Columbia Center for Archaeology Seminar

Wade Campbell
Assistant Professor of Archaeology, Boston University

Exploring the Early Navajo Pastoral Landscape: An Archaeological Study of Indigenous Herding Traditions in the US Southwest

Friday April 15th, 2022, 4.30pm 

951 Schermerhorn Extension (TBC)

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Abstract: The Early Navajo Pastoral Landscape Project (ENPLP) seeks to examine the impacts of incipient pastoralism on the social organization and settlement patterns of early Navajo communities in the Dinétah region of northwest New Mexico circa AD 1700. In keeping with the tenets of indigenous archaeology, the ENPLP work eschewed excavation in favor of a minimally invasive, landscape-based approach combining ethnoarchaeological fieldwork and geospatial modeling with systematic soil sampling and intensive site mapping. This talk will review the preliminary findings of the recently completed ENPLP fieldwork and discuss how this research will help to shed light on the dynamic history of Navajo pastoralism from its early days to the present.

Biography
Wade Campbell is a Diné (Navajo) historical archaeologist whose research examines the relationships between Diné communities and other local groups in the U.S. Southwest from the 17^th century to the present day. Wade is engaged with a range of questions related to longer-term patterns of Navajo settlement and economic activity across the greater Four Corners region, with a focus on incipient Indigenous pastoralism.