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Current Excavation

The Basketmaker Communities Project: Early Pueblo Society in the Mesa Verde Region

View of the La Plata Mountains and Mesa Verde from the Dillard site.

In May 2011, the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center began excavations as part of its new research project that examines early Pueblo community development in the Mesa Verde region.

Titled the Basketmaker Communities Project: Early Pueblo Society in the Mesa Verde Region, this new study will shed light on a pivotal, but underinvestigated and poorly understood, time in Pueblo history: the Basketmaker III period (A.D. 500–750).

Top: Participants in Archaeology Research Program excavating. Bottom: View of Sleeping Ute Mountain from the Dillard site.

The centerpiece of the project is the Dillard site (5MT10647), a Basketmaker III community center that dates from the seventh century A.D. and includes a great kiva. The site is located just 2½ miles from the Crow Canyon campus in a picturesque area of the Montezuma Valley with striking views of Mesa Verde, Sleeping Ute Mountain, and the west slope of the Rocky Mountains.

Three years of fieldwork are planned. In addition to conducting intensive excavations at the Dillard site, we will also undertake test excavations at a number of pithouse sites in the surrounding area that date to the same time period as the Dillard site. Together, these settlements constitute the most extensive and best-preserved Basketmaker III community known in the central Mesa Verde region.

All the sites being investigated are located in Indian Camp Ranch, a private residential community developed in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Excavations are being conducted under State of Colorado archaeological permits and with the permission of the Indian Camp Ranch Homeowners Association and individual landowners.

Read more about the Basketmaker Communities Project, including Crow Canyon's project-specific research goals.

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Join Our Research Team!

Enroll in a Crow Canyon Archaeology Adventure and become a member of our archaeology team. Your participation in actual fieldwork and lab analysis will make a lasting contribution to our understanding of early Pueblo society in the Southwest!

Stay Informed

So what's happening in the field? For periodic excavation updates throughout the season, check out News From the Field.