La Cueva Rockshelter: Evidence of Long-Term Continuous Prehistoric Use of the High Elevations of Northern New Mexico by Price Heiner

7pm on March 10, 2020

at the Kit Carson Boardroom on Cruz Alta Rd

This presentation will address the shovel testing results of a high elevation rockshelter site located in the Valle Vidal of Northern New Mexico. The preliminary results suggest long-term repeated use of the rock shelter over thousands of years by both Southwest and Plains prehistoric groups. My discussion will focus on the long-term occupational history of the shelter, the geomorphic and geoarchaeological contexts of the shelter, as well as the use/function of this particular rock shelter.

Price Heiner, Forest Archaeologist/Heritage Program Manager on the Carson National Forest

Price Heiner has been working as a professional archaeologist for ~19 years with approximately 8 years working for private archaeological firms, and 11 years for the U.S. Forest Service. As an archaeologist he has primarily worked in New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, South Dakota, North Dakota and Montana. He is originally from Fort Collins, Colorado and received his bachelor’s degree in anthropology from Colorado State University, and his master’s degree in anthropology from University of Wyoming and is primarily interested in hunter-gather ecology, landscape archaeology, lithic technological organization, geomorphology, geoarchaeology, paleoenvironmental reconstruction, Pleistocene-Holocene transition, projectile point typology, bison evolution, predator-prey dynamics, experimental archaeology (flint knapping, animal butchering using stone tools, etc.), high-altitude archaeology, Paleoindian archeology, Peopling of the New World, and human behavioral ecology.