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.

Jan 18, Monday at 7 PM, MST, General Meeting (virtual meeting)

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

​

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.

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

Our speaker this evening is Professor Edward Henry, Department of Anthropology, Colorado State University

​

His presentation topic will be on Mounds and ceremonialism in the Eastern Woodlands. (Check back soon for a complete abstract on his talk and his biography)

​

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

​

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.
 

2003 Encebado fire, Taos Pueblo,NM

Prof Roos in Jemez Mtns, NM

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.

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.