Definition: The Oshara tradition is the name given to an Archaic culture of the American southwest, about 6000 BC-AD 200. Named by Cynthia Irwin-Williams, the period is considered the transition point between Paleoindian and Archaic in the Rio Grande Basin, and is marked by a shift in lithic material use to a range of sources that are primarily black in color.
The predecessors of the Oshara Tradition, the Paleoindians in the Rio Grande, made stone tools out of a veritable rainbow of colors.
This article is a part of the About.com Guide to Plant Domestications, and part of the Dictionary of Archaeology.
