Archaeological Research in Petrified Forest National Park

Part of: Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Archaeological Research in Petrified Forest National Park," at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Petrified Forest National park has been the subject of archaeological research for well over 100 years. In 2004 Congress authorized a boundary expansion, effectively doubling the protected land in Petrified Forest National Park. As these lands are slowly added to the park, new and exciting research opportunities are available for archaeological research. Work both inside and outside these expansion lands has found a stunning density and diversity of archaeological remains. Archaeological sites spanning the last 10,000 years of human occupation have been identified and recorded, including most notably extensive preceramic sites and lithic landscapes, large Basketmaker villages, and a densely settled Puebloan landscape. The National Park Service has taken this opportunity to use the boundary expansion project as a teaching laboratory and platform for future investigation, incorporating student interns and researchers into the project. Work of interns and researchers has allowed the NPS to study a diversity of research questions which would typically be out of reach of typical section 110 work. This session presents an update of the recent archaeology completed in Petrified Forest, and highlights some of the ongoing research projects.

Other Keywords
Ancestral Pueblo • Landscape Archaeology • Ceramic Analysis • Pueblo • Iconography and epigraphy • Iconography and Art: Rock Art • Lithic Analysis • Geoarchaeology • Chronology • Historical Archaeology

Geographic Keywords
New Mexico (State / Territory) • Oklahoma (State / Territory) • Arizona (State / Territory) • Texas (State / Territory) • Sonora (State / Territory) • United States of America (Country) • Chihuahua (State / Territory) • Colorado (State / Territory) • Utah (State / Territory) • Nevada (State / Territory)

Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-8 of 8)

  • Documents (8)
Documents
  • An Analysis of Ceramic Imitation and Trade at the Petrified Forest National Park (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Christina Stewart.

    This is an abstract from the "Archaeological Research in Petrified Forest National Park" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Petrified Forest National Park has a long range of occupation; however, the variety of artifacts present from these occupations makes it difficult to access the relationships early residents had with neighboring communities. Over the last decade, researchers have identified a diverse range of ceramics from across the...

  • Dots on the Landscape: Analysis of Site Distribution at Petrified Forest National Park (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Melyssa Johnson.

    This is an abstract from the "Archaeological Research in Petrified Forest National Park" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Situated in a variety of environmental settings, over 1300 archaeological sites dot the Petrified Forest National Park Landscape. Though the position of many of the sites within the park appears to be almost random, human behavior dictates that there must be an advantageous reason for the placement of a particular site in one...

  • Flakes Everywhere: Lithic Analysis Results from the Petrified Forest Boundary Expansion Project 2013-2017 (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Cody Dalpra.

    This is an abstract from the "Archaeological Research in Petrified Forest National Park" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. During the Boundary Expansion Survey Project in Petrified Forest National Park of Northeastern Arizona the most common artifacts were the much maligned flake and stone tools. These are not surprising given the area is a large stone tool source in the remains of one of the largest deposits of petrified wood in the world. Petrified...

  • From Monument to Park: Early Infrastructure and Tourism at Petrified Forest National Park (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Hunter Crosby.

    This is an abstract from the "Archaeological Research in Petrified Forest National Park" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. On December 6th, 1906, Petrified Forest National Monument was created under the Antiquities Act, based on President Theodore Roosevelt’s recommendation that, "…the mineralized remains of Mesozoic forests…are of the greatest scientific interest and value and…that the public good would be promoted by reserving these deposits of...

  • Geoarchaeological Assessment of Agricultural Quality in an Eolian Landscape (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Amy Schott.

    This is an abstract from the "Archaeological Research in Petrified Forest National Park" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The region of Petrified Forest National Park on the southern Colorado Plateau is often considered to be a marginal area during prehistoric occupation. This is due to the expected low potential for agriculture, and the location in between major cultural centers. This study uses geoarchaeology to engage the question of whether this...

  • A Great House in the Petrified Forest: Iconography of a Possible Chacoan Outlier (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Maxwell Forton.

    This is an abstract from the "Archaeological Research in Petrified Forest National Park" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Chaco Phenomenon remains a contentious and ever evolving paradigm of Southwest Archaeology. Key to understanding the nature of Chaco is the extent and purpose of the many outlying great house communities scattered across the northern Southwest. One of the farthest flung of these possible outliers is the Mac-Stod great house...

  • Petroglyph Panels in Isolation: Differences in Cultural Expression through Rock Art Placement in the Landscape of Petrified Forest National Park (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Daniel Quintela.

    This is an abstract from the "Archaeological Research in Petrified Forest National Park" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Across Petrified Forest National Park, ancestral Puebloans left their mark on the landscape through the creation of thousands of petroglyph panels. While the exact meaning behind the glyphs depicted in petroglyph panels has been blurred by the passage of time and poses a formidable interpretive challenge to archaeologists, the...

  • Temporal Continuity in the Petrified Forest Expansion Lands (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Matthew Johnson.

    This is an abstract from the "Archaeological Research in Petrified Forest National Park" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Petrified Forest National Park contains one of the most diverse assemblages of prehistoric pottery on the Southern Colorado Plateau. For decades archaeologists have relied on characteristics of ceramics in order to assist in dating many sites throughout the southwest where the availability of absolute dates for prehistoric sites...