Date: Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Location: Kit Carson Electric - 118 Cruz Alta Rd, Taos
Title: The Complexity and Diversity
of Chaco Canyon
Speaker:
Paul F. Reed
Preservation Archaeologist
Chaco Scholar
Center for Desert Archaeology
Salmon Ruins Museum
Chaco Canyon's massive sites, beauty, and
mystery need little introduction for literate
audiences in the American Southwest. Less
well known, though, are the complexity and
diversity of the Pueblo sites in Chaco. In
this discussion, Paul will delve into these
issues, going beneath the surface to explore
the uniqueness and magic of the ancient
Puebloan society headquartered at Chaco
Canyon.
Paul F. Reed is a Preservation Archaeologist with
the Center for Desert Archaeology currently
assigned as Chaco Scholar at Salmon Ruins,
New Mexico. Reed has been employed in this
position for the last nine years. He completed
work as editor (and author of several chapters)
on Chaco's Northern Prodigies: Salmon, Aztec,
and the Ascendancy of the Middle San Juan Region
After AD 1100, published by the University of
Utah press in August 2008. Reed was also editor
(and author of several chapters) of the three-
volume, comprehensive report entitled Thirty-
Five Years of Archaeological Research at
Salmon Ruins, New Mexico published in 2006
by the Center and the Salmon Ruins Museum.
Together
with a group of research partners, Reed has recently finished a National
Science Foundation-sponsored research project investigating the late
eleventh-century Chacoan presence in the Middle San Juan region. The basic
question to be addressed: did Chaco Canyon residents migrate to the Middle San
Juan region to construct and reside at the great house sites of Salmon and
Aztec or are the Chacoan traits (architecture, ceramics, stone tools,
perishable items) from these sites the result of emulation of Chacoan culture
by local residents? Is there evidence for both processes?
Join other TAS members and our speaker at Graham's Grille for dinner prior to the meeting at 5:00 PM.
Please RSVP to Dorothy Wells by Monday, November 9 if you plan to join us for dinner.
dorothy_wells@mac.com or 751-3265.
