FREE Public Lecture

The Pueblo Archaeological and Historical Society will host a FREE public lecture featuring Dr. Kimberly Munro speaking on Archaeology Along the Chaucaco Creek: Revisiting the Medina Rock Shelter, Southeast Colorado.
Situated in Las Animas County along the Chaucaco Creek, the Medina Rockshelter was occupied by Native American groups by at least 7000 BCE.
Dr. Robert Campbell conducted the first scientific archeological investigations at Medina in the 1960s. Campbell’s excavations indicated the earliest evidence of human occupation began in the Archaic period (approximately 7000 years ago). In 2019 a team of researchers from Otero College returned to Chaucaco Creek for three weeks to expand on Campbell’s work.
Materials from both the original and most recent field work resulted in a number of lithic, faunal, and wooden artifacts, and numerous ecofacts – such as maize, squash, and wild plum seeds. This presentation discusses the results of the 2019 field season and the logistics of navigating further research within the area during and "following" the pandemic shut-down, and change in ranch ownership.
Dr. Kimberly Munro is an Andean archaeologist with over a decade of experience working in Peru. She is the director of the Cosma Archaeological Project, a long-term research project involving excavation and survey in the Andean central highlands, specifically in the Caceres District of Ancash, Peru. She earned a dual B.A. degree in Anthropology and Religious Studies in 2007 from Florida State University and also holds a M.S. in Geography (Geographic Information Sciences) from FSU.
Dr. Munro received her PhD in Anthropology from Louisiana State University in 2018, where her research focused on early religious developments in the central Andes. Kimberly currently lives in Southeast Colorado, where she teaches Anthropology and Archaeology classes, and co-directs field research projects in the canyonlands of Southeast, Colorado through Otero College.