LoDaisKa Site
Encyclopedia
The LoDaisKa Site is a prominent archaeological site
in the U.S. state
of Colorado
, located within a rockshelter
near Morrison
. The rockshelter was first inhabited by people of the Archaic through the Middle Ceramic period, generally spanning 3000 BC to 1000 AD.
, off U.S. Route 285
, the site is located in the southern Rocky Mountains foothills, at about 6200 feet (1,889.8 m) elevation, where uplifted Dakota Sandstone formed a steep hogback. The rockshelter is sheltered by distinctive 60 foot "red rock" formation, caused by an uplift of Fountain Formation rock. The Morrison area is between the locations of two important early people: Desert societies of the Great Basin west of the Rocky Mountains and those of the Great Plains, which lies to the east of the Rocky Mountain foothills.
Summer starting about 16,000 years ago. For the next five thousand years the landscape would change dramatically and most of the large animals would become extinct. Receding and melting glaciers created the Plum and Monument Creeks, the Castle Rock mesas and unburied the Rocky Mountains
. Large mammals, such as the mastodon
, mammoth
, camels, giant sloths, cheetah
, bison antiquus
and horses roamed the land. There were a few Paleo-Indian cultures, distinctive by the size of the tools they used and the animals they hunted. People in the first, Clovis complex period, had large tools to hunt the megafauna
animals of the early Paleo-Indian period. With time, the climate warmed again and lakes and savannas receded. The land became drier, food became less abundant, and as a result of the giant mammals became extinct. People adapted by hunting smaller mammals and gathering wild plants to supplement their diet. A new cultural complex was born, the Folsom tradition, with smaller projectile points to hunt smaller animals. Aside from hunting smaller mammals, people adapted by gathering wild plants to supplement their diet.
The earliest artifacts
at the LoDaisKa rockshelter
date from the Paleo-Indian period; the remains were from Complex E.
LoDaisKa site is considered by to be a Mount Albion complex, which was a Early Archaic culture of the Plains from about 4050 to 3050 BC, particularly distinguished by their Mount Albion corner-notched projectile. Magic Mountain, in the western foothills near Denver, and Mount Albion were both similar or related to the Albion Boarding House phase. A report published in 1966 found no correlation between the complexes.
Nelson also identified the general presence of seven lumps of red and yellow ochre
stones, possibly the paint stones in Complex D. Stone cists used to store seeds were also mentioned, the time and culture is unknown.
In 1961, researchers reported the results of radiocarbon dating
the site: they concluded that the earliest occupation of the site was around 3000 BC and that it was inhabited until at least AD 1000. As well, projectile points from LoDaisKa resemble and are contemporaneous with those found at such Great Plains
sites such as the McKean Site
in Wyoming
and Signal Butte
in Nebraska
; all these sites were inhabited during the time known in the eastern United States as the Woodland period
.
, qualifying because of the importance of the archaeological evidence found there.
Archaeological site
An archaeological site is a place in which evidence of past activity is preserved , and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology and represents a part of the archaeological record.Beyond this, the definition and geographical extent of a 'site' can vary widely,...
in the U.S. state
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
of Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
, located within a rockshelter
Rock shelter
A rock shelter is a shallow cave-like opening at the base of a bluff or cliff....
near Morrison
Morrison, Colorado
The historic Town of Morrison is a Home Rule Municipality in Jefferson County, Colorado, United States. The population was 430 at the 2000 census...
. The rockshelter was first inhabited by people of the Archaic through the Middle Ceramic period, generally spanning 3000 BC to 1000 AD.
Geography
Located near the town of MorrisonMorrison, Colorado
The historic Town of Morrison is a Home Rule Municipality in Jefferson County, Colorado, United States. The population was 430 at the 2000 census...
, off U.S. Route 285
U.S. Route 285
U.S. Route 285 is a north–south United States highway, running 845 miles through the states of Texas, New Mexico and Colorado. The highway's northern terminus is in Denver, Colorado, at exit 201 on Interstate 25. Its southern terminus is in Sanderson, Texas at an intersection with U.S....
, the site is located in the southern Rocky Mountains foothills, at about 6200 feet (1,889.8 m) elevation, where uplifted Dakota Sandstone formed a steep hogback. The rockshelter is sheltered by distinctive 60 foot "red rock" formation, caused by an uplift of Fountain Formation rock. The Morrison area is between the locations of two important early people: Desert societies of the Great Basin west of the Rocky Mountains and those of the Great Plains, which lies to the east of the Rocky Mountain foothills.
History
Within the Denver basin, prehistoric cultural periods are traditionally identified as: Paleo-Indian, Archaic and Ceramic periods. This translated to five defined complexes from A to E by Cynthia and Henry Irwin, complex E being the oldest phase.Paleo-Indians
The period immediately preceding the first humans coming into Colorado was the Ice AgeIce age
An ice age or, more precisely, glacial age, is a generic geological period of long-term reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers...
