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Show Gypsum Cave.- Gypsum Cave, located in a spur of the Frenchman Mountains a few miles northwest of Hoover Dam, is of primary importance. Excavation of this cave revealed several different culture horizons, ranging from modern Paiute Indian material on top, down through Pueblo and Basketmaker objects, to the bottom, where, below an intervening sterile layer, were fire hearths and man- made articles, together with bones of the ground sloth, camel, an extinct species of wolf, and the native horse. These earlier artifacts included a distinct type of projectile point, scrapers, cordage, and dart foreshafts and pieces of shafts, the latter often decorated with green, blue, and red pigments. Geologic evidence places this lowest level at about eight to nine thousand years ago. Remnants of another, possibly allied, culture have also been found a few miles west of Gypsum Cave near Las Vegas, Nev. Here are similar projectile points and charcoal beds of old hearths occurring in open sites in strata that contain camel, horse, and bison bones. The same type points have also been discovered in a layer of horse dung in Etna Cave approximately 100 miles north of Gypsum Cave. Little Colorado River Terrace Culture.- Farther to the east, along the Little Colorado River, extending from the vicinity of Cameron upstream to Holbrook, Ariz., are a series of prehistoric camp sites. These usually occur on the isolated flat tops of low hills and ridges representing all that remains of an ancient alluvial gravel terrace. The sites are all found at about the same general elevation above the river bed and consist of remnants of hearths and such associated percussion- flaked stone artifacts as crude hand axes, choppers, gouges, and keel- shaped scrapers. So far no projectile points that could definitely be allocated to this culture have been found. This so- called Little Colorado River Terrace Culture may be as old as the early occupation of Gypsum Cave. Eden, Wyo.- Far to the north, near the headwaters of the Green River southeast of the town of Eden, Wyo., lies an extensive site of what has been called the Yuma Culture which centers east of the Rocky Mountains in the high plains. Here were discovered several varieties of the Yuma projectile points or knife blades, related to the famous Folsom points and similar in technique. They were found together with fossilized bison bones in sand and clay deposits, probably postglacial in age. In addition, many hand choppers and scrapers of what may prove to be an old culture occurred on gravel terraces and in sand blow outs in this same region and south along Blacks Fork Valley. Further excavations at the Eden site may furnish new data on the age of the Yuma Culture and on migration routes from the Great Plains into the Colorado Basin. What all this adds up to is that man was here in the Colorado River Basin much longer than many of us have supposed and that the land, which now gives sustenance in abundance to modern man through planned use, was capable thousands of years ago of supporting a varied, though doubtless sparse, population. The big task which confronts the archeologist is filling in the gap between the hunting and gathering peoples of roughly 10,000 years ago and the higher cultured folk, dating since the time of Christ, who added such elements as agriculture, pottery, and formal architecture to their roster of accomplishments. For much of America, this period is blank, placing the culture historian in a poor position when he endeavors to account for happenings in the interim. With the possible exception of the archeological remains at Ventana Cave, there is a definite break at all sites between the older and later horizons of culture. As to just what happened over the intervening thousands of years, we can only conjecture. These earlier inhabitants may have entirely left the area and pushed farther to the south or, again, some may have remained and been joined by later bands of immigrants. At all events, about the beginning of the Christian Era, profound changes were wrought among the native southwestern people by the introduction from the south, from what is now Mexico, of several important culture elements. Agricultural products, such as corn, beans, and squash, and the knowledge of how to grow them, must be given first importance. The adoption of agriculture induced a more sedentary and economically secure form of life, which, in turn, paved the way for further advances materially and socially. Agricul- B2 |