The next several weeks are chock-full of archaeologically flavored events and activities, and one of them offers an opportunity for you (yes, you!) to help introduce local schoolchildren to experience hands-on education in ancient pottery techniques:

Friday, September 27, 2024, 9:30AM to 12:00PM Noon at the WNMU Museum in Silver City: the San Lorenzo Elementary School's 4th and 5th grade classes, guided by the GCAS's own Marilyn Markel, visit the WNMU Museum for a morning or education and activities, immediately followed by a pizza lunch for the kids and all other participants in a nearby outdoor area. Marilyn Markel is seeking two volunteers to help at the Museum and to enjoy a slice of pizza afterwards. Please telephone Marilyn directly at 575-536-9337 to help out and for extra details.

The next several weeks are chock-full of archaeologically flavored events and activities on two different days offer an opportunity for you (yes, you!) to help introduce local schoolchildren to experience hands-on education in ancient pottery techniques:

Wednesday, September 25, 2024, 2 sessions at 12:15PM and again at 2:00PM, at San Lorenzo Elementary School in San Lorenzo: Marilyn Markel is seeking volunteers to help San Lo's 3d through 5th grade classes in a fun and educational pottery program. Please telephone Marilyn directly at 575-536-9337 with the time you can help the school and for program details.

Wednesday, September 18, 2024, 6:00PM: the GCAS in-person monthly meeting begins with the last potluck of the summer at the Roundup Lodge in San Lorenzo (Mimbres Valley). As usual bring your own plates & utensils, and a dish for yourself or to share. A brief business meeting follows at about 6:45PM, after which we will welcome our Featured Speaker, Allen Denoyer, preservation archaeologist at Archaeology Southwest in Tucson, Arizona. Allen will use examples from his years of experimental archaeology projects to introduce us to the wonderful world of MUD, ranging from how mud is utilized in pithouse construction, to excavations of mud-built agricultural fields, to the amazing impressions that archaeologists can find in prehistoric mud. Join us!

Thursday, October 3 through Saturday, October 5, 2024, Silver City NM: It's the 22d annual Mogollon Conference, hosted by WNMU and the Museum at Fleming Hall.

The Museum will host a complimentary reception for attendees on the evening of October 3 before the two-day conference gets underway on Friday and Saturday at the Bessie Forward GRC on the WNMU Campus. Registration for the conference sessions is $45/person until September 19; thereafter $55/person. BUT: special offer to GCAS members! The Museum needs 3-4 volunteers to help with registration at the conference and would waive the registration fee for those folks! Contact Museum Director Danni Romero to volunteer; check the Mogollon Conference website for all other developing info including fees for the October 4 banquet and the Sunday, October 6 Mimbres Foundation reunion:

Thursday, August 29, 2024, at 5:00 pm MDT (current New Mexico Time) - FREE online lecture hosted by the Archaeological Conservancy: Alan Garfinkel presents Archaic Forager Religious Theology: Coso Region Rock Art of Eastern California.

ABOUT THE LECTURE:

The Coso Range of eastern California, along the western edge of the Great Basin, is the location of a tremendous collection of Coso rock art. With a conservative estimate of more than 100,000 images this collection is attributed to the Coso people and has been dated as far back as the Little Lake Period (6000 to 2000 BC). The rock art here is unique in its detail and depictions of readily identified creatures and anthropomorphic figures. Dr. Alan Garfinkel, considered a well-regarded authority on the Coso Range Rock Art traditions and Coso Region prehistory in general, discusses this rock art, including a very unique panel found at The Archaeological Conservancy’s Portuguese Bench preserve. You will learn about symbolic parallels between the Coso Range prehistoric rock art and Uto-Aztecan religious traditions found farther south and hear about studies that illuminate the significance of female figures in Coso rock art that were previously considered to be dominated by male representations. Dr. Garfinkel will share what he’s learned about attributes of individual images and the significance of some of the motifs, such as the inclusion of avian attributes (legs, feet, and feather adornments) and the presence of serpent-themed designs and images.

The Jornada Research Institute is offering its final archaeologically-flavored international tour of 2024: enjoy an 11-day tour of Greece and Ephesus, Turkey this coming October. Sign up now while space is still available.

OF SPECIAL INTEREST TO GCAS MEMBERS, JRI can donate to other nonprofit organizations whose member participates in one or more of their Overseas Journeys Programs. So, for example, JRI will donate $125.00 to the Grant County Archaeological Society for each tour participant who specifies that the GCAS should receive JRI's donation. Join a JRI tour, and support two nonprofits at once!

The JRI's President, Dave Greenwald, further describes this tour:

On a very warm and sunny Sunday, August 4, 2024, twenty one members of the Grant County Archaeological Society (GCAS), coming from as far away as El Paso, Texas, gathered together to explore the Archaeological Conservancy’s Treasure Hill site located in our very own Arenas Valley. Archaeologists consider this Late Pithouse-to-Mimbres Classic site (roughly 550 CE – 1130 CE), comprising a total of 100 rooms in 6 room blocks plus an additional 24 outlying sites, to have been the largest Mimbres community in the middle Rio de Arenas/Whiskey Creek watershed. Unfortunately Treasure Hill, like so many other Mimbres sites, has suffered heavy looting from the late 19^th Century to the present. A major road and residential development surround it and it has accumulated windblown trash as well as garbage carried in by unauthorized visitors.Consequently...

Sunday, August 4, 2024, 10:00 AM: This month's field trip takes the GCAS to Treasure Hill, located 4 miles east of Silver City in the Arenas Valley and about 1 mile south of Highway 180. Treasure Hill is a heavily looted 15-acre site with a total of about 100 pueblo rooms, ranging from the Late Pithouse to the Classic Mimbres era (about 550 CE - 1130 CE). We will meet at the gate to the site at 10:00 AM sharp but this site is in a sensitive location so please contact trip leader Marianne Smith ([email protected] or phone/text 772-529-2627) for specific directions.

Thursday, October 3 through Saturday, October 5, 2024, Silver City NM: It's the 22d annual Mogollon Conference, hosted by WNMU and the Museum at Fleming Hall.

The Museum will host a complimentary reception for attendees on the evening of October 3 before the two-day conference gets underway on Friday and Saturday at the Bessie Forward GRC on the WNMU Campus. Registration for the conference sessions is $45/person until September 19; thereafter $55/person. BUT: special offer to GCAS members! The Museum needs 3-4 volunteers to help with registration at the conference and would waive the registration fee for those folks! Contact Museum Director Danni Romero to volunteer; check the Mogollon Conference website for all other developing info including fees for the October 4 banquet and the Sunday, October 6 Mimbres Foundation reunion:

Saturday, July 27, and Sunday, July 28, 2024, from 8:00AM - 3:00PM both days: The Imogen F. Wilson Education Foundation hosts the annual Hummingbird Festival at the Mimbres Culture Heritage Site in the Mimbres Valley with hummingbird-banding, music, and other events for all.

The GCAS plans to be there with our traditional outdoor educational booth and used book sale. Come see our displays of artifacts, try your luck at identifying prehistoric ceramic potsherds, and browse our selection of gently-used, affordably-priced, archaeology-oriented books to suit every taste and budget! All book sales proceeds and donations support our GCAS research library and archives. We'll see you at HummerFest 2024!

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