A broad Archaic cultural horizon linking the Pinto Basin, Cochise, and San Pedro traditions across California, Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, and Colorado, characterized by shared dwelling styles, burial customs, and technology.
Dissolved gradually as its constituent traditions (Cochise ending c. 200 BCE; Pinto ending c. 500 CE) were absorbed into or replaced by the Oshara tradition and the emergent Hohokam, Mogollon, and Ancestral Puebloan (Anasazi) cultures — the Picosa horizon is understood as an analytical construct whose successor traditions were fully established by c. 500 CE.
Broad North American survey covering the Archaic period traditions in which Picosa is situated.
Covers the Southwestern Archaic (Cochise, San Pedro and related traditions) that make up the PICOSA / Southwestern Archaic horizon.