Our Publications: The Bilby Center Occasional Papers in Environmental and Cultural Change

Northern Arizona University is uniquely positioned to contribute to a deep regional understanding of the environment and cultures of the Colorado Plateau and adjacent regions. Making connections between cultural issues—past and present—and environmental change and conservation is vital to successfully protecting and restoring our forests, woodlands, and deserts. This involves understanding humans as an integral part of the ecology of the region. Archaeology and anthropology provide important insights into indigenous adaptations to these unique environments; the natural sciences contribute detailed and sensitive indicators of the responses of our environment to influences such as climate change and land use. Our occasional papers series provides a unique venue for a convergence of these many sources of information.

Though we produce these volumes in-house, the series is distributed and marketed by the University of Arizona Press.

We are seeking new manuscripts, and will be happy to talk with you about your prospective submissions.

Contact:

Louella Holter
Associate Editor
(928) 523-6292
Louella.Holter@nau.edu 

 

The Archaeology of Perry Mesa
and its World

by David R. Wilcox and Jim Holmlund

The archaeological sites of Pueblo La Plata and Fort Silver lie in west-central Arizona at the north end of the fourteenth- century Perry Mesa Settlement System. The Agua Fria National Monument initiated a study, conducted by the Western Mapping Company and the Museum of Northern Arizona, to map the sites and collect a representative sample of artifacts for permanent curation. This study includes a history of the research on Perry Mesa and a review of the recent competing theories about how it was organized for war or was ecologically degrading its landscape. The study also provides an analysis of the relevance of these data to understanding the larger interaction spheres of the Central Arizona Tradition, the Verde Confederacy, and the Hopi macroeconomy. Findings from recent surveys in the Camp Verde–Fossil Creek– Payson area are summarized to show how they shed new light on the historical processes that structured the macroregional interactions from Hopi to Perry Mesa. Fieldwork methodologies and findings are provided in detail, and the results are interpreted to test several competing hypotheses. Extensive data tables on diagnostic ceramic and obsidian artifacts from the Perry Mesa–Verde Confederacy sites, and other selected sites, are provided in appendices.

For more information: visit the U of A Press website

 

Woodlands in Crisis: A Legacy of Lost Biodiversity
on the Colorado Plateau

Gary Paul Nabhan, Marcelle Coder, and Susan J. Smith

This book offers a primer for understanding how diverse land-use histories have impacted the health of pine-dominated ecosystems in the West and points to measures for better managing them in the future. It draws on a systematic review of the historic effects of land use and climate on ecosystem health, biodiversity, and non-timber forest products in four specific landscapes on the Colorado Plateau—the Jemez Mountains in New Mexico, the Chuska Mountains in Arizona, Mesa Verde in Colorado, and the San Francisco Volcanic Shield in Arizona—all of which have long histories of human occupation and use of forest products.

For more information: visit the U of A Press website

 

Bighorn Cave: Test Excavations of a Stratified Dry Shelter,
Bighorn Cave, Arizona

Phil R. Geib and Donald R. Keller

Bighorn Cave, located in the Black Mountains of west-central Arizona, is a large shelter with dry stratified deposits. In 1986, test excavations were undertaken to determine the archaeological significance of the site, the extent and nature of the cultural deposits, and their ages. The cave has evidence of roughly 3000 years of site occupancy, with many perishable artifacts such as sandals and split-twig figurines preserved because of the dry conditions. Looters had disturbed substantial portions of the cave and were threatening to destroy the site before the professional community knew of its existence. Since this testing, and directly as a result of its findings, the cave was successfully nominated to the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.

For More Information: visit the U of A Press website