The field school is directed by UVa Professor Steve Plog with the assistance of Julie Solometo, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Michigan. Our field headquarters are located at an elevation of 7000 feet in the beautiful, tranquil woodlands of the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest. Opportunities for hiking and biking are numerous in the region and wildlife is abundant.
Elk often graze outside our duplexes in the late evening and early morning.
Our research addresses changing organization and social relations in the Chevelon drainage during the 11th through 13th centuries. There recently has been an emerging consensus among Southwestern archaeologists that social conflict was an important feature of the prehistoric Southwest social landscape. Sites located in highly inaccessible locations or protected by masonry walls suggest similar social patterns in the Chevelon region. However, many significant questions certainly remain about the intensity, ubiquity, and specific nature of that conflict and about the importance of such conflict in explaining patterns of culture change. We will be addressing such questions through our fieldwork.