Date of Award

2023

Document Type

Masters Thesis

Degree Name

M.A.

Organizational Unit

College of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences, Anthropology

First Advisor

Lawrence B. Conyers

Second Advisor

Bonnie Clark

Third Advisor

Annabeth Headrick

Keywords

Magic Mountain, Habitation, Archaeology, Colorado

Abstract

The Magic Mountain site, located in Golden, Colorado, has been the subject of intensive academic studies since the 1950s because of its extensive artifact assemblage and long habitation periods. The aim of this thesis was to use ground-penetrating radar, magnetometry, GIS models, and lithic analysis to further study when and how the Magic Mountain site was used during prehistoric times and contextualize a variety of hypotheses about site habitation and migratory patterns of prehistoric people in Colorado.

The results of these analyses indicate the habitation and migratory pattern of the Magic Mountain site was a periodic, but consistent, proximal visitation schedule within a migration pattern where people would inhabit the site during the fall and/or spring every year until resources were depleted. Following the depletion of the resources, the people who inhabited the Magic Mountain site moved to either the plains or the mountains to follow animal herds and to find water sources.

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.

Rights Holder

Brianna K. Dalessandro

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

File Format

application/pdf

Language

en

File Size

160 pgs

Discipline

Archaeology, Geophysics

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