The Prehistory of Colorado and Adjacent Areas Book

What we now call Colorado has been peopled for at least 12,000 years, or more than 400 human generations. During this period the region has seen a continual ebb and flow of human occupation in response to climatic variation and resource availability, but it has never been uninhabited. Once in Colorado, prehistoric populations began to adapt to specific circumstances. In the southwest and northwest such adaptations eventually led to village life and an economy based on corn horticulture. On the plains and in the mountains a highly resilient system based on hunting and gathering was maintained throughout prehistory. Between AD 1200 and 1450 most of the inhabitants left the state, quickly replaced by new emigrants from the north and west. These new emigrants were the groups encountered by Europeans as they entered the region. THE PREHISTORY OF COLORADO AND ADJACENT AREAS is a short, accessible account of the state's human past. Based on the archaeological record, this book reconstructs past lifeways using current theory and explanations. Using a regional, rather than site-specific approach, it presents current explanations of what prehistoric Coloradans did at various points in time and why they changed. The eight chapters consider the paleoindian era and the Clovis and Folsom periods, then focus on geographic regions: the plains; southwestern Colorado from Archaic Period through Basketmaker and Pueblo periods; the northwest, which includes the Fremont and Numic peoples; and the mountains, a region whose prehistoric significance is only beginning to be understood. A final chapter offers further discussion of the Numic-speakers (Utes, Comanches), Algonquian speakers (Arapaho, Cheyenne), plus plains trade networks during the early historic period.Read More