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Magic Mountain Site
The Magic Mountain site is an Archaic and Woodland village site in Jefferson County, Colorado dating from 4999 BC to 1000 AD. The site was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. The site was named for the property owner Magic Mountain Amusement Park in the late 1950s. One hundred years before, the area was the Apex mining district, served by a small stagecoach stop. Geography Magic Mountain site, in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in the Denver Basin, is located by Apex Creek. The ecosystem is a transitional mountain-plains zone.Gibbon, Ames, p. 488. It is located at: 39°42'50"N 105°12'42"W History Within the Denver Basin, prehistoric time periods are traditionally identified as: Paleo-Indian, Archaic and Ceramic, or Woodland periods. The Denver basin is a geological definition of a portion of the Colorado Piedmont, from Colorado Springs, Colorado, to Wyoming. The Palmer Divide, with elevations from 6,000 to 7,500, is a subsection of that area ...
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Jefferson County, Colorado
Jefferson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 census, the population was 582,910, making it the fourth-most populous county in Colorado. The county seat is Golden, and the most populous city is Lakewood. Jefferson County is included in the Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area. Located along the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, Jefferson County is adjacent to the state capital of Denver. In 2010, the center of population of Colorado was located in Jefferson County. The county's slogan is the "Gateway to the Rocky Mountains", and it is commonly nicknamed Jeffco. The name Jeffco is incorporated in the name of the Jeffco School District, the Jeffco Business Center Metropolitan District No. 1, and several businesses located in Jefferson County. Jeffco is also incorporated in the unofficial monikers of many Jefferson County agencies. The Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport operated by Jefferson County was previously know ...
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Lithic Reduction
In archaeology, in particular of the Stone Age, lithic reduction is the process of fashioning stones or rocks from their natural state into tools or weapons by removing some parts. It has been intensely studied and many archaeological industries are identified almost entirely by the lithic analysis of the precise style of their tools and the chaîne opératoire of the reduction techniques they used. Normally the starting point is the selection of a piece of tool stone that has been detached by natural geological processes, and is an appropriate size and shape. In some cases solid rock or larger boulders may be quarried and broken into suitable smaller pieces, and in others the starting point may be a piece of the debitage, a flake removed from a previous operation to make a larger tool. The selected piece is called the lithic core (also known as the "objective piece"). A basic distinction is that between flaked or knapped stone, the main subject here, and ground stone object ...
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Geography Of Jefferson County, Colorado
Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. The first recorded use of the word γεωγραφία was as a title of a book by Greek scholar Eratosthenes (276–194 BC). Geography is an all-encompassing discipline that seeks an understanding of Earth and its human and natural complexities—not merely where objects are, but also how they have changed and come to be. While geography is specific to Earth, many concepts can be applied more broadly to other celestial bodies in the field of planetary science. One such concept, the first law of geography, proposed by Waldo Tobler, is "everything is related to everything else, but near things are more related than distant things." Geography has been called "the world discipline" and "the bridge between the human and th ...
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Archaeological Sites On The National Register Of Historic Places In Colorado
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscapes. Archaeology can be considered both a social science and a branch of the humanities. It is usually considered an independent academic discipline, but may also be classified as part of anthropology (in North America – the four-field approach), history or geography. Archaeologists study human prehistory and history, from the development of the first stone tools at Lomekwi in East Africa 3.3 million years ago up until recent decades. Archaeology is distinct from palaeontology, which is the study of fossil remains. Archaeology is particularly important for learning about prehistoric societies, for which, by definition, there are no written records. Prehistory includes over 99% of the human past, from the Paleolithic until the advent of ...
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List Of Prehistoric Sites In Colorado
This list of prehistoric sites in Colorado includes historical and archaeological sites of humans from their earliest times in Colorado to just before the Colorado historic period, which ranges from about 12,000 BC to AD 19th century. The Period is defined by the culture enjoyed at the time, from the earliest hunter-gatherers, the Paleo-Indians, through to the prehistoric parents to the modern Native Americans. There were more than 56,500 recorded prehistoric sites in Colorado by 1996. Important historic and archaeological sites are registered nationally with the National Register of Historic Places (National register) and within the state's Colorado State Register of Historic Properties (State register). Most of the sites below are registered in one more both registers and was the source for most of the information for this section:
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Denver Museum Of Nature And Science
The Denver Museum of Nature & Science is a municipal natural history and science museum in Denver, Colorado. It is a resource for informal science education in the Rocky Mountain region. A variety of exhibitions, programs, and activities help museum visitors learn about the natural history of Colorado, Earth, and the universe. The building houses more than one million objects in its collections including natural history and anthropological materials, as well as archival and library resources. The museum is an independent, nonprofit institution with approximately 350 full-time and part-time staff, more than 1,800 volunteers, and a 25-member board of trustees. It is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums and is a Smithsonian Institution affiliate. Education programs The museum provides programming in six main areas. The exhibitions, IMAX films, lectures, classes, and programs pertain to one or more of the following core competencies: anthropology, geology, health scienc ...
