About Us

Caitlin S. Ainsworth, Osteologist

Caitlin S. Ainsworth
Caitlin.Ainsworth@dca.nm.gov

University profile: http://anthropology.unm.edu/people/grad-students/profile/caitlin-s-ainsworth.html

M.A., Public Archaeology, University of New Mexico, 2017

As a resident of New Mexico, the depth and breadth of archaeology that can be found here is something that never ceases to amaze me. From the Paleoindian period through the Historic era, we really do have it all. Working as a zooarchaeologist allows me to explore this incredibly diverse record and understand the ways in which people interacted with animals and their environment at particular times and places in the past.Caitlin S. Ainsworth

I received some of my earliest archaeological training at Black Water Draw—an important Paleoindian type site and Late Pleistocene bone bed in eastern New Mexico. Since then, I have conducted zooarchaeological research on a variety of topics including ritual use of fauna at Pueblo Bonito, Chaco Canyon. Currently, I am involved in a large scale project examining changes in human-environmental interactions in the Middle Rio Grande Valley following the Columbian Exchange. I am also a PhD student at the University of New Mexico, and my dissertation focuses on pre-Hispanic use and management of local and exotic birds in the US Southwest and Northern Mexico.

I am thrilled to now be part of the staff at OAS. Every assemblage has something to teach us and I can’t wait to see what we will find out next.