The Apishapa culture, or Apishapa Phase, a prehistoric culture from 1000 to 1400, was named based upon an archaeological site in the Lower Apishapa canyon in Colorado. The Apishapa River, a tributary of the Arkansas River, formed the Apishapa canyon. In 1976, there were 68 Apishapa sites on the Chaquaqua Plateau in southeastern Colorado. Origin The Apishapa culture, primarily found in the Arkansas River basin of southeastern Colorado, may have evolved from the Panhandle culture or people indigenous to Colorado of the Woodland Period culture. Culture Apishapa sites, found in Colorado and New Mexico, represented a tradition of hunter gatherers who sometimes farmed beans and five types of maize. They gathered wild plants and hunted bison, deer, pronghorn, rabbit and other small game with bow and arrow, atlatl, spears and darts. At Picture Canyon, known for its rock art, the Apishapa lived on the canyon rim and farmed on the canyon floor. Horizontal lines of writing were found there, similar to 50 sites in Oklahoma and southeastern Colorado, which have been translated to include solar, planting and travel related information. Identified by archaeologist Robert G. Campbell in 1975, the Apishapa culture of southeastern Colorado's Chaquaqua Plateau was thought to be an outgrowth of the Graneros from the Texas panhandle. Other noted archaeologists, however, dispute the connection between the Apishapa and the Panhandle culture, a prehistoric culture of the southern High Plains during the Middle Ceramic Period from A.D. 1200–1400. The Apishapa culture, while similar, is no longer considered a part of the Panhandle culture. It is also similar, except for architecture, to the culture of the Upper Republican River basin. Dwellings The people of the Apishapa phase lived in rock shelters, single or multi-room stone or slab structures or in campsites, generally in protected areas near flowing water and canyon bottomland, and located on protected points or isolated mesas. Stone slab buildings Generally, stone slab dwellings were one-room round or oval buildings, however there were also groupings of roomblocks up to 37 rooms. James Gunnerson, an archaeologist from the University of Nebraska, conducted studies on two notable Apishapa sites, Snake Blakeslee and Cramer in 1985 and 1986 dated between A.D. 1250–1350. The Cramer site (Site ID 5PE484) at the mouth of Apishapa canyon showed evidence of structures made of stone slabs, the walls about thick, built into a depression of deep. The largest dwelling was in diameter. It is hypothesized