Summer starting about 16,000 years ago. For the next five thousand years the landscape would change dramatically and most of the large animals would become extinct. Receding and melting glaciers created the Plum and Monument Creeks, the Castle Rock mesas and unburied the Rocky Mountains
Rocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States...
. Large mammals, such as the mastodon
Mastodon
Mastodons were large tusked mammal species of the extinct genus Mammut which inhabited Asia, Africa, Europe, North America and Central America from the Oligocene through Pleistocene, 33.9 mya to 11,000 years ago. The American mastodon is the most recent and best known species of the group...
, mammoth
Mammoth
A mammoth is any species of the extinct genus Mammuthus. These proboscideans are members of Elephantidae, the family of elephants and mammoths, and close relatives of modern elephants. They were often equipped with long curved tusks and, in northern species, a covering of long hair...
, camels, giant sloths, cheetah
Cheetah
The cheetah is a large-sized feline inhabiting most of Africa and parts of the Middle East. The cheetah is the only extant member of the genus Acinonyx, most notable for modifications in the species' paws...
, bison antiquus
Bison antiquus
Bison antiquus, sometimes called the ancient bison, was the most common large herbivore of the North American continent for over ten thousand years, and is a direct ancestor of the living American bison....
and horses roamed the land. There were a few Paleo-Indian cultures, distinctive by the size of the tools they used and the animals they hunted. People in the first, Clovis complex period, had large tools to hunt the megafauna
Megafauna
In terrestrial zoology, megafauna are "giant", "very large" or "large" animals. The most common thresholds used are or...
animals of the early Paleo-Indian period. With time, the climate warmed again and lakes and savannas receded. The land became drier, food became less abundant, and as a result of the giant mammals became extinct. People adapted by hunting smaller mammals and gathering wild plants to supplement their diet. A new cultural complex was born, the Folsom tradition, with smaller projectile points to hunt smaller animals. Aside from hunting smaller mammals, people adapted by gathering wild plants to supplement their diet.
The earliest artifacts
Artifact (archaeology)
An artifact or artefact is "something made or given shape by man, such as a tool or a work of art, esp an object of archaeological interest"...
at the LoDaisKa rockshelter
Rock shelter
A rock shelter is a shallow cave-like opening at the base of a bluff or cliff....
date from the Paleo-Indian period; the remains were from Complex E.
Archaic periods
People of the Archaic period (generally between 5500 to 1 BC) were hunters of small game, such as deer, antelope and rabbits, and gatherers of wild plants. The people moved seasonally to hunting and gathering sites. Late in the Archaic period, about 200-500 A.D., corn was introduced into the diet and pottery-making became an occupation for storing and caring food.LoDaisKa site is considered by to be a Mount Albion complex, which was a Early Archaic culture of the Plains from about 4050 to 3050 BC, particularly distinguished by their Mount Albion corner-notched projectile. Magic Mountain, in the western foothills near Denver, and Mount Albion were both similar or related to the Albion Boarding House phase. A report published in 1966 found no correlation between the complexes.
Ceramic periods
The Early Ceramic, or Woodland, period began in the Plains about AD 0 with the defining distinction of the creation of cordwrapped pottery, development of settlement areas, and use of smaller projectile points for bow and arrow technology. Artifacts found reveal into the Middle Ceramic period. Few Colorado rockshelters have been shown to have been inhabited for such a long period of time.Archaeology
The LoDaisKa site artifacts include a hides, macrobotanical remains, wood artifacts, and a substantial collection of nonperishable artifacts from 3000 BC to AD 1000, which are classified into five site specific complex periods, from A through E.Artifacts by complex period
| Post-Pleistocene Period | Time Period | Culture traditions | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paleo-Indian | LoDaisKa Complex E. | The earliest Complex, contained a parallel flaked point and some chips, made from gravel below the rockshelter. | |
| Beginning of the Middle Archaic Period | 3000 to 1500 BC. | LoDaisKa Complex D. Most closely related to the Great Basin Desert Culture, including Danger Cave in western Utah. Artifacts are also similar to the Uncompahgre of southwest Colorado and Ventana Cave in southern Arizona. | Triangular projectile points similar to the Desert Culture. A wide variety of tools similar to Danger Cave, such as knives, choppers, scrapers, discoidal, Uncompahgre, drills, hammerstones and more tools of stone, antler and bone. In addition there are paint stones, beads, gaming pieces, balls and pendants. A four-plane mano is among the artifacts, but is not an item found at Danger Cave. The complex did some farming, as evidenced by pollen and macro-fossils found during other items from this phase. |
| Middle Archaic period | 1500 to 1000 BC. | LoDaisKa Complex C. McKean complex of Wyoming and some Signal Butte complex in Nebraska | In general the points are shouldered, concave base, stemmed dart points, most of which could be Duncan points. There are 2 expanding stem points that may be Hanna points. The largest of the projectile points is similar to the Signal Butte I point, or a little less similar to the smallest McKean Lanceolate points. Other tools made of Prismatic flakes include cutting tools, end scrapers, scrapers made similarly, but larger than McKean tools. Milling slabs and rock-filled hearths were also found at this site. |
