NEXT MEETING: Wednesday, December 20, 2023, at 6:00PM: it's the GCAS annual holiday get-together at 2045 Memory Lane in Silver City! Our holiday custom is to have a potluck with a virtually nonexistent business meeting and no official program, followed by a white-elephant gift exchange and general holiday good times. Dress festively and bring your best holiday dish to share! (In order to offer our members a safe and comfortable experience the GCAS follows CDC and New Mexico Department of Health guidelines for indoor gatherings including masking, distancing, and vaccinations. We recommend all attendees follow the same.

NEXT FIELD TRIP: Sunday, December 3, 2023: our next field trip - GCAS members only - investigates the C-Bar Ranch area off of Highway 90. Meet at the car park just off of Hwy 90 in Tyrone in front of the US Post Office BEFORE 10:00 AM (this jumping-off spot is about 15-20 minutes’ drive from downtown Silver City but be mindful of possible delays due to Hwy 90 construction in downtown Silver City). The group will LEAVE FROM the Tyrone parking area at 10:00 AM sharp. Destinations: a shelter cave and beyond to a pictograph location. Leader Kyle Meredith explains that: “most vehicles should be able to drive to the site, although C-Bar Road is rough in spots. We encourage carpooling from the parking area in Tyrone to the site! From where our group will park on C-Bar Road it is a short walk to the shelter cave where we will see bedrock mortars and smoky ceilings. The hike to the pictographs is about one mile over some rough terrain and some easy trails. To see the pictographs it is necessary to do a little scrambling over rocks and boulders. Perhaps it’s not the season for rattlesnakes, but be aware that I have seen one on two different occasions.”

GCAS Field Trip to Paquimé, Part I
GCAS Field Trip to Paquimé, Part III

GCAS Field Trip to Paquimé, Part II

IMG_423125 - Olla - photographing the cliff face May 2, 2018, the first day of our GCAS international field trip to archaeological and 33 - Yep  Golondrina historic sites in Chihuahua, Mexico, was windy and action-packed. We hiked for about 1/3 mile from La Cueva de la Olla crossing a shallow stream and the valley floor, up a short, steep path to the cave and cliff dwellings of La Cueva de la Golondrina ("Cave of the Swallow"). Occupation of this site has been dated to roughly 1000-1050 CE; somewhat more recent and for a shorter duration than La Cueva de la Olla. (h/t Marcia Corl for far left image.)

One of the structures in La Cueva de la Golondrina (see photo over here on the right) was built in a unique 27 - Golondrina circular cliff dwellingcylindrical shape, yet it and the other more conventional, rectangular-shaped adobe rooms at this site used the same defensive techniques of small ventilation windows and narrow, low, T-shaped doorways that seem typical of cliff dwellings of this era throughout northwest Mexico and southwest US.

31 - Golondrina far L wall's carved steps 32 - Golondrina far L wall porthole detail with lintelsFacing the cave, the cliff dwellings on the far left appeared more intact than those at La Cueva de la Olla; their walls extended all the way to the cave's roof. Slim rows of latillas in the upper parts of small ventilation windows remained in place despite graffiti etched into the surrounding adobe. Steps carved into the sloping rock were still usable to climb up to the cave floor (see photo on far left). The fine sand of the cave floor itself appeared uniformly flat and smooth, even into the cave's furthermost recesses.

Facing the cave along its upper right side, a long panel of white-painted pictographs came into view.

35 - Golondrina pictographs view 2 with LuisThere are as many interpretations of pictographs as there are people who view 36 - Golondrina pictographs view 3them. Opinions differ even among highly esteemed archaeologists. Some of the avocational archaeologists in our tour group that day saw shield designs where others saw clan symbols. We almost universally interpreted certain other pictographs as astronomical images. Still others, like the reversed-mirror image seen toward the far right of the panel, remain a mystery to us all.

...to be continued in Part III...

/s/ webmaster

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