Research Capabilities

OCA houses and staffs its own research library, which contains an extensive collection of published, unpublished, and limited-distribution cultural resource management-generated data for the entire state of New Mexico, the Four Corners region, and west Texas. Online searches of the New Mexico Historic Preservation Division NMCRIS statewide archeological records are made via computer and if necessary by visiting the NMCRIS paper archives. Other library and archival resources easily accessible on the UNM campus are the Clark Field Library, housed and staffed at the Department of Anthropology, and the main UNM libraries, which include special collections and map archives. OCA also has immediate access to the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology and Museum of Southwestern Biology collections for comparative study, and maintains close ties with teaching and research faculty and staff in the UNM Biology and Earth and Planetary Sciences departments for consultation and project involvement. Over the past three decades, OCA has developed a collection of southwestern ceramics and lithic materials as well as faunal remains for supplemental comparative studies. These collections are also available as comparative material for students and scholars. To review the list of items in the collections, click on the tables below:


Ceramic School Ceramic Ware Ceramic Type Total Sherds No. of Rims

To schedule a time to review the collections, please contact Alex Kurota at akurota@unm.edu

OCA houses a large lithic material type collection. A complete listing will be available soon.

As a standard practice for conducting zooarchaeological research, OCA faunal analysts routinely access the osteological collections at the Museum of Southwestern Biology at the University of New Mexico. OCA also maintains a growing comparative collection of faunal remains from various native and non-native species. While some specimens are preserved only partially, others are represented by entire skeletons. These specimens are also available to other researchers as comparative material. Below is the list of faunal specimens housed at OCA:

Class Specimen

To access these materials, please contact Robin Cordero at rcordero@unm.edu or call 505-277-5853.