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At the end of the last Ice Age in a valley bottom in the Rocky Mountains, a group of bison hunters overwintered. Through the analysis of more than 75,000 pieces of chipped stone, archaeologist Todd A. Surovell is able to provide one of the most detailed looks yet at the lifeways of hunter-gatherers from 12,800 years ago.

The best archaeological sites are those that present problems and inspire research, writes Surovell. From the start, the Folsom site called Barger Gulch Locality B was one of those sites; it was a problem-rich environment. Many Folsom sites are sparse scatters of stone and bone, a reflection of a mobile lifestyle that leaves little archaeological materials. The people at Barger Gulch left behind tens of thousands of pieces of chipped stone; they appeared to have spent quite a bit of time there in comparison to other places they inhabited.

Summarizing findings from nine seasons of excavations, Surovell explains that the site represents a congregation of mobile hunter-gatherers who spent winter along Barger Gulch, a tributary of the Colorado River. Surovell uses spatial patterns in chipped stone to infer the locations of hearths and house features. He examines the organization of household interiors and discusses differential use of interior and exterior spaces. Data allow inference about the people who lived at the site, including aspects of the identity of flintknappers and household versus group mobility. The site shows evidence of a Paleoindian camp circle, child flintknapping, household production of weaponry, and the fission/fusion dynamics of group composition that is typical of nomadic peoples.

Barger Gulch provides key findings on Paleoindian technological variation and spatial and social organization.

Barrier Canyon Style (BCS), primarily composed of Indigenous American pictographs that have survived for thousands of years in the canyon country of eastern Utah and far western Colorado, is among the most visually stunning pictograph traditions in the world. This excellent reference, featuring over one hundred photographs, is the first to focus solely on the art and its context.

Barrier Canyon Style begins with a vicarious tour of twenty of the most important BCS sites. High-quality photographs by Goodloe Suttler accompany text by Phil R. Geib, an expert in rock imagery and archaic time-period archaeology. The volume provides explanations of motif classifications and their meanings, as well as details on the chronology of human occupation in the area, the array of techniques used by Native people to leave marks upon rock surfaces, and a consideration of styles and subject matter observable in these artworks.