1. The Game Drives of Rocky Mountain National Park
- Author
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Joel C. Janetski and James B. Benedict
- Subjects
Prehistory ,Geography ,Lichenometry ,National park ,law ,Projectile point ,General Earth and Planetary Sciences ,Pottery ,Radiocarbon dating ,Archaeology ,Debitage ,Natural (archaeology) ,law.invention - Abstract
Communal game drives were a cost-effective way for pedestrian hunters to obtain large amounts of meat and hides. Although once common across North America, nearly all traces of game drives have been removed by modem agriculture practices. Thus, the two high-altitude sites in Colorado reported on in this volume are significant because their features are largely intact and their occupations can be reliably dated. Chapter 1 is a thorough overview of ethnohistoric game drives and hunting practices across North America. Chapter 2 focuses on the Trail Ridge Game Drive site located at the forest-tundra ecotone at 3,4653,500 m asl. Natural topography and constructed stone walls were employed to funnel herds to hunters waiting in blinds. Pellet-group studies suggest that the intended prey were elk or mule deer. Projectile points indicate intermittent occupation between the late Paleoindian and late prehistoric periods. Charcoal from two blinds was radiocarbon dated to 4590 ? 60 B.P. (Beta-85363) and 2610 ? 60 B.P. (Beta-75998), while granite weathering dates indicate that the walls were built or repaired numerous times. Chapter 3 discusses the extensive Flattop Mountain Game Drive site situated at 33503720 m asl. Features include 14 stone drive walls, 848 cairns, 90 blinds, and a possible hunter's bed. Numerous projectile points ranging from Paleoindian through protohistoric styles have been recovered in this vicinity since the 1920s, and these, as well as all other lithic tools, pottery and debitage, were analyzed. Fifteen radiocarbon samples collected within blinds date between ca. 4300 and 200 B.P. Chapter 4 places the two sites within a continental perspective. Both were used intermittently beginning in the Paleoindian period, and their features were maintained by various parties up to the protohistoric period. The appendixes address lichenometry, granite weathering, radiocarbon dating, pellet-group surveys, early artiay be disap ointed howev r, at the inco lusive i g. They may also be frustrated, as I was, by its a tic and repeti ve style and its limited and idiosynic selection among rel vant sources. fact collections, and descriptive data for all projectile points. This report is well organized and the numerous photographs, drawings, and graphs make it a valuable addition to the library of anyone interested in hunter-gatherer ecology in North America.
- Published
- 1997
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