Staff
Steven A. Lakatos, Project Director
Steven A. Lakatos
Project Director
505-982-1375
steven.lakatos@state.nm.us
B.A., Anthropology, Queens College, CUNY, 1988
M.A., Southwest Studies: Anthropology, New Mexico Highlands University, 2006 
Interested in archaeology at an early age, I decided excavate behind my great aunt's garage amongst the broken glass, dishes, and clinkers looking for whole bottles. My continued interest in archaeology led me to Queens College, CUNY. Following graduation, I worked for various archaeological contractors in New Mexico and Colorado participating in large survey, excavation, and seminar projects throughout the Greater Southwest. These experiences offered me the opportunity to interact with indigenous people and led me to Santa Fe and OAS in 1994. My interest in Rio Grande archaeology has grown since I started working here.
Having identified and excavated many Archaic, Developmental, Coalition, Classic, and Historic period sites in the Rio Grande, my research interests began to focus on the Developmental period, specifically vernacular architecture and its role in the social setting. My thesis explored cultural continuity in the Northern Rio Grande through diachronic and synchronic comparisons in architectural design with the San Juan Anasazi regions of northwestern New Mexico and southwestern Colorado. The results of this research indicate that during the Developmental period, cultural developments in the Northern Rio Grande differed from those in the San Juan Anasazi regions, challenging conventional interpretations presented in the literature.
Currently I am working on the Santa Fe to Pojoaque Corridor project, where we found structural elements associated with late Developmental, Coalition, and Classic period components. This research should bring the Northern Rio Grande Valley to the forefront of Southwestern archaeology.