NEXT MEETING: Wednesday, March 19, 2025, 6:00 PM VIA ZOOM: the next GCAS general meeting features GCAS member (and past president!) Kyle Meredith, who will present an informal slideshow of his & Josh’s recent travels in Mexico titled, Prehispanic Mexico—Someplace Else. Kyle describes, "Did you want to see another presentation about the Maya or Aztecs? This isn't it. Are you interested in the Flower World of Mesoamerica and how it relates to the SW/NW? Sorry. This is an in-depth examination of the genetics of Paquime—not! What you are going to see is a tourist-eye view of a couple of sites and cultures you might not have heard of. If I were an academic with credentials, you could expect to learn something more than you already know, but that's not me. Lower your expectations and sit back and enjoy a slideshow of some pretty cool architecture and artifacts. You can even butt in with your two-cents worth from time to time as long as we don't belabor any points. Who am I? My name's Kyle. That's all you need to know." Watch this space, your email inbox, and your monthly newsletter for when the Zoom link becomes available.

NEXT FIELD TRIP: Sunday, March 2, 2025: The next GCAS field trip will visit the Woodrow Site, one of the largest and best-protected sites in the area, led by its site steward, the GCAS's own Greg Conlin. Meet at 10:00 AM sharp at the Chuck's Folly gas station on the west side of Hwy 180 in Cliff, about a 35-minute drive westbound on Hwy 180 from Silver City and a short distance before the junction of Hwy 180 and Hwy 211. Wear sturdy shoes and weed proof clothes, and pack sun protection, water, and a sack lunch if desired. Before you go, read this Archaeology Southwest article to learn more about the significance of this site. As always, to protect sensitive sites like this one we limit this field trip to GCAS members and those guests who can accompany the GCAS member in their vehicle. Let's go!

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March 2019

How Did Mimbreño Language Sound?

image from science.sciencemag.orgAnswer: We may never know. But there are some intriguing clues, thanks to archaeological linguists and forensic anthropologists. From an article dated March 15, 2019, in Archaeology Magazine:

"...the spread of agriculture and consumption of easier-to-chew foods may have led to changes in human jaws and their arrangement of teeth, which in turn allowed people to make new sounds and create new words....chewing tough, gritty food would have put force on hunter-gatherers’ lower jaws, making the bone grow larger so that the upper and lower teeth aligned in an “edge-to-edge” bite. Such a bite would have made it hard to push the upper jaw forward to make the sounds “f” and “v”...

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Still More DNA News

image from c8.alamy.comThe GCAS prefers to restrict our blog posts to the US Southwest/Northwestern Mexico region on this here website, but we always make an exception for advances in DNA technology. From a Washington Post article dated March 15, 2019:

"One day about 200 years ago, a woman enslaved on a tobacco plantation near Annapolis tossed aside the broken stem of the clay pipe she was smoking in the slave quarters where she lived....the stem bore marks where she had clenched it in her teeth as she worked. But the stem bore something else she could never have imagined: her DNA.

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Field Trip to Indian Wells - the Petroglyph Part

One of the fun aspects of studying petroglyphs is that regardless of how you interpret the images, nobody is wrong and everybody is right. Following, then, are pics of some of the petroglyphs our GCAS group saw on our March 3, 2019, field trip to Indian Wells.

Moon 1 per Patterson IMG_1005Author Alex Patterson identifies this circle-with-a-dot over there on the left as a symbol for the moon. Others describe it as a symbol for the sun. Either interpretation seems reasonable but it gets complicated when considering this next image here on the right. Two moons? Two suns? One of each, perhaps?

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Field Trip to Indian Wells - Part II

Indian Wells pit house vista 1The March 3, 2019, GCAS field trip to Indian Wells was enlightening on several levels. Chris Overlock's photos gave a good overview of the general terrain and vegetation, and showcased the classic GCAS looking-for-potsherds stoop that we all know and love. Here in Part II, is a second view of the overall terrain of Indian Wells, followed by a brief illustration of what a bulldozed archaeological site looks like for those who may not have ever seen one before.

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Field Trip to Indian Wells

IMG_5382Please welcome today's guest photographer, GCAS's own Chris Overlock. Thank you for sharing your photos, Chris!

Chris was one of 11 humans accompanied by 2 enthusiastic canines on our March 3, 2019, visit to three archaeological sites that comprise Indian Wells in southwestern New Mexico. Two of our group had come all the way from Las Cruces to join the fun. High-clearance vehicles carried us over increasingly rough roads to a point from which we could reach our intended sites on foot. The weather was breezy but otherwise just right for exploration.

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