A fresh look at an iconic Southwest archaeological site
Discovered in 1937 amid a surge of pothunting in the American Southwest, the Falls Creek Rock Shelters in Durango, Colorado, quickly became one of the most significant archaeological sites in the region. With its remarkable preservation of perishable materials, the site attracted both amateur and professional archaeologists, culminating in Earl Morris and Robert Burgh’s 1954 landmark study on the Eastern Basketmakers.
This volume brings together experts in chronometry, rock art, bioarchaeology, and material culture to reexamine the site with fresh perspectives, advanced methodologies, and crucial tribal consultation. By integrating twenty-first<n>century research with historical records, it sheds new light on the Eastern Basketmaker II Tradition—both as part of a broader cultural landscape and as a distinct regional identity. A must-read for archaeologists, institutions reconciling legacy collections, and those interested in collaborative research, this book offers a groundbreaking, holistic view of one of the Southwest’s most fascinating prehistoric communities.
About the Author
Dawn M. Mulhern is a professor of anthropology and associate provost at Fort Lewis College where she has also served as NAGPRA Coordinator and continues to engage in repatriation work. She previously worked in the Repatriation Osteology Laboratory at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. With Mona Charles, she has a chapter on Basketmaker mortuary patterns in Ancient Southwestern Mortuary Practices. She coedited Bioarchaeology of the Southwest with Ann L. W. Stodder.
Mona C. Charles has spent most of her career in Southwest Colorado where she taught the Fort Lewis College archaeological field school and worked with the collections at the Center of Southwest Studies. While at the Animas Museum, she was project director on two IMLS grants and a national NAGPRA grant. She is perhaps best known for her research on the Eastern Basketmakers. Her work has been published in the KIVA, Southwestern Lore, and the edited volume The Mesa Verde World.
Table of Contents
List of Figures
List of Tables
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Mona C. Charles and Julie Coleman
Cultural and Environmental Context
Sean Larmore and Mona C. Charles
Chronology
Michael Berry
Variation and Social-Ritual Diversity in Basketmaker II Style Rock Paintings, Eastern San Juan Area, Colorado
Sally J. Cole
Burial Assemblages and Mortuary Practices
Dawn M. Mulhern, Mona C. Charles, Laurie D. Webster, and Edward A. Jolie
Bioarchaeology
Dawn M. Mulhern
Ornaments, Stone Pipes, and Bone Gaming Pieces
Mona C. Charles
Textiles, Baskets, Hides, Wood, and Other Worked Perishable Artifacts
Laurie D. Webster and Edward A. Jolie
Worked and Unworked Bone
Mona C. Charles and Cerisa Reynolds
Stone Artifacts
Phil R. Geib
Plant Remains
Karen R. Adams and Judy van Roggen
Concluding Thoughts
Mona C. Charles and Dawn M. Mulhern
Appendix A
Appendix B
Appendix C
Notes
References
List of Contributors
Index
