The Apishapa culture, or Apishapa Phase, a

prehistoric Prehistory, also known as pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the use of the first stone tools by hominins 3.3 million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use of ...

culture Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups.Tyl ...

from 1000 to 1400, was named based upon an

archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology an ...

in the Lower Apishapa canyon in

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

.Gibbon, Guy E.; Ames, Kenneth M. (1998
''Archaeology of Prehistoric Native America: An Encyclopedia''.
p. 24. . The Apishapa River, a tributary of the

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 Stat ...

, formed the Apishapa canyon. In 1976, there were 68 Apishapa sites on the Chaquaqua Plateau in southeastern Colorado.Gunnerson, James H. (1987)
''Archaeology of the High Plains.''
Denver: United States Forest Service. p. 89.

Origin

The Apishapa culture, primarily found in the Arkansas River basin of southeastern Colorado, may have evolved from the

Panhandle culture Panhandle culture is a prehistoric culture of the southern High Plains during the Middle Ceramic Period from AD 1200 to 1400. Panhandle sites are primarily in the panhandle and west central Oklahoma and the northern half of the Texas Panhandle. ...

or people indigenous to Colorado of the

Woodland Period In the classification of :category:Archaeological cultures of North America, archaeological cultures of North America, the Woodland period of North American pre-Columbian cultures spanned a period from roughly 1000 Common Era, BCE to European con ...

culture.

Culture

Apishapa sites, found in Colorado and

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...

, represented a tradition of

hunter gatherer A traditional hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living an ancestrally derived lifestyle in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local sources, especially edible wild plants but also insects, fungi, ...

s who sometimes farmed

beans A bean is the seed of several plants in the family Fabaceae, which are used as vegetables for human or animal food. They can be cooked in many different ways, including boiling, frying, and baking, and are used in many traditional dishes th ...

and five types of

maize Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. Th ...

. They gathered wild plants and hunted bison, deer,

pronghorn The pronghorn (, ) (''Antilocapra americana'') is a species of artiodactyl (even-toed, hoofed) mammal indigenous to interior western and central North America. Though not an antelope, it is known colloquially in North America as the American a ...

, rabbit and other small game with

bow and arrow The bow and arrow is a ranged weapon system consisting of an elastic launching device (bow) and long-shafted projectiles ( arrows). Humans used bows and arrows for hunting and aggression long before recorded history, and the practice was comm ...

atlatl A spear-thrower, spear-throwing lever or ''atlatl'' (pronounced or ; Nahuatl ''ahtlatl'' ) is a tool that uses leverage to achieve greater velocity in dart or javelin-throwing, and includes a bearing surface which allows the user to store ene ...

spear A spear is a pole weapon consisting of a shaft, usually of wood, with a pointed head. The head may be simply the sharpened end of the shaft itself, as is the case with fire hardened spears, or it may be made of a more durable material fasten ...

s and

darts Darts or dart-throwing is a competitive sport in which two or more players bare-handedly throw small projectile point, sharp-pointed projectile, missiles known as dart (missile), darts at a round shooting target, target known as a #Dartboard, dar ...

. At Picture Canyon, known for its

rock art In archaeology, rock art is human-made markings placed on natural surfaces, typically vertical stone surfaces. A high proportion of surviving historic and prehistoric rock art is found in caves or partly enclosed rock shelters; this type also ...

, the Apishapa lived on the canyon rim and farmed on the canyon floor. Horizontal lines of writing were found there, similar to 50 sites in Oklahoma and southeastern Colorado, which have been translated to include solar, planting and travel related information. Identified by

archaeologist 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 landscap ...

Robert G. Campbell in 1975, the Apishapa culture of southeastern Colorado's Chaquaqua Plateau was thought to be an outgrowth of the Graneros from the

Texas panhandle The Texas Panhandle is a region of the U.S. state of Texas consisting of the northernmost 26 counties in the state. The panhandle is a square-shaped area bordered by New Mexico to the west and Oklahoma to the north and east. It is adjacent to ...

