Expanding Our Understanding of the Mojave Desert: Emerging Research and New Perspectives on Old Data

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Expanding Our Understanding of the Mojave Desert: Emerging Research and New Perspectives on Old Data" at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The prehistory of the Mojave Desert is rich, expansive, variable, and applicable to a variety of research queries. For over 25 years, many archaeologists have expressed concern for the alarming underrepresentation of archaeological research in this region. These concerns include insufficient attention to issues that highlight the importance of variation across different sectors of the Mojave Desert and its adjacent areas. Despite the obvious opportunities for research, there have been limited investigations beyond compliance-based military installation and public works projects. Much of this research has been inadequately disseminated, which has been attributed to “gray” or unpublished data that remains unknown or inaccessible to the larger archaeological community. This session aims to highlight various archaeological research within the Mojave Desert in which researchers have examined old data to investigate past lifeways. By revisiting old data with new perspectives, methodologies, technologies, and theoretical frameworks, these researchers have posed multiplex inquiries that seek to apply broader spatial scales that unveil the inter- and intraregional complexity of the Mojave Desert.