Dolores Archaeological Program Technical Reports, DAP-024: Prehistoric Archaeology of the Sagehen Flats Locality

The Sagehen Flats Locality is 1 of 16 localities contained within the Escalante Sector. It is located in southwest Colorado approximately 6 km northwest of Dolores, Colorado. The Sagehen Flats Locality differs from surrounding localities in that it is an area of gentle slopes and small knolls. Its drainages feed the Sagehen Marsh, which eventually drains into the Dolores River to the east. The first prehistoric use of this area has been dated to the Archaic Tradition (5000 B.C.-A .D. 500) Occupation by the Anasazi began during late Basketmaker III times and continued into Pueblo II times (A.D. 600-975). Limited use of the locality by the Anasazi occurred for only a short time during late Pueblo II-early Pueblo III times (A.D. 1050-1200). After this time the locality was used by populations of the Shoshonean-Athabascan Tradition (A.D. 1500-1900) also in a limited manner. Historic Euro-American utilization began in the late 1800s.

This report presents an overview of D.A.P. research conducted to date in Sagehen Flats Locality. A discussion of the environment, focusing on those aspects pertinent to archaeological concerns, is followed by a brief description of past survey efforts in the locality. The various strategies employed by the D.A.P. in mitigating selected sites located in dam impact areas are also discussed. Data recovered from Sagehen Flats Locality sites during the 1978 and 1979 field seasons are then placed within the broad perspective of the D.A.P. temporal scheme, followed by a presentation of the spatial distribution of these sites based on various statistical analyses. A discussion of the material cultural elements, with an emphasis on architecture, serves as a rationale for the proposed temporal scheme. Finally, directions for future research in Sagehen Flats Locality are suggested, based on the requirements of dam impact mitigation and archaeological research.

Originally the information in this record was migrated into tDAR from the National Archaeological Database Reports Module (NADB-R) and updated. In 2015, as part of its effort to improve tDAR content, the Center for Digital Antiquity uploaded a copy of the document and further improved the record metadata.