Multidisciplinary Research at the La Botica Site, Conejos County, Colorado

Summary

The La Botica site (5CN1061), located in Conejos County’s spectacular La Jara Canyon, is a large and complex archaeological site that preserves a remarkable record of American Indian lifeways spanning at least 7,500 years. The site is also an important locality for the San Luis Valley’s Hispano residents, who gathered medicinal plants there in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The demonstrated time depth of the site’s occupation, combined with its unique and culturally significant botanical inventory, make it one of the most important archaeological sites in the region.

To better understand La Botica’s place in the regional cultural landscape, as well as the natural and cultural factors that have shaped it, Paleocultural Research Group (PCRG), a nonprofit organization dedicated to archaeological and paleoecological research in the Southern Rocky Mountains and Great Plains, conducted a multi-disciplinary research project at the site. The PCRG research team included a diverse mix of contributors, including archaeologists, biogeographers, geologists, geomorphologists, anthropologists, botanists, dendrochronologists, and historians.

Keywords

Temporal Coverage

Calendar Date: -5500 to 1980

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Mark D. Mitchell; Christy Briles; Peter M. Brown; Camille A. Holmgren; Scott Ingram; Shawn Kelley; Sean M. O'Meara; Charles N. Saenz; Chester A. Ruleman; Kenzie Turner; Kelly Kindscher

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