Crow Canyon to be in television series

The Crow Canyon Archaeological Center announced to that they will play a starring role in an upcoming episode of “Time Team America,” a popular Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) science-archaeology series produced by Oregon Public Broadcasting.

Time Team America travels across the nation to excavate ancient and historic areas. Using the latest technology and their own expertise, Time Team archaeologists are given 72 hours to uncover secrets of their assigned digs. The series first aired on PBS stations during the summer of 2009.

Time Team archaeologists will join Crow Canyon staff at the Center’s current excavation site, the Dillard site, to help answer questions about the Basketmaker III (A.D. 500–750) community that formed there more than 1,500 years ago. The Dillard site is located in Indian Camp Ranch, a private residential community near Cortez. Filming will take place in June 2012, and the show is scheduled to air in 2013.

“We’re so pleased that Time Team will be bringing their expertise and technology to the Dillard site,” said Crow Canyon Vice President of Programs Shirley Powell. “They’ll be using airborne LiDAR [Light Detection and Ranging], a very advanced technique that could help us detect Basketmaker III sites beyond Indian Camp Ranch.”

This year Justine Shapiro will host the series. She is an award-winning documentary film producer and a presenter on the public television show Globe Trekker. She has also appeared in several films and television movies.

This season’s filming is funded by the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Informal Science Education program. Crow Canyon partnered with Oregon Public Broadcasting to develop the proposal to NSF.

As part of this year’s Time Team season and in keeping with Crow Canyon’s dedication to involving the public in its research, Time Team and Crow Canyon archaeologists will conduct a “field school” during the filming. The field school will focus on the STEM subjects—science, technology, engineering and mathematics—and will bring 40 students from local and regional schools to the Dillard site.