| Early and Middle Ceramic (Woodland) | 700 to 1000 AD | LoDaisKa Complex B. High Plains woodlands cultures, such as the Parker phase | A new form of maize emerges, a 16 row popcorn-like maize, similar maize has also been found at the Lawson site in Nebraska. Like the maize, pottery found from this complex is from the Woodland phase. Charcoal was found spanning the AD 700-1000 time period. |
| Possibly Middle and Late Archaic peoples | After 90 AD | LoDaisKa Complex A. Fremont culture of western CO and eastern UT | Pottery Pottery Pottery is the material from which the potteryware is made, of which major types include earthenware, stoneware and porcelain. The place where such wares are made is also called a pottery . Pottery also refers to the art or craft of the potter or the manufacture of pottery... and corncob Corncob A corncob is the central core of a maize ear.The corn plant's ear is also considered a "cob" or "pole" but it is not fully a "pole" until the ear is shucked, or removed from the plant material around the ear... s have also been found there. Surviving Dent Dent Site Dent Site is a Clovis culture site located in Weld County, Colorado, near Milliken, Colorado. It was the first site to provide evidence that man and mammoth co-existed in the Americas.... maize, distinct from maize found in previous LoDaisKa complexes, closely resemble that found at the Bat Cave Carlsbad Caverns National Park Carlsbad Caverns National Park is a United States National Park in the Guadalupe Mountains in southeastern New Mexico. The primary attraction of the park for most visitors is the show cave, Carlsbad Caverns... in New Mexico New Mexico New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S... , which is known to be a Late Archaic (Desert Archaic) site; Both produced the "Chapalote" variety of the plant, which has been found in fossil Fossil Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past... form at LoDaisKa. The pottery is similar to Wormington's Turner Grey variety II. |
Nelson also identified the general presence of seven lumps of red and yellow ochre
Ochre
Ochre is the term for both a golden-yellow or light yellow brown color and for a form of earth pigment which produces the color. The pigment can also be used to create a reddish tint known as "red ochre". The more rarely used terms "purple ochre" and "brown ochre" also exist for variant hues...
stones, possibly the paint stones in Complex D. Stone cists used to store seeds were also mentioned, the time and culture is unknown.
In 1961, researchers reported the results of radiocarbon dating
Radiocarbon dating
Radiocarbon dating is a radiometric dating method that uses the naturally occurring radioisotope carbon-14 to estimate the age of carbon-bearing materials up to about 58,000 to 62,000 years. Raw, i.e. uncalibrated, radiocarbon ages are usually reported in radiocarbon years "Before Present" ,...
the site: they concluded that the earliest occupation of the site was around 3000 BC and that it was inhabited until at least AD 1000. As well, projectile points from LoDaisKa resemble and are contemporaneous with those found at such Great Plains
Great Plains
The Great Plains are a broad expanse of flat land, much of it covered in prairie, steppe and grassland, which lies west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States and Canada. This area covers parts of the U.S...
sites such as the McKean Site
McKean Site
The McKean Site is an archaeological site in Crook County, Wyoming, United States. A premier site of the Great Plains hunting cultures, it is the namesake of the "McKean Complex." Two significant contemporary sites of the same culture are Signal Butte in Nebraska and the LoDaisKa Site in...
in Wyoming
Wyoming
Wyoming is a state in the mountain region of the Western United States. The western two thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the foothills of the Eastern Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High...
and Signal Butte
Signal Butte
Signal Butte, or site 25Sf1, is an archaeological site near Gering, Nebraska.It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1961.At its designation, it was stated:...
in Nebraska
Nebraska
Nebraska is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River....
; all these sites were inhabited during the time known in the eastern United States as the Woodland period
Woodland period
The Woodland period of North American pre-Columbian cultures was from roughly 1000 BCE to 1000 CE in the eastern part of North America. The term "Woodland Period" was introduced in the 1930s as a generic header for prehistoric sites falling between the Archaic hunter-gatherers and the...
.
Excavation and studies
| Date | Name | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| 1931-1932 | Dr. E. B. Renaud | The first archaeological survey of sites in the Morrison area. |
| Date prior to 1958 | LoDaisKa Bethel | First extensive survey of LoDaisKa site. |
| 1958-1960 | Henry J. and Cynthia C. Irwin | Excavation and studies. |
Historical significance
Findings by the earliest archaeologists to investigate LoDaisKa were highly influential: regional archaeologists often interpreted their findings in accordance with what was known of LoDaisKa, and many other sites were excavated in part to answer questions that had resulted from research at LoDaisKa. In 2003, the LoDaisKa Site (designated site ID 5JF142) was listed on the National Register of Historic PlacesNational Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
, qualifying because of the importance of the archaeological evidence found there.
See also
- List of prehistoric sites in Colorado
- National Register of Historic Places listings in Jefferson County, ColoradoNational Register of Historic Places listings in Jefferson County, ColoradoThis is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Jefferson County, Colorado.It is intended to be a complete list of the properties and districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Jefferson County, Colorado, United States...