Central Colorado Humanists Sunday Science Jan. 5
Central Colorado Humanists Sunday Science Press Release for Sunday, Jan. 5, 2025:
“Warfare on the Northern Plains: Quantifying the Construction of Community Fortifications at the Molander Site” will be the topic of the Central Colorado Humanists Sunday Science program for January 5, 2025. Dr. Mark D. Mitchell’s presentation will cover the largescale defensive systems built by indigenous farmers of what is now North Dakota, what they tell us about warfare of the period, and the implications for the communities that built them.
Large-scale warfare in North Dakota of the 1500’s necessitated the building of elaborate defensive systems by the indigenous farmers to protect their towns. The labor-intensive structures required planning and coordination to complete the many steps of developing deep ditches, log palisades, and guard towers. The mid-eighteenth-century Molander sites, a Hidatsa community, offers a unique opportunity to investigate fortification design and planning and to quantify the construction effort required.
Dr. Mark D. Mitchell is the Research Director for Paleocultural Research Group, a nonprofit that conducts citizen-science research, trains students, and educates the public on the archaeology and paleoecology of the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains. Mitchell holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Colorado at Boulder and has more than 35 years of experience in archaeological field and laboratory research. His prime research interests are the political and economic development of post-A.D. 1200 farming villages of the Missouri River valley and American Indian land use in the San Luis Valley and adjacent mountains. He is the author of books, journal articles, book chapters, and monographs on the archaeology of the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains.
Central Colorado Humanists sponsor Sunday Science on the first Sunday of each month. Each presentation is informative and features a science topic that is understandable by both scientists and non-scientists. The doors open at 9:30 a. m. and the talk begins promptly at 10 a. m. Admission is free, and the public is welcome. Please note the change of location to A Church, 419 D Street, Salida, CO, and join us.