The Hisatsinom Chapter of the Colorado Archaeological Society is pleased to present Cory Breternitz on Tuesday, February 6, 2024, at 7:00pm at the Methodist Church, 515 Park Streer, Cortez, Colorado, to discuss “Bis sa’ ani Pueblo: A Late Bonito Phase Community on Escavada Wash, Northwest New Mexico.”
Bis sa’ ani, a Chaco great house, and 20 associated community sites were excavated by the Navajo Nation Archaeology Division in the early 1980s under the direction of Cory Breternitz and represent the only Chacoan Community excavated in its entirety. The community was short-lived, dated to a fifty-year period between A.D. 1100- 1150.
Several unique architectural features are present at the great house including stairways and a 20-room coursed adobe pueblo associated with five oversized blocked-in kivas perched on top of a 20-meter-high clay ridge. The illustrated talk with discuss the attributes of the great house and the surrounding community sites, and their relationship to the Chaco Canyon core area and other outlier communities in the greater San Juan Basin.
Cory Breternitz has been employed as an archaeologist since 1970. During this 54-year period he has worked for universities, federal agencies, Navajo Nation, and private CRM firms throughout the Southwest, including at Mesa Verde, Chaco, and at the Dolores Archaeological Project. Between 1984 and 2009 he was President and owner of Soil Systems, Inc during which time he served as Principal Investigator for over 400 projects. In 2009 Soil Systems, Inc. merged with PaleoWest. In 2017 Cory joined Woods Canyon, directed excavations at the Seed Jar Site and has assisted on many projects in the Bears Ears National Monument in SE Utah and at Pueblo Bonito in Chaco Canyon.
Contact Dave Dove at davidmdove@msn.com with questions.