Reemerging from the Ancient and Current Pasts: Recent Archaeological and Ethnographic Research in Southeastern Utah

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Reemerging from the Ancient and Current Pasts: Recent Archaeological and Ethnographic Research in Southeastern Utah" at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Over the last decade the state of archaeological and ethnographic research has changed dramatically with the realignment of research priorities resulting from the creation of the Bears Ears National Monument, other changes in federal land management strategies and goals, and the isolation and disruptions caused by the global pandemic. Throughout this tumultuous time scholars conducting academic, contract, and conservation-based research have made herculean efforts to maintain, develop, and report on new and on-going research on public lands. While adapting to these adverse conditions has been challenging, many researchers in the area have developed new and innovative ways of documenting and interpreting the past with the use of ethnographic landscape studies, collaborative research with descendant communities, large-scale radiocarbon dating projects, dendrochronology, landscape and object photogrammetry, and virtual reality tours, to name a few. This session brings together researchers and stakeholders to discuss recent archaeological, anthropological, and ethnographic research in southeastern Utah. The goal of the session is to bring researchers together to reforge collaborative partnerships and working relationships, and to see what new patterns are emerging (and reemerging) in the archaeological and ethnographic fields in the area.