Oshara Tradition (c.5500 BC to c. AD 600) was a Southwestern Archaic Tradition centered in north-central 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...

, the San Juan Basin

San Juan Basin

The San Juan Basin is a geologic structural basin in the Four Corners region of the Southwestern United States; its main portion covers around , encompassing much of northwestern New Mexico, southwest Colorado, and parts of Arizona and Utah....

, the Rio Grande

Rio Grande

The Rio Grande is a river that flows from southwestern Colorado in the United States to the Gulf of Mexico. Along the way it forms part of the Mexico – United States border. Its length varies as its course changes...

 Valley, southern 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...

, and southeastern Utah

Utah

Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...

.

The Oshara may have ancestral roots in earlier Paleo-Indian traditions, but these postulated roots are much disputed and the debate is currently unresolved.

The beginnings of Oshara to about 5500 BC, as dated by Cynthia Irwin-Williams, then developed a sequence of Archaic culture for Oshara in the Arroyo Cuervo area of north central New Mexico. This sequence defines no fewer than six phases of occupation, each identified by Projectile point

Projectile point

In archaeological terms, a projectile point is an object that was hafted to a projectile, such as a spear, dart, or arrow, or perhaps used as a knife....

 forms and other less well defined artifacts. Jay, Bajada, San Jose, Armijo, En Medio, and Trujillo- the successive phases, chronicle local Archaic culture from its earliest manifestations right up until AD 600, by which time Ancestral Pueblo

Ancient Pueblo Peoples

Ancient Pueblo People or Ancestral Pueblo peoples were an ancient Native American culture centered on the present-day Four Corners area of the United States, comprising southern Utah, northern Arizona, northwest New Mexico, and southern Colorado...

("Anasazi") culture is flourishing in the area.