About the Southwest Archaeology Notebook

The Southwest Archaeology Notebook is an independent guide, written in English for readers in the United States, devoted to one subject: the archaeology of the American Southwest and everything a careful visitor needs around it. The notebook explains the Pecos Classification and the peoples it orders; the landmark ruins from Chaco Canyon to the Gila; the reading of rock art and pottery; and the laws and manners that decide whether the sites outlast us.

How we work

Every page keeps to claims a reader can check: real sites and real type names, dates given as ranges, debates reported as debates, and nothing presented as field experience that did not happen. We write about descendant communities, Hopi, Zuni, Acoma, the Rio Grande pueblos, the Navajo Nation and the other Native nations of the region, as the living authorities and heirs of this record, not as scenery. When interpretation belongs to them, the notebook says so plainly. The rules behind that practice are stated in full on the editorial policy page.

What we are and are not

We are not an operator, an outfitter or a research institution, we sell no tours, and no page on this site is a substitute for the rules of the land manager or tribe you are visiting. We accept clearly labeled sponsored placements only under the terms on the sponsored content page, never inside a guide's advice. Corrections, field reports and partnership requests all reach the same desk through the contact page, and the privacy and terms pages state the small print.