OAS | April 2025

The Office of Archaeological Studies has been buzzing with activity this year. We have had research projects from Eddy County to McKinley County spanning from the Ice Age to the Gilded Age and all points in between. Our field archaeology teams completed excavations for the Pueblo of Acoma at a historic home site. Analysis is ongoing but we have been able to identify artifacts that are known to date from the mid-19th century to the early 20th-century. We also have samples from the site that our archaeomagnetic laboratory is analyzing and we hope will provide even more precision to the dating of the site. Executive Director, Dr. John Taylor-Montoya, has been gathering data on Ice Age archaeology sites in the region for an ongoing research project exploring human adaptations and climate change in New Mexico at the end of the Pleistocene. Our OAS team in the osteology and zooarchaeology lab are in the midst of completing important analysis and reports. Chandler Buchfink, Project Director and Osteologist, has been diligently working on reports for recent infrastructure projects in the City of Santa Fe and New Mexico State Historic Preservation Officer. Zooarchaeology expert, Esther Peramune, is leading the analysis of animal bones that have been found at our many projects. Her work will provide a critical view into the subsistence economy of past populations from different geographical and socio-economic contexts across New Mexico.