Processional Panel, Utah

I am the director of the FLC archaeological field school and a visiting faculty member of the Department of Anthropology.  I have over 35 years of professional experience in archaeology. I have technical and management experience in remote sensing (electrical resistance and fluxgate magnetometer), Total Station and Theodolite mapping, digital photography, GIS, and computer database management. I have extensive skills in the areas of geoarchaeological interpretation, laboratory analysis, report writing and production, large and small-scale inventory projects, large and small-scale testing projects, large and small-scale excavation projects, grant writing, teaching, and public outreach.

I am a  member of the Colorado Council of Professional Archaeologists, the Society for American Archaeology, and the Rocky Mountain Anthropological Association. Most recently I am a member of the Council for the Status of Women in Archaeology, a committee of the Society of American Archaeology. I have authored or co-authored over 30 archaeological reports and has presented results of her research nation-wide. My latest publications include The Earliest Mesa Verdeans, Hunters, Foragers, and First Farmers, a chapter in The Mesa Verde World, edited by David Grant Noble and two articles in a special edition of KIVA (Vol.72:No.2) on Basketmaker II.  

I have been conducting research in the mountains in and around Southwest Colorado for over 25 years. My research currently emphases the origins and nature of the Colorado Basketmakers from indigenous hunters and gatherers to horticulturalists. This research involves examining archaeological, geological and paleoenvironmental data to interpret the prehistory of the area around Durango during this time period. 

Most recently, I have become involved with the Old Fort Lewis Task Force. This task force is dedicated to the preservation of the cultural and natural recourses at the Old Fort Lewis Campus, near Hesperus, CO. The Archaeological Field School now operates from the Old Fort Lewis Campus, where we are presented with historic, protohistoric, and historic sites. Most of the sites that we work on date to the military presence here in Southwest Colorado (1878 - 1881). The field school instructs students in general archaeological methods and techniques including; Total Station Mapping, Remote Sensing, Cultural Resource Survey, Artifact Identification, GPS and GIS.   

In addition to teaching the Fort Lewis College archaeological field school, I regularly teach the following classes:  Archaeological Lab Techniques, Advanced Archaeological Lab Techniques and Geoarchaeology.

When I am not in the classroom, I can be found roaming the labyrinths of Southeast Utah with friends and family, hiking the San Juans, camping just about anywhere, cooking, gardening, and playing with my three dogs: Dinah, Memphis and Stella. 

Interests:

Basketmaker II puebloan prehistory

Historic archaeology

Geoarchaeology

Archaeometry

Geographical Information Systems

Replicative Ceramics

Current Projects:

• Geoarchaeology and GIS of the Darkmold Site, 5LP4991
• Old Fort Lewis Preservation Plan
• Basketmaker II Database
• Basketmaker II Bibliography for Database 
• Reexamination of the Falls Creek Rockshelter Artifacts and Human Remains: a repatriation project       

Old Fort Lewis with La Plata Mountains in background

Looking toward the La Plata Mountains from the Old Fort Lewis campus. Magnetometer map of the Old Fort Lewis cemetery, 5LP8434. Instruction in the Geoscan Fluxgate Gradiometer and on the Total Station, Old Fort Lewis.

 

 

Office Hours for Winter 2010

Tuesday	12:00-2:00
Thursday	10:00-12:00

* Or By Appointment

Telephone: (970) 247-7295
E-mail: charles_m@fortlewis.edu

 

 

 

 

 

Visit the Fort Lewis College Field School Web Site

Back to the Anthropology Department Faculty Web Site
 

Other Links:

Colorado Council of Professional Archaeologists	www.coloradoarchaeologists.org/
Society for American Archaeology	www.saa.org/