Mesa Verde National Park has announced a presentation by Donna Glowacki that discusses how Spruce Tree House cliff dwelling developed and changed during the 1200s, a time of significant social and religious transformations, climatic hardship, and the widespread exodus of ancestral Pueblo people from the region.
The presentation, scheduled for Friday, May 20 at the Chapin Mesa Museum, is based a detailed, multi-year architectural documentation project conducted by Mesa Verde National Park archaeologists.
Glowacki is an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Notre Dame, a senior researcher on the Village Ecodynamics Project, and a long-time research associate with Crow Canyon Archaeological Center and Mesa Verde National Park. She has conducted fieldwork at 76 of the largest sites in the Central Mesa Verde region. Her research focuses on understanding social change, and particularly the role of religious transformation and sociopolitical reorganization in regional depopulation and migration, as well as intraregional exchange, and ceramic and compositional analysis.
Her publications include two edited volumes and various book chapters and articles. Her book “Living & Leaving: A Social History of Regional Depopulation in Thirteenth-century Mesa Verde,” was recently published by the University of Arizona Press.
The Four Corners Lecture Series features presentations about the archaeology, current Native American cultures, history, and natural resources of this spectacular area. All programs are free and open to the public.
Her presentation is part of the Four Corners Lecture Series is sponsored by the Anasazi Heritage Center; ARAMARK Parks and Destinations; Bureau of Land Management; Cortez Cultural Center; Crow Canyon Archaeological Center; Edge of the Cedars State Park Museum; Fort Lewis College Office of the President, Department of Anthropology and Center of Southwest Studies; Friends of Cedar Mesa; Colorado Archaeological Society, Hisatsinom Chapter; KSJD Dryland Community Radio; Mesa Verde Foundation; Mesa Verde Museum Association; Mesa Verde National Park; San Juan Basin Archaeological Society; and Southwest Colorado Canyons Alliance. For a list of other programs in the series, go to www.mesaverde.org/four-corners-lecture-series.