OAS | January 2025

Dr. Snitker is the Director of Cultural Resource Sciences at the New Mexico Consortium and a Research Assistant Professor in the Anthropology Department at the University of New Mexico. Dr. Snitker received a PhD in Anthropology from Arizona State University in 2019 and has held post-doctoral appointments in archaeology and fire ecology at the University of Georgia and the USDA Forest Service’s Southern Research Station. He is an environmental archaeologist, specializing in charcoal analysis, computational and analytical proxy modeling, and quantitative methods to understand the dynamic relationship between fire, humans, and long-term environmental change. He also works to improve methods and tools in cultural resource management and fire archaeology, including LiDAR data collection and analysis. He works primarily in the Western and Southern United States and the Western Mediterranean.

Dr. Dave Rachal is a professional geomorphology/geoarchaeology consultant. He has over 13 years of professional experience consulting in southern New Mexico and west Texas. He has been involved in all phases of archaeological investigations including survey, testing and evaluation, and data recovery projects throughout the southwest. He holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in Soil Science and Physical Geography from New Mexico State University. His research interests include soil geomorphology, modern and paleo-eolian systems, geoarchaeology, Quaternary environments, and arid pedology. His most recent research has been geoarchaeological and archaeometric investigations at the White Sands Locality 2 footprint site and related areas of Pleistocene trackways in the Tularosa Basin.

If you would like a tour of the Office of Archaeological Studies, feel free to reach out to Dr. John Taylor-Montoya at john.taylor-montoya@dca.nm.gov.