. Other noted archaeologists, however, dispute the connection between the Apishapa and the

, a prehistoric culture of the southern

High Plains High Plains refers to one of two distinct land regions: * High Plains (United States), land region of the western Great Plains *High Plains (Australia) The High Plains of south-eastern Australia are a sub-region, or more strictly a string of adja ...

during the Middle Ceramic Period from A.D. 1200–1400.Gunnerson, James H. (1987)
''Archaeology of the High Plains.''
Denver: United States Forest Service. p. 87. The Apishapa culture, while similar, is no longer considered a part of the Panhandle culture. It is also similar, except for architecture, to the culture of the Upper

Republican River The Republican River is a river in the central Great Plains of North America, rising in the High Plains (United States), High Plains of eastern Colorado and flowing east U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline ...

basin.

Dwellings

The people of the Apishapa phase lived in

rock shelter A rock shelter (also rockhouse, crepuscular cave, bluff shelter, or abri) is a shallow cave-like opening at the base of a bluff or cliff. In contrast to solutional caves (karst), which are often many miles long, rock shelters are almost alway ...

s, single or multi-room stone or slab structures or in campsites, generally in protected areas near flowing water and

canyon A canyon (from ; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), or gorge, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosion, erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tenden ...

bottomland, and located on protected points or isolated

mesa A mesa is an isolated, flat-topped elevation, ridge or hill, which is bounded from all sides by steep escarpments and stands distinctly above a surrounding plain. Mesas characteristically consist of flat-lying soft sedimentary rocks capped by ...

Stone slab buildings

Generally, stone slab dwellings were one-room round or oval buildings, however there were also groupings of roomblocks up to 37 rooms. James Gunnerson, an archaeologist from the

University of Nebraska A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...

, conducted studies on two notable Apishapa sites, Snake Blakeslee and Cramer in 1985 and 1986 dated between A.D. 1250–1350. The Cramer site (Site ID 5PE484) at the mouth of Apishapa canyon showed evidence of structures made of stone slabs, the walls about thick, built into a depression of deep. The largest dwelling was in diameter. It is hypothesized that four posts in the center of the rooms supported a roof and the outer wall was filled in with brush and grass and covered with wet clay. The Snake Blakeslee site (Site ID 5LA1247), located about 5 miles from the Cramer site in Apishapa canyon, consists of at least 11 rooms in 2 room blocks.Cassells, E. Steve. (1997). ''The Archeology of Colorado'', Revised Edition. Boulder, Colorado: Johnson Books. pp. 216-217. . Other Apishapa sites include the Sorenson site along the

Purgatoire River The Purgatoire River ( es, Río Purgatorio) is a river in southeastern Colorado, United States. The river is also known locally as the Purgatory River or the Picketwire River. ''Purgatoire'' means Purgatory in French. French trappers named the ri ...

with stone slab buildings of 3-25 rooms and the Avery Ranch site (Site ID 5PE56) located in Turkey Canyon on

Fort Carson Fort Carson is a United States Army post located directly south of Colorado Springs in El Paso, Pueblo, Fremont, and Huerfano counties, Colorado, United States. The developed portion of Fort Carson is located near the City of Colorado Springs i ...

army installation in Colorado. The Avery Ranch site was inhabited during two periods, between about A.D. 1020-1040 and again A.D. 1200–1290.

Campsites

Apishapa campsites have been found in Carrizo Ranches, north of

Pueblo In the Southwestern United States, Pueblo (capitalized) refers to the Native tribes of Puebloans having fixed-location communities with permanent buildings which also are called pueblos (lowercased). The Spanish explorers of northern New Spain ...

on the Wallace site and on the north end of

in Colorado. In

, a campsite was found on the Steamboat Island Fort.Cassells, E. Steve. (1997). ''The Archeology of Colorado'', Revised Edition. Boulder, Colorado: Johnson Books. p. 222. .

Rock shelters

People of the Apishapa culture also made their homes in

s, such as the Pyeatt, Trinchera Cave, Medina, and Upper Plum Canyon.

Franktown Cave Franktown Cave is located 25 miles south of Denver, Colorado on the north edge of the Palmer Divide. It is the largest rock shelter documented on the Palmer Divide, which contains artifacts from many prehistoric cultures. Prehistoric hunter-gath ...

also has remains of pottery like that of the Apishapa.

