Durango Rock Shelters Archeology Site
Encyclopedia
Durango Rock Shelters Archeology Site is also known as the Fall Creek Rock Shelters Site. An Ancient Pueblo People (Anasazi) archaeological site, it is located in Durango
in La Plata County, Colorado
. People from the Late Basketmaker II
and Basketmaker III Era
s inhabited the site between AD 0 and AD 1000.
The site is also known as "5LP4134".
site in Animas Valley in 1938-1939. It was the first site where dwellings had been found of the early Basketmakers with actual house structures, one of which he describes as follows:
Durango, Colorado
The City of Durango is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and the most populous city of La Plata County, Colorado, United States. The United States Census Bureau said that the city population was 16,887 in 2010 census.-History:...
in La Plata County, Colorado
La Plata County, Colorado
La Plata County is the fourteenth most populous of the 64 counties of the State of Colorado of the United States. The county was named for the La Plata River and the La Plata Mountains. "La plata" is the Spanish language word for "silver". The United States Census Bureau estimated that the...
. People from the Late Basketmaker II
Late Basketmaker II Era
The Late Basketmaker II Era was a cultural period of Ancient Pueblo People when people began living in pit-houses, raised maize and squash, and were proficient basket makers and weavers...
and Basketmaker III Era
Basketmaker III Era
The Basketmaker III Era, AD 500 to 750, also called the "Modified Basketmaker" period, was the third period in which Ancient Pueblo People were cultivating food, began making pottery and living in more sophisticated clusters of pit-house dwellings...
s inhabited the site between AD 0 and AD 1000.
The site is also known as "5LP4134".
Discovery
Earl H. Morris conducted an excavation of this open talusTalus
Talus may refer to:* Talus , a sloped portion of a fortified wall* Talus, California, a community in Inyo County* Talus bone, an ankle bone* Talus, fictional planet in Star Wars...
site in Animas Valley in 1938-1939. It was the first site where dwellings had been found of the early Basketmakers with actual house structures, one of which he describes as follows:
A site for the dwelling was secured by digging a drift into the steep hillside and piling the excavated earth and stone out in front until a terrace large enough to accommodate the projected house had been provided. The floor area was scooped out to shallow saucer shape—in this case 9 m. in diameter—and coated with mud. At the margins, the mud curved upward to end against the half-buried foot logs which were the basal course of the wall. The walls were composed of horizontal wood and mud masonry. They rose with an inward slant to a little better than head height, then were cribbed for a distance to reduce the diameter of the flat portion of the roof, which was of clay supported by parallel poles, The arc of stones was a retaining device placed to hold back the ever-growing accumulation of refuse that was dumped at the brink of the terrace.
See also
- Indigenous peoples' sites in Colorado