If you’re familiar with the terms Neolithic revolution, debitage, osteology, bioarchaeology, and thermo-luminescence, then you probably attended the Big MACC conference at Crow Canyon Archaeological Center Friday in Cortez.
More than 100 professional and amateur archeologists gathered for the sold-out Big Meeting At Crow Canyon (Big MACC), the 13th since 1991.
“It was intended to complement the Pecos Conference started in 1927,” said Susan Ryan, of Crow Canyon. “It broadens the scope of discussions to include lab analyses and synthetic studies, and allows the use of slides.”
Dozens of experts, many local, gave 15-minute presentations with academic aplomb, then handily answered technical questions from their peers in the audience.
Ruins from throughout the Four Corners were covered, from Hovenweep to Sand Canyon, Mitchell Springs to Mesa Verde and beyond.
Kuckelman on pueblo warfare
Kristen Kuckelman discussed the effects of pueblo warfare on noncombatants in this region between 850 and 1280 AD. She explained that severe drought from 1130 to 1180 AD, and again in 1276 caused crop failure and coincided with escalated warfare in the region.
“Mesa Verde communities aggregated within protective cliff alcoves, and others constructed defensive villages,” Kuckelman noted. “Fear of food shortages were a powerful prediction of warfare.”
The study analyzed the remains of 340 individuals from 850-1280. During warfare, evidence showed non-combatant women and children suffered from dietary stress and direct injury.
“Children experienced the highest level of stress due to food shortage,” she said.
Dove on Mitchell Springs
Local archaeologist Dave Dove gave a report on Mitchell Springs, a large ruin south of Cortez.
“Converging drainages created an incredible opportunity to farm,” he said. “The area reached its zenith in the 800s and 900s.”
Residents had a tradition of recycling old buildings into newer ones at the same location, rather than rebuilding somewhere else.
The ancient village suffered severe damage from a bulldozer in the 1970s.
Chuipka on the Athabaskan arrival
Jason Chuipka reported on when the Athabaskan people arrived to the Southwest from the north, forming the Navajo culture. He said most archeologists believed the migration tool place in the 1500s, but more evidence is being found that it may have been as early as the 1200s.
A report on the Navajo Archaeological Program was given by Elaine Cleveland-Mason. A main office was relocated to Shiprock from Farmington in 2005, and the school has a student training program for future archeologists.
“People have changed, and they are not very knowledgeable anymore on the cultural traditions,” said staffer William Tsosie.
He said he lives in two worlds, one academic and one with the Navajo culture.
“My interpretation is that the Navajo were created here and we have been here forever,” he said. “My academic side says I’m also Athabaskan, and I’m part of a living history.”
The first Navajo archeological conference was held in Shiprock in 2014, and it plans to regularly host the event.
Kinnear-Ferris updates Hovenweep
Sharyl Kinnear-Ferris gave an update on studies at Hovenweep National Monument. She said archaeological work has been limited, but in the last decade there has been progress.
Students from San Jose University conducted studies at Hovenweep every July. Crow Canyon and the National Park Service have also investigated and documented the area.
Stabilization programs are ongoing; and outlying ruins have been recently studied, including Cutthroat, Horseshoe-Hackberry, Holly, and Cahone. Within the monument 191 sites have been documented, which translates to 150 sites per square mile.
A recent study of 10,000 sherds was conducted and integrated into a user-friendly data base.
“Our hope is the regional researchers will be able to use this for future investigations,” Ferris said. “There are lots of opportunity for research at Hovenweep.”
She cautioned her peers on inadvertently identifying the location of fragile sites in their reports, something that recently happened.
Hovenweep rangers routinely troll social media to see if information is out there leading people off trail into sites they would not like to have disclosed to the public as means of protection.
“When people go looking for these things, they are not sure exactly where they are so they wander all around and step on partial walls and over habitation,” she said.
jmimiaga@cortezjournal.com