact-collecting public, but that the Society for American Archaeology’s “Principles of Archaeological Ethics” stipulates that we should do so. This is not a message, however, that has fully permeated the archaeological community, which has led to a schism between populations who are often natural allies. This paper starts with that premise: that archaeologists should actively pursue collaborations with the artifact-collecting community with the goal of advancing research agendas, public education, and long-term care of collections in private hands. The paper offers guidelines for establishing and nurturing professional-collector relationships in a way that furthers the directives of legal and ethical archaeological codes. I begin with an overview of the changing nature of professional-collector relationships during the twentieth century, exploring reasons for the divisiveness that has characterized recent decades. I next suggest five steps for establishing appropriate relationships with artifact collectors—and avoiding inappropriate ones. Finally, I describe how I followed those steps to establish a network of collector-collaborators to build the foundation for a Paleoamerican research program in southeastern Idaho and northern Utah.

Discriminating Quartzite Sources Petrographically in the Upper Gunnison Basin, Colorado: Implications for Paleoamerican Lithic-Procurement Studies

Archaeologists lack a protocol for systematically attributing quartzite artifacts to particular geologic sources of the material. This paper, in an effort to begin to remedy that situation, reports the preliminary results of a petrographic study of quartzite samples from the Upper Gunnison Basin (UGB), Colorado. In that region, the overwhelming predominance of quartzite (often > 90 per cent) at most archaeological sites has hampered efforts to ascertain with any certainty the mobility strategies of Paleoamerican (and later) residents. In this study, qualitative and quantitative characterization of texture and grain composition of 50 UGB quartzite specimens led to the identification of six statistically distinct groups of samples. The groups are not arbitrary divisions of the data set; rather, they are meaningful from geologic, geospatial, chronological, and human-behavioral perspectives.

Archaeological Fingerprinting and Fremont Figurines

Abstract After the anonymous 2011 return of a long-missing Pilling Fremont figurine, a multi-disciplinary research team conducted “fingerprint” analyses in an effort to match it to 10 mates with intact provenance. The Pilling figurines, crafted 1,000 years ago and cached in a remote sandstone niche in eastern Utah, are the most significant find of Fremont portable art ever documented because they occurred in situ and are unparalleled in detail and completeness. Most of the other 400-plus known Fremont figurines derive from secondary contexts, limiting inferences archaeologists might otherwise draw in domains ranging from Fremont exchange to inter- and intra-cultural ideology. Basketry-imprint analysis, scanning electron microscopy, and portable X-ray fluorescence suggest that the returned specimen is the original Pilling. After a 40-year absence, it is now permanently curated with the rest of the collection at the Prehistoric Museum, USU Eastern, in Price, Utah, and can contribute to research of a rare artifact class. The techniques reported can also be applied to finds of fragmentary Fremont figurines in secondary contexts to assess relationships among specimens and sites. Most broadly, the successful application of nondestructive pXRF may inspire confidence in scientists studying rare and delicate specimens traditionally profiled using destructive methods such as INAA.

Clovis Caches: Recent Discoveries and New Research

I really like the edited volume Clovis Caches, and I am certain that anyone with an interest in hunter-gatherer lithic technology or Paleoindian archaeology will be happy to have a copy on the shel...

Paleoindian archaeology of the Upper Gunnison Basin, Colorado Rocky Mountains

The past two decades have seen a fluorescence of work at Paleoindian sites in Colorado’s Upper Gunnison Basin (UGB). This article presents and synthesizes the results of that work in two parts, the first, a landscape-scale analysis of 82 UGB Paleoindian components as reported in Colorado state site files; the second, a higher-resolution analysis of Paleoindian sites excavated in recent years. Conclusions include that starting as early as Folsom time, Paleoindian groups occupied the UGB year-round, and that UGB Paleoindian settlement strategies varied significantly both synchronically and diachronically. Both findings relate in large part to the enormously diverse resource base of the Late Pleistocene/Early Holocene Rocky Mountains in general and UGB in particular.