Peoples of the Mesa Verde Region

What Happened to the Basketmaker I Period?

Basketmaker I is really the late Archaic period!

"Basketmaker I" was the name early archaeologists reserved for what they assumed would be the transitional period between the Archaic and Basketmaker II periods, a time when people would have experimented with plant cultivation before becoming dependent on agriculture. As it turns out, people began experimenting with plant cultivation during the late Archaic period, so archaeologists now use the label "late Archaic" instead of "Basketmaker I."