Lab News

Pottery Vessels and Turkey Bones: Research Staff Gears Up for 2007 Fall Lab!

by Jonathan Till, Lab Analysis Manager
August 17, 2007

Fieldwork is only half the fun of any archaeological project. This autumn, Crow Canyon’s research lab staff will engage adult participants in its Fall Lab programs in a number of activities, including vessel reconstruction and a pioneering study in the evolution of turkey husbandry.

Participants in the first week of Fall Lab (September 23–29) will learn the basic procedures of artifact processing and cataloging. Working with collections from several sites in the Mesa Verde region, they will gain an appreciation of the material culture of the Basketmaker and Pueblo periods. During the second week (September 30–October 6), the staff will emphasize the analysis of pottery artifacts from several sites investigated by Crow Canyon, including Albert Porter and Goodman Point pueblos.

Both sessions of Fall Lab will assist our research staff in the reassembly and analysis of pottery vessels from Albert Porter Pueblo, a site associated with the Chaco phenomenon of the eleventh and twelfth centuries A.D. This study, combined with the results of several completed or in-progress pottery analyses (including temper, design, and rim-arc), will permit an assessment of the site as a community center and lead to a finer chronology for the site.

Finally, participants in both Fall Lab programs will help the staff initiate an analysis of turkey bones from Sand Canyon Pueblo, a large, thirteenth-century village excavated by Crow Canyon in the 1980s and 1990s. This analysis will be the first to use bone-measurement data to document the development of turkey domestication in the Four Corners region and promises to make a significant contribution to our understanding of this important aspect of Pueblo life.