Aztec Ruins Lecture Series May 14, 2010

The depopulation of the Mesa Verde region and the formation of the Rio Grande pueblos represent two of the classic problems in North American archaeology, but despite a century of research there is still no consensus among researchers on how, or even whether, these two processes were related. In this talk, Dr. Scott Ortman presents a summary of his Ph.D. dissertation, which takes a fresh look at these problems by examining biological, linguistic, and cultural connections between the Mesa Verde region and the northern Rio Grande. Based on these studies, he has developed a new theory to explain the relationship between the Mesa Verde depopulation and the origins of the Rio Grande pueblos.