In this presentation, Kari explores what pottery can tell us about social networks and learning at San Marcos Pueblo, NM. San Marcos is located just south of Santa Fe, NM on the outskirts of the Galisteo Basin and was occupied from the 1300s until the Pueblo Revolt against the Spanish in 1680. Using a range of analysis methods, Kari explores elements of stability and change in the community through pottery production and design. The results of this study suggest great resilience of indigenous potters in the face of colonization.
Kari Schleher (PhD University of New Mexico 2010) is the Curator of Archaeology at the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of New Mexico. She worked at Crow Canyon Archaeological Center in Cortez, CO from 2011 through 2020 as the Laboratory Manager. Kari’s major focus is on studies of material culture, especially pottery. She is especially interested in using scientific studies of materials and methods used to make pottery to better understand choices made by potters in the past. Over the past 25 years, she’s worked on archaeological projects, both in the field and in the lab, from across the southwest, but her primary areas of interest are in the north central Rio Grande region of New Mexico and the Mesa Verde region of southwest Colorado.