The Office of Archaeological Studies (OAS), a Division of the State of New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA), provides a full suite of archaeological and heritage preservation sciences services. Our team of professional, full-time staff are qualified to provide a range of field and laboratory studies for historic preservation compliance, consultation, and research purposes.
The Office of Archaeological Studies (OAS), a Division of the State of New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA), conducts cultural resource inventories and archaeological research projects throughout New Mexico. Organized in 1990 out of the Research Section of the Laboratory of Anthropology, the program had already gained a decades long record of advancing the field of Cultural Resource Management. That tradition of innovation and providing clients with the highest quality services continues today. OAS specializes in a suite of historic preservation and scientific disciplines including prehistoric and historic archaeology, historical services, Native American consultation, applied geographic information system (GIS), and applied osteological analysis and exhumation. Our clients include federal agencies, state and municipal agencies, and private companies. We hold active contracts or master service agreements with multiple agencies for which we have supplied cultural resource compliance support in facility planning and construction.
Archaeological Survey and Cultural Resource Inventory
Specialized Analysis
OAS staff are trained in multiple technical specialties and offer expertise and experience in the analysis of artifacts and archaeological sites. We can offer analytical capacity to clients and colleagues in GIS and spatial analysis, comprehensive lithic analysis, zooarchaeological studies, and human osteology.
Research Collections
OAS houses and maintains multiple comparative and research collections at the Center for New Mexico Archaeology including comprehensive collections of fauna, stone tool source material, and botanical samples. If you are interested in using these collections for research, please contact the Executive Director, John Taylor-Montoya.
Ethnobotany Laboratory
Low Energy Plasma Radiocarbon Sampling (LEPRS) Laboratory
The Low Energy Plasma Radiocarbon Sampling (LEPRS) Laboratory is on the cutting edge of radiocarbon sampling. The ability to date extremely small amounts of organic materials through “gentle” surface oxidation has opened up a variety of dating applications difficult to address with conventional radiocarbon methods. These include the collection of stratigraphically-sequential samples from sooted rockshelter ceilings, the dating of oxalate layers both underlying and overlying rock art images, and the dating of residues from sherds.
Osteology Laboratory
Animal bones can provide a wealth of information on how past populations lived and adapted to local and regional resources and conditions. While it is important to know which animals were utilized, much more can be learned from the more detailed information routinely recorded by the OAS analyses.