Crow Canyon Archaeological Center - Crow Canyon Archaeological Center

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2020 Annual Meeting Summary – A Message From Crow Canyon’s President

Liz Perry

With the Annual Meeting behind us, our staff members are closing down outdoor projects and preparing for winter work. I’d like to share a few take-away messages from the Annual Meeting.

Basketmaker Communities Project Final Interpretive Report and Companion Database

The Crow Canyon Archaeological Center is pleased to announce the publication of the Basketmaker Communities Project Final Interpretive Report and Companion Database!

NEW FEATURE: Access the Crow Canyon Photo Database!

The Crow Canyon Archaeological Center gathers a large number of photographs documenting excavations and the material culture of the Mesa Verde region. These images are an important feature to the research we conduct and a necessary part of the scientific archive.

As part of our mission to support public archaeology, we have updated our research archives with a new-and-improved photo database that is user-friendly and accessible to everyone. This new feature will allow descendant community members, researchers, citizen scientists, educators, and students to search for specific fields and locate relevant images.

Please visit and have fun exploring!

Crow Canyon Events

Seasons of a Navajo II with William Tsosie Jr.

Thursday, January 7th at 4 p.m. MST

Navajo Anthropology (that includes the sub-discipline of Sociocultural Anthropology, Biological Anthropology and Archaeology): So, what is anthropology? (Anthropology haat’iiate?)

The Biographical Revolution in Plains Visual Culture, 1680-1880 CE with Dr. Severin Fowles

Thursday, January 14th at 4 p.m. MST

In this presentation, Severin argues that the Plains Biographic Tradition was inspired by the European tradition of history painting and originated during an intense period of cultural exchange at the end of the tumultuous 17th century in the Rio Grande Valley.

The Hisatsinom Chapter of the Colorado Archaeological Society presents Prehistoric Use of Florida Mesa Near Durango, Colorado with Tosh McKetta

Thursday, January 21st at 4 p.m. MST

The Colorado Department of Transportation is redesigning the hazardous interchange between U.S. Highways 550 and 160 to the south of Durango, Colorado. Cultural consultation and mitigation for the project included a robust program of Native American participation and archaeological data recovery at four major prehistoric sites, including three Pueblo I habitations and a Pueblo II camp. Together, these sites contain at least 11 semi-subterranean structures with associated surface features and artifacts. This presentation will provide information about the project, discuss preliminary results, and provide a regional context through which to interpret the results.

Where are the pens? Ancestral Pueblo turkey husbandry and management on the Pajarito Plateau with Dr. Cyler Conrad

Thursday, January 28th at 4 p.m. MST

Turkeys, both wild and domestic, were likely exploited, raised and bred during the Ancestral Pueblo-era on the Pajarito Plateau. Past studies focused on turkey skeletal elemental abundances; isotopes and ancient DNA suggest that during the Coalition Period, beginning in the A.D./C.E. 1100s and after, turkeys represented an important socioeconomic staple for Pueblo peoples. In this talk, Cyler overviews this record and discusses ongoing research focused on reexamining these human-turkey relationships.