Dr. Richard Jones, left, and Dr. Murl Dirksen excavate at an Apishapa Native American site near the Purgatoire River in eastern Colorado. The site dates to about 900 A.D.
Lee University professors Richard Jones and Murl Dirksen spent some time this summer excavating various prehistoric sites in southern Colorado under a Faculty Enrichment Grant through Lee's President’s Office.
Their excavation in the Gunnison Gorge rock art shelter near Delta, Co., uncovered spear points, cedar matting, charcoal, wooden tools, and corn kernels. Carbon 14 dating on charcoal fragments estimates that the site has been occupied since 7,000 B.P. (about 5,000 B.C.).
Excavation of the shelter is a long term project directed by Dr.
Dudley Gardner from Western Wyoming College. Dr. Gardner is a Lee alumnus and was named by USA Today as one of five top Western historical archaeologists several years ago. The excavation team included Dr. Neville Ritchie, an archaeologist from New Zealand who is also excavating a trading post in Antarctica, and Glade Hadden from the Bureau of Land Management in Colorado.
In addition to working on the rock shelter site, Dr. Jones and Dr. Dirksen spent several days excavating two Apishipha sites 50 miles south of La Junta, Co., on the Wooten Ranch.
The ranchers in this area are in court attempting to keep the U.S. government from taking their land. These large tracks of ranch homesteads have been worked by the same families for more than five generations, but now the Army wants to expand their training area and is seeking to acquire this land, which would deprive the ranchers of their livelihood.
These excavations are providing them with the evidence they need to show how rich this area is in prehistoric and historic material. Numerous house structures, some cemeteries and a few village complexes, are conspicuously evident on these ranches in Las Animas County along the Purgatoire River, but few have been excavated or recorded.
Along with excavating at the two sites, Dr. Jones and Dr. Dirksen spent time with Glade Hadden, the Bureau of Land Management archaeologist, surveying rock art sites in the Gateway area of southwestern Colorado. To date, a comprehensive survey of the prehistoric petroglyphs (symbols inscribed in rock) has not been made. The Lee professors hope to take a small group of students there next summer to help in the survey project.
The anthropology program at Lee University is expanding its involvement in archaeology and is providing students with increased opportunities for participation in significant archaeological research. Already students have the benefit of a recently established archaeology lab, and an archaeology field school is conducted each summer at ongoing excavations of Ft. Armistead, a Cherokee removal fort near Coker Creek, Tn.
For more information or to arrange a speaker for your group, contact Dr. Richard Jones at rjones@leeuniversity.edu or Dr. Murl Dirksen at mdirksen@leeuniversity.edu.