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Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and one of the most prestigious and highly ranked universities in the world. The university is composed of ten academic faculties plus Harvard Radcliffe Institute. The Faculty of Arts and Sciences offers study in a wide range of undergraduate and graduate academic disciplines, and other faculties offer only graduate degrees, including professional degrees. Harvard has three main campuses: the Cambridge campus centered on Harvard Yard; an adjoining campus immediately across Charles River in the Allston neighborhood of Boston; and the medical campus in Boston's Longwood Medical Area. Harvard's endowment is valued at $50.9 billion, making it the wealthiest academic institution in the world. Endowment inco ...
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Cynthia Irwin-Williams
Cynthia Irwin-Williams (April 14, 1936 – June 15, 1990) was an archaeologist of the prehistoric American Southwest. She received a B.A. in Anthropology from Radcliffe College in 1957; the next year she received a M.A. in the same field. In 1963 she completed her educational career in Anthropology with a PhD. from Harvard University. Beginning her career in the 1950s, Irwin-Williams was considered a groundbreaker for women in archaeology, like her friend and supporter Hannah Marie Wormington.Cassells, E. Steve. (1997). ''The Archaeology of Colorado, Revised Edition.'' Boulder, Colorado: Johnson Books. pp. 298-299. . Archaeological career She worked with her brother, Henry Irwin, a fellow archaeologist, in Colorado from the mid-1950s to 1960. In 1966 Irwin-Williams and her brother published a book of her findings from the Magic Mountain site excavation performed for the Peabody Museum of Harvard University in 1959–1960. They also worked on the nearby and related LoDaisKa sit ...
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Mount Albion Complex
The Mount Albion complex was an early Archaic culture from about 4050 to 3050 BC, particularly distinguished by the Mount Albion side-notched projectile. It was called by James Gunnerson, the best known early Archaic culture in Colorado. It is related or similar to the Albion Boarding House phase.Gibbon, Guy E., and Kenneth M. Ames.''Archaeology of Prehistoric Native America: An Encyclopedia'' New York: Taylor and Francis, 1998, xlvii/11/488. .Gunnerson, James H''Archaeology of the High Plains'' Denver: United States Forest Service, 1987. p. 28. The Hungry Whistler Site and 5BL70 sites, on the slopes of Mount Albion in Boulder County, are the greatest sources of information about the Mount Albion complex. Hungry Whistler, a kill and butchering site, at is the type site for the Mount Albion complex. Hunters used a game drive system on the site to drive game between stone walls. The archaeological findings were dated over four periods from about 3850 to 3060 B.C. Site 5BL70, l ...
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Apex Complex
Apex complex is a cultural tradition of the Middle Archaic period. Apex complex artifacts, dated from about 3000 to 500 BC, first appeared in the Magic Mountain site near Apex Creek in Colorado. The Irwins, archaeologists at Magic Mountain, believe that the artifacts are from ancestors of Puebloan people of the American southwest. The cultural complex is distinguished by its Apex projectile points, which were noted for the increase in their frequency as one starts from the bottom to the top zone of the Magic Mountain site. Discovered tools also included scrapers, choppers, and leaf-shaped bifaces, which may have been used as knives. Evidence of a few grave sites suggest that burials were conducted near their living areas, covered with stones and milling slabs.Gunnerson, pp. 33-34. The functions and implications of the excavated artifacts, particularly the projectile points, are still not clearly understood. It is also noted that the characteristics of the projectiles reflect a ...
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Projectile Point
In North American archaeological terminology, a projectile point is an object that was hafted to a weapon that was capable of being thrown or projected, such as a javelin, dart, or arrow. They are thus different from weapons presumed to have been kept in the hand, such as knives, spears, axes, hammers, and maces. Stone tools, including projectile points, can survive for long periods, were often lost or discarded, and are relatively plentiful, especially at archaeological sites. They provide useful clues to the human past, including prehistoric trade. A distinctive form of point, identified though lithic analysis of the way it was made, is often a key diagnostic factor in identifying an archaeological industry or culture. Scientific techniques exist to track the specific kinds of rock or minerals that were used to make stone tools in various regions back to their original sources. As well as stone, projectile points were also made of worked wood, bone, antler, horn, or ivory ...
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Arkansas River
The Arkansas River is a major tributary of the Mississippi River. It generally flows to the east and southeast as it traverses the U.S. states of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. The river's source basin lies in the western United States in Colorado, specifically the Arkansas River Valley. The headwaters derive from the snowpack in the Sawatch and Mosquito mountain ranges. It flows east into the Midwest via Kansas, and finally into the South through Oklahoma and Arkansas. At , it is the sixth-longest river in the United States, the second-longest tributary in the Mississippi–Missouri system, and the 45th longest river in the world. Its origin is in the Rocky Mountains in Lake County, Colorado, near Leadville. In 1859, placer gold discovered in the Leadville area brought thousands seeking to strike it rich, but the easily recovered placer gold was quickly exhausted. The Arkansas River's mouth is at Napoleon, Arkansas, and its drainage basin covers nearly .See wat ...
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