Searching for Pueblos among the Dunefields: Remote Sensing Investigations at Four Pueblo Settlements on the Fort Bliss Military Reservation

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Application of Geophysical Techniques to Military Archaeology" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In the fall of 2017, the Fort Bliss Cultural Resources Team funded a unique project to assess the potential for using remote sensing technologies to analyze the subsurface characteristics of buried cultural sites to support National Register of Historic Places nominations. Geophysical remote sensing and aerial multispectral imaging methods were utilized over a two-year period at four sites to locate and define buried pueblo rooms and room blocks that were not visible on the site surface. Other features, such as water reservoirs, canals, and pithouses, were also identified. The effectiveness of various geophysical methods for identifying buried features was compared. Ground-truthing excavations confirmed the presence of prehistoric architectural features in seven of the nine test units placed over anomalies. In addition to the study of prehistoric settlements, the historic agricultural landscape of the Plowed Field site was revealed through archival research combined with geophysical methods.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Application of Geophysical Techniques to Military Archaeology   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39275.0