"The continuing work of the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center has focused on community life in the central Mesa Verde region during the Great Pueblo period (A.D. 1150-1300). Researchers document the dramatic change in settlement that occurred during the last Puebloan occupation of the area, from communities of small, scattered farmsteads to large, aggregated villages. They also show that the largest villages and the majority of the population lived on the Great Sage Plain, rather than at nearby Mesa Verde. Their work examines the reasons for population aggregation, and why centuries of occupation ultimately ended with a migration south of the San Juan River, leaving the region depopulated by A.D. 1290.". "Seeking the Center Place is the most detailed view we have ever had of the last Pueblo communities in the Mesa Verde region. It provides a deep appreciation for life in those ancient communities and a better understanding of the factors that precipitated the migration of thousands of people."--BOOK JACKET.