This volume of the Animas-La Plata series describes the results of excavations at 9 sites at the western end Ridges Basin approximately 2 miles south of Durango, Colorado, as part of the Animas-La Plata (ALP) Project. The Western Cluster encompassed two and possiblythree groupings of single small Pueblo I habitations around thevillage site known as the Sacred Ridge site. The volume is concluded with a summary discussion of chronology, architecture, material culture, population, subsistence, and settlement within both local and regional cultural contexts.

The American Southwest is one of the most important archaeological regions in the world, with many of the best-studied examples of hunter-gatherer and village-based societies. Research has been carried out in the region for well over a century, and during this time the Southwest has repeatedly stood at the forefront of the development of new archaeological methods and theories. Moreover, research in the Southwest has long been a key site of collaboration between archaeologists, ethnographers, historians, linguists, biological anthropologists, and indigenous intellectuals. This volume marks the most ambitious effort to take stock of the empirical evidence, theoretical orientations, and historical reconstructions of the American Southwest. Over seventy top scholars have joined forces to produce an unparalleled survey of state of archaeological knowledge in the region. Themed chapters on particular methods and theories are accompanied by comprehensive overviews of the culture histories of particular archaeological sequences, from the initial Paleoindian occupation, to the rise of a major ritual center in Chaco Canyon, to the onset of the Spanish and American imperial projects. The result is an essential volume for any researcher working in the region as well as any archaeologist looking to take the pulse of contemporary trends in this key research tradition.

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.