Upcoming Chapter Activities

Insitu biface, Jefferson County, CO

Please note that due to the pandemic the following meetings will be held online or virtual until further notice.

Feb 8, Monday at 7 PM, MST, General Meeting (virtual meeting)

Our speaker this evening is Edward R. Henry, (Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology & Geography, Colorado State University)

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Presentation Title:  Ritual Dispositions, Adena and Hopewell Enclosures, and the Passing of Time: A Monumental Biography of a Small Middle Woodland Enclosure in Central Kentucky, USA

Presentation Summary:

Adena and Hopewell geometric enclosures have inspired much conversation concerning the nature of Middle Woodland ceremonialism in the Eastern Woodlands of the United States. However, rarely are the full biographies of these sites realized. Recent research at the Winchester Farm enclosure provided the data necessary to develop a long-term biographical perspective on site construction, use, and abandonment. In this presentation, I discuss this research and use it to argue the enclosure was built around a central multi-use feature that had been used by Middle Woodland Adena and Hopewell societies for ceremonial gatherings before it was built. I also discuss how it was later ritually ‘closed’ through the intentional refilling of the ditch. The site biography I present details the ways Adena and Hopewell ceremonialism occurred at this monument and facilitated the flow of objects, people, and ideas through the region.

Presenter Bio:

Edward Henry is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Colorado State University (CSU). As an archaeological anthropologist he is interested in the ways societies shaped, and were shaped by, the landscapes they inhabited. Ed's research is primarily focused on eastern North America, where he employs methods from geophysics, geoarchaeology, and chronological modeling to examine the interconnectedness of pre-Contact Native American landscape modification and interaction within the social, economic, and political institutions of small-scale societies. At CSU, he also serves as founder and director of the CRAG (Center for Research in Archaeogeophysics and Geoarchaeology)

Mar 8, Monday at 7 PM, MST, General Meeting (virtual meeting)

Our speaker this evening is Dr. Christopher I. Roos, Professor of Anthropology at Southern Methodist University

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His presentation is entitled Native American Fire Management at an Ancient Wildland-Urban Interface in the Southwest US

Abstract
The intersection of expanding human development and wildland landscapes – the ‘wildland-urban interface’ or WUI – is one of the most vexing contexts for fire management because it involves complex interacting systems of people and nature. With an interdisciplinary team, Professor Christopher Roos documents the dynamism and stability of an ancient WUI that was apparently sustainable for more than 500 years. He combines ethnography, archaeology, paleoecology, and ecological modeling to infer intensive wood and fire use by Native American ancestors of Jemez Pueblo and the consequences on fire size, fire-climate relationships, and fire intensity. Initial settlement of northern New Mexico by Jemez farmers increased fire activity within an already dynamic landscape that experienced frequent fires. Wood harvesting for domestic fuel and architectural uses and abundant, small, patchy fires created a landscape that burnt often but only rarely burned extensively. Depopulation of the forested landscape due to Spanish colonial impacts resulted in a rebound of fuels accompanied by the return of widely spreading, frequent surface fires. The sequence of more than 500 years of perennial small fires and wood collecting followed by frequent ‘free range’ wildland surface fires made the landscape resistant to extreme fire behavior, even when climate was conducive and surface fires were large. The ancient Jemez WUI offers an alternative model for fire management in modern WUI in the western US, and possibly other settings where local management of woody fuels through use (domestic wood collecting) coupled with small prescribed fires may make these communities both self-reliant and more resilient to wildfire hazards.
 

Bio:

Dr. Christopher I. Roos is an environmental archaeologist and Professor of Anthropology at Southern Methodist University. He received his MA and PhD from the University of Arizona (2002 and 2008) and his BA from the University of Cincinnati (2000). For more than a decade, Dr. Roos has been directing interdisciplinary research projects on the long-term interactions of human societies, climate, and wildfire in the Southwest USA. He has published more than 30 scientific papers, received more than $2 million in research awards, and was named a Kavli Fellow of the US National Academy of Sciences in 2016.

April 19, Monday at 7 PM, MST, General Meeting (virtual meeting)

Our speaker this evening is Professor Jim Allison, Department of Anthropology, BYU.

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His presentation is entitled, Community Organization in the Greater Southwest

Ancient farmers across the greater Southwest lived in communities that differ greatly in size, settlement layout, social organization, and other characteristics. Some of these farmers lived in small settlements comprising one or a few families, which often clustered around apparent community centers. In other times and placers, households aggregated into villages, often with evidence for innovations in social and ritual institutions. This presentation will explore the variation in community organization across the northern Southwest, drawing on examples from the Mesa Verde, Fremont, and Virgin regions.

About our speaker

James R. Allison’s archaeological career began in 1984, when he participated in the Brigham Young University archaeological field school in southeastern Utah. After obtaining an MA degree from BYU, he obtained a PhD from Arizona State University in 2000. In 2004 he returned to BYU where he is now Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Anthropology. In addition to working in southeast Utah, he has directed major research project in the Fremont and Virgin regions, on the northern and western frontiers of the greater Southwest, with a focus on understanding the social and economic organization of ancient farmers and the historical forces that shaped their societies.

Field work opportunity

Starting in September 2020, CAS-Denver members worked with the City of Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks Cultural Resources managers on recording features and artifacts from the Gorham and Crackerjack Mines on Marshall Mesa Open Space and doing condition reports on petroglyphs in the Fox Hills formation along Boulder Creek.  This work is expected to continue once pandemic restrictions are lifted.  Further information on this project will be updated in the Spring of 2021.