Monday, March 11, 2024 at 7:00PM MST
General Meeting – (ONLINE ONLY, NO IN PERSON MEETING)
Due to unforeseen circumstances, the March 11th General Meeting will be virtual only. There will be no in person meeting. We apologize for any inconvenience and disappointment.
Speaker: Dr. Nicole M Herzog, Assistant Professor, Anthropology Department, University of Denver and Head of the University’s Paleodiet Lab.
Abstract: Environmental instability caused by periods of extended drought no doubt impacted past human populations across the United States. In this talk Dr. Herzog will evaluate the ways in which Great Basin foragers may have responded to Mid-Holocene and Late Holocene upheavals. She will do so by comparing two sets of sites each showing evidence of dietary and technological responses to significant climate change. Differences suggest change in landscape use, perhaps involving different plant resources and certainly distinctive processing techniques. These differences pose several questions about plant distribution, human manipulation of local ecologies, and technological strategies related to the former. Dr. Hertzog will explore how we can use dietary markers retrieved via starch granule analysis to evaluate these questions.
Bio: Dr. Nicole M. Herzog is an Assistant Professor in the Anthropology Department at the University of Denver. She studies topics ranging from the role of fire in human evolution to the detection of early domesticates in the American southwest. Dr. Herzog currently heads the Paleodiet Lab at University of Denver where she studies past and present plant use via micro and macrobotanical analysis. Dr. Herzog also conducts archaeological field studies in the North American Great Basin, Plains and Colorado Plateau.
Upcoming Events:
April 13, 2024 – A Saturday afternoon joint meeting between the Denver, Indian Peaks and Northern Chapters will take place in Estes Park. Kelly Dick, Cultural Resource Program Manager for Rocky Mountain National Park will be speaking about archaeological sites following the East Troublesome fire in the Fall of 2020.
May 13, 2024 – Sarah Allaun, Assistant State Archaeologist will be presenting her rescheduled talk on the geological history of the Patten Creek Valley, Wyoming in the Hartville Uplift.