The Basketmaker Communities Project was a multi-faceted research and public education archaeological initiative undertaken by Crow Canyon from 2011 through 2017. The primary purpose of the Basketmaker Communities Project was to study the history and social organization of a large Basketmaker III period (A.D. 500–750) settlement in the central Mesa Verde region and to track the long-term impacts of that settlement on later populations. The fieldwork portion of the project was conducted on 31 lots in the Indian Camp Ranch subdivision outside of Cortez, Colorado, and on private property belonging to Gayle Larson just north of the Indian Camp Ranch subdivision. Over the course of the Basketmaker Communities Project, 75 archaeological sites were recorded or rerecorded, and forms were submitted to the Office of Archaeology and Historic Preservation. Crow Canyon excavated 13 of the recorded sites and conducted intensive surface artifact analysis and/or geophysical imaging at an additional 18 sites.

The Basketmaker Communities Project was supported in part by grants from the National Science Foundation and History Colorado-State Historical Fund.

Learn more:

2015 fieldwork report for the Basketmaker Communities Project

The Neolithic Transition (how hunter-gatherers became farmers in the Southwest and around the world)