Archaeo-Ecosytsems of the Four Corners

We working with Drs. Bruce Pavlik and Brian Codding on assessing site significance by determining the distribution and richness of ethnographically-significant plants. Funded by the BLM, this project tests the relationship between site size, complexity and ethnographically-significant plant species richness. Our preliminary results show that small archaeological sites with a large number of architectural features (dense sites) are associated with a higher number of ethnographically-significant species, thereby warranting a higher priority for protective land management.