Animas-La Plata Project, Volume I: Cultural Resources Research and Sampling Design

The Animas-La Plata reservoir project is in La Plata County, Colorado, just south of the modern town of Duran-go. This volume is a research design for the treatment of archaeological resources that will be impacted by the construction and filling of the reservoir. This includes a brief history of the archaeological work conducted, a discussion of the research questions that were posed, and the field, laboratory, and analytical methods used to compile the information needed to address those questions. The area is of interest to archaeologists for a number of reasons. First, only sporadic episodes of systematic excavation have been conducted in the area, so it represents a sizable hole in the prehistory of the Southwest. Second, Durango contains some of the most interesting Basketmaker II sites in the Southwest, and more excavation in the area is bound to shed additional light on this period. Third, examining the numerous early Pueblo I sites in the area will broaden our understanding of the earliest attempts at village aggregation in the Southwest.