Erika Blecha
Project Archaeologist
Center for Big Bend Studies
Sul Ross State University
Ferguson Hall, Suite 114, Box C-71
Alpine, TX 79832
Fax: (432) 837-8381
Email: erika.blecha@sulross.edu
Erika Blecha, M.A.
Erika has been an archaeologist at the Center since 2017. She is currently a PhD student of Anthropology at the University of Kansas, where she is studying Paleoindigenous subsistence and environment relationships under Dr. Rolfe Mandel. Erika also holds an M.A. in Archaeology from the University of Montana and a B.A. in Anthropology from the University of California at Berkeley. While in school, her research interests extended from Mesoamerica to reservation-era archaeology, federal management of archaeological sites in wilderness areas, and Paleoindigenous archaeology. She has been a professional archaeologist since 2009, working as an archaeological field technician, crew chief, GIS specialist, and project archeologist. She loves to travel and has conducted archeological work throughout the central coast of California, Nevada, Montana, and Wyoming, as well as Belize, Honduras, and along the coast of Peru. In the Big Bend of Texas, her research interests have included Biographic rock art, violence, mortuary practices, environmental and landscape archaeology, GIS, and past human subsistence.
Selected Publications
Blecha, Erika S.
2024 The Marks They Left: Indigenous Biographic Rock Art and Early Ranching Boulder Glyphs Along the Rio Grande of Southwest Texas. Occasional Papers No. 14. Center for Big Bend Studies at Sul Ross State University, Alpine, Texas.
Blecha, Erika S.
2021 Transitional Paleo-Archaic Earth Oven Facility at the Genevieve Lykes Duncan Site (41BS2615), Brewster County, Texas. Journal of Big Bend Studies 33:67-101.
Blecha, Erika S. and Robert J. Mallouf
2020 Prehistory in the Calamity Creek Valley, Brewster County, Texas. Papers of the Trans-Pecos Archaeological Program No. 7. Sul Ross State University. Alpine, Texas.
Schroeder, Bryon A., David Keller, and Erika S. Blecha
2019 An Introductory Field Guide to the Archaeology of Pinto Canyon Ranch in the Big Bend of Texas. Sul Ross State University. Alpine, Texas.
Cloud, William A., Erika S. Blecha, and Robert J. Mallouf
2019 Archaeological and Historical Research on the 02 Ranch, Brewster and Presidio Counties, Texas. Submitted to Lykes Brothers Inc. Tampa, Florida.
Blecha, Erika S.
2019 Boulder Glyphs: Evolving Hypotheses About Boulder Glyphs of the Sierra Viejas. La Vista de la Frontera, 29:1-2, 14
Blecha, Erika S. and Kelly J. Dixon
2015 Early Reservation Era Survey Results for 24RB0164: Birney Day School Village. Submitted to Chief Dull Knife College and the Northern Cheyenne Tribal Historic Preservation Office, Lame Deer, MT.