Animas-La Plata Project, Volume III: Blue Mesa Excavations

This volume of the Animas–La Plata series describes the results of excavations on Blue Mesa, a borrow area just south of Durango, Colorado, as part of the Animas–La Plata (ALP) Project. In 2002 and 2003, SWCA excavated seven sites, all of which dated to the early Pueblo I period (AD 750–850): four habitations and three limited activity sites. One of the limited activity sites also contained a small Basketmaker II component and a Paleoindian component. The authors use these limited excavation data in conjunction with previous survey data to address issues of chronology, population, and settlement on the mesa and to make comparisons with nearby Ridges Basin, the location of the ALP reservoir.