The Paradoxical Collection in the Cabinets: Establishing a Site Chronology of SDSU-0897, 5MN191, from Paradox Valley, Colorado

Site 5MN191, also referred to as the Paradox 1 site, was excavated in a 1970’s field school located in Montrose County, Colorado and run by San Diego State University, then California State University, San Diego. The head of the field school, Dr. Larry Leach, theorized that the site was associated with the Fremont cultural group, and a large portion of the artifacts were taken back to SDSU for further study. After a thesis was completed in 1972, the artifacts were stored in the Collections Management Program, where they resided until a flood in the late 1970s damaged a large portion of the Collections Management facility. The flood destroyed most, if not all, of the field notes and associated documents for the Paradox 1 site, washing away much of the provenience information. This study aimed to do two things: First, it sought to rehabilitate and describe the collection. Second, it attempted to create a cultural chronology of the site using an analysis of the projectile points and ceramic fragments.