VEP Meeting Draws Researchers from U.S. and Canada
Group Gathers to Plan Next Phase of Investigations for the Project
Researchers from across the United States and Canada gathered at the Crow Canyon campus June 7–10 to coordinate the second phase of investigations for the Village Ecodynamics Project (VEP). The first phase of the project, VEP I, was initiated in 2002 and brought together researchers representing diverse disciplines—archaeologists, geologists, geographers, computer scientists, and economists—in an effort to explain key aspects of ancestral Pueblo life in southwestern Colorado between A.D. 600 and A.D. 1300.
During the June meeting, VEP researchers met to review past accomplishments and discuss upcoming investigations and challenges for VEP II. Group members gave presentations on a wide range of subjects, including experimental farming, tree-ring research, ancient DNA, cold-air drainage and soil depletion, and new approaches to computer modeling. In the afternoons, everyone took time for field trips to Yellow Jacket Pueblo and Yucca House, two large sites in Montezuma Valley, and to Mesa Verde National Park.
The VEP group welcomed many new researchers to their team—Craig Allen and Rory Gauthier from Bandelier National Monument, Larry Benson of the U.S. Geological Survey, Sam Bowles from the Santa Fe Institute, Denton Cockburn from the University of Windsor, Brian Kemp of Washington State University, Jeremy Kulisheck (see related story in this issue) and Mike Bremer with the Santa Fe National Forest, Steve Nash from the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, and Steven LeBlanc from Harvard University.
During VEP I investigations, researchers developed a new approach to studying the past that involved two major initiatives. First, researchers built databases containing a wealth of information that had been gathered over the last three-quarters of a century from thousands of archaeological sites in a 1,827-sq-km area on and around the Great Sage Plain of southwestern Colorado. The data from these sites were analyzed using a new standardized set of procedures. Second, researchers developed an agent-based computer simulation to investigate how ancient people farmed and interacted with their environment over time in the study area.
For VEP II, researchers will expand the study area in southwestern Colorado to include Mesa Verde National Park and adjacent areas east and south of the original VEP I area. As the project develops, researchers will also open a new study area in the northern Rio Grande region of New Mexico.
In 2009, survey work at Mesa Verde National Park is being directed by Donna Glowacki, assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Notre Dame and a research associate with Crow Canyon. The work is being conducted by graduate students from Washington State University and undergraduates from Notre Dame. Donna and the students consult with Crow Canyon researchers on a regular basis.
The VEP is funded by the National Science Foundation’s Dynamics of Coupled Natural and Human Systems program, sometimes called the Biocomplexity Initiative.
[PRINTER FRIENDLY VERSION]
|
