Painted Walls and Tree-Ring Dates in the Embattled Bears Ears Cultural Landscape
Channel: ArchaeologySouthwest
Date: 2019-01-08

In this Tea and Archaeology video, Benjamin A. Bellorado presents "Painted Walls and Tree-Ring Dates in the Embattled Bears Ears Cultural Landscape." 

In this talk, Benjamin Bellorado will present some results of the Cedar Mesa Building Murals Project, a five-year study of decorated buildings at Ancestral Pueblo cliff-dwellings in the southern Bears Ears area. Results indicate that, in the early A.D. 1200s, murals expressed important aspects of social identities related to community, political, and religious identities on local scales. Subsequent changes in mural styles reflect broader changes in the political and ritual systems of the larger region. The project was conducted through a partnership with the federal archaeologists at the Monticello Field Office of the BLM and with the University of Arizona School of Anthropology and the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research.