The NAN Ranch Project is a long-term archaeological research program directed by Dr. Harry J. Shafer of the Department of Anthropology at Texas A&M University.

The NAN Ranch Ruin, located in the heartland of the Mimbres Mogollon culture region in southwestern New Mexico was excavated extensively from 1978 to 1989.

The NAN Ranch Ruin is a large Mimbres pithouse-pueblo town consisting of over 50 pithouses and at least four pueblo room blocks.Communal rooms, storage rooms, architectural features such as hearths and postholes, and a wide variety of artifacts including ceramics, lithics, and textiles were excavated during this 11-year period.

The absolute dating technique of dendrochronology, or tree-ring dating, determined that the NAN Ranch Ruin was occupied from ca. AD 600 (the Georgetown Phase of the Late Pithouse period) until ca. AD 1140 (Classic Mimbres Period).