Early Archaeologist E.B. Renaud
By
Vince Spero
In
the summers of 1942 and 1944 E.B. Renaud, of Denver
University, inventoried areas of the San Luis Valley from
the vicinity of Dry Lakes, to the north, and along the Rio
Grande into New Mexico, to the south. After recording numerous
sites he defined the "Upper Rio Grande Culture",
characterized by extensive use of black or dark lithic material
(mostly basalt, obsidian, and darker colored cherts), unifacial
side scrapers, ovate bifaces, bifacial choppers, drills, gravers,
pounders, and oval manos.
Renaud
proposed that a new projectile point type, the "Rio Grande
Point" was representative of the Upper Rio Grande area.
Rio Grande points are large, broad, and stemmed. They have
ground lower edges, a concave base, and often spoon shaped
tip, and crude flaking creating uneven thickness.
Renaud
described the lifeways of the Upper Rio Grande culture as
one of hunters, who lived in both open camps and rock shelters.
Sites are also found in quarry locations where basalt can
be found, especially near San Antone Mountain, a main source
of tool quality basalt.
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The
projectile point depicted above is typical of the Rio Grande/Jay
Complex, although the material is thought to be Cumbres
Chert (not a typical lithic material for this culture),
it is a very fine specimen.
©
Illustration by Marvin Goad
It
was later identified that the Upper Rio Grande culture should
actually be a broader Rio Grande[/Jay] Complex, with a distribution
throughout the southwest. Rio Grande Points are thought
to be from the earliest part of the Rio Grande Complex (the
Quemado Phase) probably dating from 7,000 to 6,000 BP (before
present).
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