About this Event
Free and Open to Public; No Registration or Ticket Needed.
Speaker: Robert Madden
Flattop Butte is a low, irregularly shaped mesa, about 30 km north of Sterling, in Logan County, Colorado. For at least 13,000 years, the site acted as a crossroads in the Central Plains for ancient human groups who repeatedly visited the butte to quarry Flattop chalcedony, a high-quality tool stone used to make projectile points and other tools
In 2023, Robert Madden conducted the first systematic field work at the site with a crew from Colorado State University. This work included surface survey, mapping of quarry pits, location and analysis of lithic reduction workshops, and the excavation of an aboriginal quarry pit. More recently, he has undertaken a project that seeks to locate the habitations and campsites used by the ancient groups who quarried tool stone at Flattop Butte from the Late Pleistocene to the era of European contact. The presentation will discuss the results of these efforts, what they tell us about Flattop Butte and how it was used in prehistory, and what comes next for this investigation.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Boulder Rural Fire Protection (Gunbarrel), 6230 Lookout Road, Boulder, United States
USD 0.00
