Paul F. Reed

Reed has been with Archaeology Southwest since 2001. He is based in Taos, New Mexico. Paul recently completed work as editor (and author of several chapters) on Chaco’s Northern Prodigies: Salmon, Aztec, and the Ascendancy of the Middle San Juan Region After AD 1100, published by the University of Utah Press in August 2008.  Reed was also editor (and author of several chapters) of the three-volume, comprehensive report entitled Thirty-Five Years of Archaeological Research at Salmon Ruins, New Mexico, published in 2006 by Archaeology Southwest and the Salmon Ruins Museum.

Together with a group of research partners, Reed recently finished a National Science Foundation-sponsored research project investigating the late eleventh-century Chacoan presence in the Middle San Juan region. The basic question to be addressed: did Chaco Canyon residents migrate to the Middle San Juan region to construct and reside at the great house sites of Salmon and Aztec, or are the Chacoan traits (architecture, ceramics, stone tools, perishable items) from these sites the result of emulation of Chacoan culture by local residents? Is there evidence for both processes? Results indicate that both processes were operating. This research was published in the journal Kiva, volume 77, Winter 2011.

Reed has written and edited several publications during the last 15 years. He authored The Puebloan Society of Chaco Canyon, published by Greenwood Press in 2004. He wrote several chapters for and edited Foundations of Anasazi Culture: The Basketmaker-Pueblo Transition, published by the University of Utah Press in 2000. He has also published articles in journals and books. Reed’s research interests include ancient Puebloan community and social development, Chacoan outlier studies, and the social and economic organization of early Navajo groups in the Dinétah, New Mexico.

Among his other interests, Reed leads tours to Salmon and Aztec Ruins, Chaco Canyon, the Chuska Valley, and the Navajo Country, and gives public presentations on different topics in Southwestern archaeology and history.  Reed has conducted fieldwork and research in the Southwest for more than 20 years. From 1993 to 2001, Reed directed a roads archaeology research program for the Navajo Nation Archaeology Department, Farmington, New Mexico. Reed completed his Master of Arts in anthropology and archaeology at New Mexico State University in 1989.

Paul’s Curriculum Vitae.

Contact Paul by email or by telephone at (505) 486-4107.