ABSTRACT
Three cultural traditions―Apishapa, Sopris, and High Plains Upper Republican―characterized the Middle Ceramic Period (ad 1000–1300) in southeastern Colorado. To identify these traditions, we use models derived from the ethnography of different communities related to the archaeological entities: Great Basin hunter-gatherers, Northern Caddoan bison-hunting farmers, and Puebloan agriculturalists. By applying these models to the archeological record, we can recognize different traditions by their distinctive social organizations of space, domestic economies, associated material cultures, and rock arts. In the process, we present new interpretations of Sopris near Trinidad, the Avery Ranch and Ocean Vista sites south of Colorado Springs, and Cramer in the Apishapa canyon. Although distinctive, the three traditions formed a nexus of interaction: Apishapa with High Plains Upper Republican, Sopris with Apishapa, and trade connections between all three. We argue that the Calumet ceremony facilitated this interaction, rather than the residential mobility typical of hunter-forager societies. The Calumet network, moreover, provided a foundation for multicultural residences that served important economic purposes.
