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Current Archaeological Projects at ASMRock Art Ranch Field SchoolThe University of Arizona School of Anthropology and Arizona State Museum launched a new summer field school during the first summer session of 2011 that will continue through 2013. The field school, led by Dr. E. Charles (Chuck) Adams, is open to undergraduate and graduate students at all skill levels. The participants will learn both archaeological survey and excavation techniques. For survey, participants will learn site identification, location and mapping using GPS; artifact identification, collection and processing; soil and plant identification; and artifact analysis and sourcing. For excavation, the participants will learn mapping at all levels of the site, feature identification, the principles of stratigraphy and their application to the archaeological record, seriation techniques, artifact identification and typology, and basic laboratory procedures. Finally, students will be shown how by combining the techniques of survey and excavation, a more complete understanding of human society in the past can be achieved. Summary of 2011 Findings at Rock Art Ranch More About the Rock Art Ranch Field School Homol'ovi Research ProgramThis program has been active since 1984-85, under the direction of Dr. E. Charles (Chuck) Adams. Research is focused on several ancestral Hopi pueblos (villages) near Winslow in northeastern Arizona. The research studies the processes of aggregation in late prehistory (that is, the formation of large communities) and contributes to the interpretive programs at the Homol’ovi State Park. After 15 years of concentrating on ancestral Hopi villages in the park, the Homol’ovi Research Program shifted its focus to Chevelon Ruin, a village contemporary with the other villages and located farther upstream. Chevelon pueblo is the third largest of the Homol’ovi settlement cluster villages—with around 500 rooms (see Map 1). Similar to Homol’ovi I, it seems to have been occupied from about AD 1280 to 1380. ASM archaeologists Adams and Rich Lange worked at the site from 2002-2006, supported by grants from the National Science Foundation and from Earthwatch.
More about the role of volunteers for the
Homol'ovi Research Program Borderlands Archaeology Program These projects provide many opportunities for research and training in archaeological field methods for both graduate and undergraduate students. There are also opportunities for volunteers to participate in excavations and artifact analysis. More about volunteering for
the Borderlands Archaeology Program 
Sierra Ancha Cliff Dwelling ProjectSince 1981, Richard C. Lange has been conducting research in the rugged Sierra Ancha in east-central Arizona. Numerous cliff dwellings occur in the canyons, mostly dating to the late AD 1200s and early AD 1300s. The cliff dwellings were first formally described by Emil W. Haury in 1934, and contributed significantly to studies extending the range of tree-ring dating below the Mogollon Rim. Research has involved detailed mapping of the structures, recording of architectural details, and recovery of complete sets of tree-ring samples. Fieldwork has largely been completed, so no volunteers are being sought at this time. A final report (Echoes in the Canyons: The Archaeology of the Southeastern Sierra Ancha, Central Arizona, Arizona State Museum Archaeological Series 198) was published by the University of Arizona Press, but is currently out of print. Read more On the Trail of CoronadoThis ASM project is focused on discovering segments of the trail used by the expeditionary force of Francisco Vasquez de Coronado. Between the years 1540 and 1542 the Spanish Army, accompanied by civilians and Indian allies, set out from Culiacan, Mexico in search of Cibola (the Seven Cities of Gold). The expedition followed portions of established Indian trade trails to traverse the vast region of northwest Mexico and what was to become the southwestern United States. At least eleven documented trips were made over all or portions of the trail between Cibola and Culiacan during the mid-sixteenth century. Along it went Coronado's couriers and scouts and small parties returning to Culiacan with ill and discouraged treasure seekers. Undocumented trips over this trail were probably numerous. Those segments of trail that might exist in Sonora, Mexico and in the United States, particularly in the vicinity of southeastern Arizona or southwestern New Mexico are of interest to this study. Lost Spanish TrailsThe goal of this project is to document the trail made by the expedition of Don José de Zúñiga, captain of the presidio of Tupson (Tucson), in his attempt to find a trade route to Santa Fe. This was the last Spanish expedition beginning in what is now Arizona. Research is based on the journal that Zúñiga wrote during his journey. Learn more about the expedition with text following the route, interactive maps, photos and 3-D models of Spanish Colonial artifacts in our Lost Spanish Trails web exhibit. If you have
information or would like more information pertinent to these studies please contact: Image Credits: This icon |
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Chevelon is especially intriguing because of its location upstream from the other villages, its location beside a spring-fed stream, and, in contrast to the other Homol’ovi villages, a higher percentage of pottery types from an area 100 km to the southeast. Work over the many field seasons focused on the origins, layout, and history of the site and on the nature of its interaction with the other villages.
Preliminary work done in the summer of 2002 discovered an unusual layout of the village (a semi-circular roomblock arrangement of the highest part of the site—
This
program incorporates a number of projects lead by 