Material goods

They made cord-wrapped

pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other ceramic materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. Major types include earthenware, stoneware and por ...

and used smaller side-notched, triangular

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 be ...

s than other

Plains In geography, a plain is a flat expanse of land that generally does not change much in elevation, and is primarily treeless. Plains occur as lowlands along valleys or at the base of mountains, as coastal plains, and as plateaus or uplands. In ...

tribes. Unlike other Plains people, they did not use tools made of

bison Bison are large bovines in the genus ''Bison'' (Greek: "wild ox" (bison)) within the tribe Bovini. Two extant and numerous extinct species are recognised. Of the two surviving species, the American bison, ''B. bison'', found only in North Ame ...

bones. Artifacts from this phase include a wide range of tools, cord-wrapped pottery and baskets. In addition to projectile points, other stone tools found at Apishapa sites include knives, scrapers, gravers, choppers, axes and drills. Manos and

metate A metate (or mealing stone) is a type or variety of quern, a ground stone tool used for processing grain and seeds. In traditional Mesoamerican cultures, metates are typically used by women who would grind nixtamalized maize and other organic ma ...

s were used for food preparation. Bones artifacts, such as awls,

yucca ''Yucca'' is a genus of perennial shrubs and trees in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Agavoideae. Its 40–50 species are notable for their rosettes of evergreen, tough, sword-shaped leaves and large terminal panicles of white or whitish flo ...

and

rabbit Rabbits, also known as bunnies or bunny rabbits, are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also contains the hares) of the order Lagomorpha (which also contains the pikas). ''Oryctolagus cuniculus'' includes the European rabbit speci ...

fur cordage and woven matting were also found.Gunnerson, James H. (1987)
''Archaeology of the High Plains.''
Denver: United States Forest Service. p. 90.

Interaction with other indigenous people

The Apishapa appeared to build their villages, sometimes called "forts," in highly-defendable positions. One set of sites occurs along a area along a canyon, seemingly so that signals could be relayed from one location to another. They may have needed to defend their stores of food due to

population explosion Overpopulation or overabundance is a phenomenon in which a species' population becomes larger than the carrying capacity of its environment. This may be caused by increased birth rates, lowered mortality rates, reduced predation or large scale m ...

and changing climatic conditions. Based upon the presence of distinctive black on white pottery, they may also have traded with the

Ancient Pueblo People The Ancestral Puebloans, also known as the Anasazi, were an ancient Native American culture that spanned the present-day Four Corners region of the United States, comprising southeastern Utah, northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, an ...

, or Anasazi. Other evidence of trade includes Medicine Creek

jasper Jasper, an aggregate of microgranular quartz and/or cryptocrystalline chalcedony and other mineral phases,Kostov, R. I. 2010. Review on the mineralogical systematics of jasper and related rocks. – Archaeometry Workshop, 7, 3, 209-213PDF/ref> ...

from

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the southwe ...

, Alibates silicified dolomite from the Texas Panhandle, Olivella

seashell A seashell or sea shell, also known simply as a shell, is a hard, protective outer layer usually created by an animal or organism that lives in the sea. The shell is part of the body of the animal. Empty seashells are often found washe ...

s from the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

obsidian Obsidian () is a naturally occurring volcanic glass formed when lava extrusive rock, extruded from a volcano cools rapidly with minimal crystal growth. It is an igneous rock. Obsidian is produced from felsic lava, rich in the lighter elements s ...

and other forms of

Outcome

The number of Apishapa occupations decreased in the 14th century and there is no evidence of Apishapa occupations after 1400 on the Chaquaqua Plateau. What followed was evidence of

tipi A tipi , often called a lodge in English, is a conical tent, historically made of animal hides or pelts, and in more recent generations of canvas, stretched on a framework of wooden poles. The word is Siouan languages, Siouan, and in use in Dakot ...

villages in the presence of earth rings about in diameter, surrounded by spaced rocks. Archaeological artifacts at the sites include

s, manos, scrapers, gravers,

projectile points 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 ...

, and flakes of Alibates chert.Gunnerson, James H. (1987)
''Archaeology of the High Plains.''
Denver: United States Forest Service. p. 107. See Picture Canyon Tipi ring period.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Apishapa culture Archaeology of the United States Archaeological cultures of North America Hunter-gatherers of the United States Native American history of Colorado Plains Village period Post-Archaic period in North America Pre-Columbian cultures Prehistoric cultures in Colorado