The Paisley work has opened a methodological window that is potentially applicable to a wide range of arid cave and rock shelter sites across the western United States.

Dennis Jenkins and the Research Program

The Paisley Caves research represents a sustained, multi-decade research program, not a single excavation season or a single paper.

Understanding the scope and continuity of the research program helps explain why the evidentiary case for the site is as robust as it is.

Dennis Jenkins of the University of Oregon Museum of Natural and Cultural History has been the lead archaeologist at the site across the period of the research that produced the coprolite evidence.

Jenkins’s approach to the site has been characterized by systematic, careful excavation, detailed documentation, and a commitment to building a comprehensive understanding of the site’s history rather than simply extracting the most dramatic evidence.