ABSTRACT
During the last three decades, knowledge concerning archaeological game drive systems in Colorado has increased considerably. Research efforts along the Continental Divide and in the Rocky Mountain-High Plains border area of central and eastern Colorado have made an important contribution to these studies. Utilizing Benedict methods and results, the Colorado State University program has explored the large multicomponent Water Dog Divide game drive system, a nearby smaller drive, the Peaker site, and several campsites on the tundra-covered divide between the headwaters of the Arkansas and Colorado rivers. Interestingly, a high proportion of the Paleoindian sites are game drive and kill sites. The subsequent Archaic Period is divided into three sequent parts: the Early, Middle, and Late Archaic. Early Archaic climate is what is described as the Altithermal period which is characterized by extreme aridity. The peoples of all of these phases are interpreted to have followed a hunting-and-gathering subsistence economy from the earliest phases to the latest.
