Archaeological Investigations at Eleven Sites of Welsh Canyon in the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site, Las Animas County, Colorado

Abstract : In the summer of 1996 New Mexico State University under a cooperative agreement with the National Park Service and the United States Army conducted archaeological research consisting of subsurface testing and mapping of 11 sites in Welsh Canyon at the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site in southeastern Colorado. Artifacts and ecofacts recovered from the investigated sites indicate that subsistence was rather mixed with good evidence for both plant processing and the hunting of small mammals. Palynological analysis indicates that the climate from about A.D. 950 to A.D. 1200 was somewhat more arid than the climate in the previous period. This period of mild moisture stress appears to be associated with an increase in population, a diversification of subsistence practices and raw material used in the production of chipped stone tools, and an increase in trade and exchange.