Kari Schleher, laboratory director at the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center, will share her expertise in two events sponsored by the Telluride History Museum.
At 6 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 22, Schleher will present “The Archaeology of Pueblo Pottery: A History of Ancestral Pueblo Pottery Studies in the Southwest” at the Wilkinson Library in Telluride. During her hourlong presentation, which is free to the public, she will explore how the knowledge of southwestern history has been shaped by pottery studies. She will discuss how pottery is helping to address questions of migration and community development in the Basketmaker III period in the Mesa Verde region as part of Crow Canyon’s Basketmaker Communities Project.
During a day program at Crow Canyon on Friday, Sept. 26, Schleher will lead participants deeper into that topic. The tour will include the great kiva at the Crow Canyon’s current excavation, the Dillard site, as well as the Pithouse Learning Center on campus, plus two hours in the Center’s research lab. There, individuals wash artifacts from the Dillard site and learn to analyze different pottery styles used here and in other areas of the Four Corners. For example, pottery found at the Dillard site included serving dishes, while cooking and food storage types predominated at the smaller hamlets.
The fee for the Sept. 26 program is $80 for Telluride History Museum members and $90 for non-members. A carpool will leave from the museum at 9 a.m.; attendees from other areas can arrange to meet at Crow Canyon.
For more information or to register, go to www.telluridemuseum.org/eventss/, or call 970-728-3344, ext. 2.
Crow Canyon’s weeklong Archaeology Lab Program, which runs Oct. 5-11, also will focus on Basketmaker III pottery. For more information about that program, go to www.crowcanyon.org.