Dolores Archaeological Program: Aceramic and Late Occupations at Dolores

The area to be impacted by the Dolores Project, a large water storage and distribution system in southwestern Colorado, was intensively occupied during the Basketmaker III and Pueblo I periods (approximately A.D. 600 to 900). Although the efforts of the Dolores Archaeological Program to mitigate the loss of archaeological resources in the area have focused on sites associated with the main occupations, sites belonging to periods other than those of the densest occupation have been investigated as well. Sites not fitting the pattern of the main occupations in the project area are characterized by a lack of ceramics, by evidence of having been occupied after the main occupation at Dolores, or by both of these attributes. Where ceramics are present on such sites they are of types known to postdate the Pueblo I period, or they represent an additional occupation of the site. Aspects of the Dolores Archaeological Program systematics are introduced. The spatial series, the site classification series, and the chronological series are briefly discussed. The prehistory of the Dolores
Project area is summarized so the periods represented by the aceramic and late sites discussed can
be understood in proper context.