At 6:30 we will have social time in the CSWS foyer. Then after a brief business meeting, Daniel Hampson, FLC alumnus and staff member at Crow Canyon Archaeological Center, will present “Hidden on the Surface: Preliminary Findings from an Ongoing Review of Southwest LiDAR Data“. For log-in information, go to SJBAS.ORG

Abstract: With great new data, comes great new responsibility. Despite the recent wave of discoveries and attention in other regions of the world, systematic review and analysis of LiDAR in the Southwest has remained limited. This presentation will discuss preliminary findings from an ongoing examination of LiDAR datasets across the Four Corners states, focusing on landscape altering features dating from the late Basketmaker period through the historic Pueblo eras. The review identifies a range of previously unrecognized or under-recognized surface features, including many linear corridors consistent with prehistoric roads, previously undocumented communities, possible ritual constructions, and massive features tentatively interpreted as agricultural field systems and racetrack-like forms. Many of these earthen features are subtle, difficult to detect on the ground, yet often extensive. Taken together, the data suggest more deliberately structured and interconnected landscapes than commonly assumed, with implications for understanding population, labor, movement, interaction, trade, migration, and social organization at regional scales.

Bio: Daniel graduated from Fort Lewis College in 2017 and has more than a decade of archaeological lab and field experience through the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center and Woods Canyon Archaeological Consultants in Cortez. He returned to graduate school at New Mexico State University, earning a master’s degree in 2023, and is currently a PhD student at Binghamton University. In addition to his doctoral research, he currently works as a lab archaeologist at Crow Canyon and is a member of the Crow Canyon's LiDAR Working Group. His research focuses primarily on the Chaco and Mesa Verde regions, using LiDAR data to reevaluate previous survey work, identify areas for new ground investigation, and document monumental architecture and earthen features, with the broader goal of better understanding regional social organization and interaction in the Pueblo past.