TAS Brown Bag Presentation - Aug 2

  • 02 Aug 2012
  • 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
  • BLM offices on Cruz Alta Rd

Dr. Catrina Whitley is currently excavating near Arroyo Seco and will share some of her findings with us. Bring your own snack and learn about new theories regarding Taos communities and migrations. Contact Ann Smith at 737.9611, or by email at ahs@kitcarson.net with questions.

 

BaahKu Archaeological Project: Exploring Communities in the Taos Valley

Few Developmental, Pot Creek Phase (AD 1200-1250) unit pueblos have been excavated in the Taos Valley.  Located near Arroyo Seco, the BaahKu Archaeological Project excavations are the first to explore a Pot Creek Phase unit pueblo in the northern portion of the Taos Valley and one of only a few sites excavated in this area since the 1960s and 1970s.  Dr. Whitley will discuss the excavations to date, focusing on the important contribution the site brings to theories regarding Taos communities and timing of migrants into the valley.  She will also extrapolate on the need to broadly test areas surrounding sites, as evidence of a potential shrine have been located outside the expected area for cultural deposits. 

Dr. Catrina Banks Whitley

Catrina Banks Whitley earned her degrees in Archaeology from Southern Methodist University (B.A. 2000, M.A. 2006, and Ph.D. 2009), and completed her Ph.D. while on a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship and a Philanthropic Education Organization Scholarship.  She works in Texas and New Mexico on archaeological projects as both an archaeologist and bioarchaeologist and holds two Research Associate positions, one at Southern Methodist University and the second at the Office of Archaeological Studies, Museum of New Mexico.  One portion of her research agenda focuses on investigating ritual and culturally diverse patterns inherent in mortuary practices and how the context of a burial can inform on migration and the identification of migrants.  She also focuses on the method and theory of integrating archaeological, mortuary, and biological data sets from archaeological sites to inform on lifeways of the past, diet, health, evidence of occupation through musculoskeletal markers, and evidence of violence and warfare in the American Southwest, as well as maintains interests in Texas bioarchaeology and historical mortuary practices. Whitley is Principal Investigator of an A.D. 1200-1250 prehistoric Ancestral Puebloan site, BaahKu Archaeological Project, in Arroyo Seco, N.M., and, most recently, in conjunction with the Office of Archaeological Studies, Museum of New Mexico, Dr. Whitley is co-principal investigator on a project evaluating the effects of natural radiation exposure from earthen architecture on health in prehistoric and modern peoples of the Northern Rio Grande. Dr. Whitley is trained in Human Osteology, Bioarchaeology and Archaeology and taught courses at the University of Texas at Arlington and Southern Methodist University in all three subjects.   Her cultural resource management work was used as evidence to pass Texas Legislation regulating the exhumation of human remains and is on a committee rewriting portions of the Texas Health and Safety Code updating human burial exhumation permitting processes.  Outside the field of Anthropology, Dr. Whitley, as lead author, made international news on an article published inThe Historical Journal on Henry VIII suffering from McLeod Syndrome and having Kell positive blood that resulted in the numerous miscarriages of his wives.  She has eight years experience as a principal investigator and twelve years experience in the osteological analysis of human remains.

 



Taos Archaeological Society

PO Box 143

Taos, NM, 87571

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