Page "Chaco Culture National Historical Park" Paragraph 13

The first people in the San Juan Basin were hunter-gatherers: the Archaic – Early Basketmaker people.

These small bands descended from nomadic Clovis big-game hunters who arrived in the Southwest around 10, 000 BC.

More than 70 campsites from this period, carbon-dated to the period 7000 – 1500 BC and mostly consisting of stone chips and other leavings, were found in Atlatl Cave and elsewhere within Chaco Canyon, with at least one of the sites located on the canyon floor near an exposed arroyo.

The Archaic – Early Basketmaker people were nomadic or semi-nomadic hunter-gatherers who over time began making baskets to store gathered plants.

By the end of the period, some people cultivated food.

Excavation of their campsites and rock shelters has revealed that they made tools, gathered wild plants, and killed and processed game.

Slab-lined storage cists indicate a change from a wholly nomadic lifestyle.