Re-Post: Marilyn Markel Earns Crabtree Award

NEXT MEETING: Wednesday, May 21, 2025, CANCELLED NOTE THE 5:00 PM START TIME at the WNMU Museum: This special monthly GCAS meeting is the GCAS's annual fundraiser for the WNMU Museum, with which we are so closely allied. Dr. Patricia (Pat) Gilman will be our honored presenter explaining, What Are Tropical Macaws Doing in Mimbres Sites? Watch this space for the date and topic of our next meeting.

NEXT FIELD TRIP: Sunday, June 1, 2025. The GCAS’s next field trip – WEATHER PERMITTING - will visit the Twin Pines site in the upper Mimbres Valley where we will have the opportunity to see directing archaeologist Fumi Arakawa and his crew’s work. This is Gila National Forest land with Mimbres habitations built on top of pithouses and a great kiva. Some petroglyphs are nearby. Access is slow going along rocky roads but high-clearance or 4WD vehicles are not required. However, the trip to Twin Pines takes about 2.5-3 hours from Silver City driving up the Mimbres Valley and into the west side of the Black Range; or about 2.5 hours driving from Truth or Consequences through the east side of the Black Range on an easier road. Overnight camping (boondocking, no amenities) may be available near the Beaverhead Work Center. GCAS members will meet at the Beaverhead Work Center on NM Hwy 59 at 11:00 AM on June 1. To protect this sensitive site, interested GCAS members should contact Marianne at [email protected] for more specific directions.

Welcome Today's Guest Blogger, Kyle Meredith!

Papas Nativas: Native Potatoes

Re-Post: Marilyn Markel Earns Crabtree Award

05/14/2020

The GCAS is very proud to announce to all of cyberspace that the Society for American Archaeology has awarded our very own Marilyn Markel their 2020 Crabtree Award for outstanding Avocational Archaeologist. The SAA will present the award to Marilyn at their annual meeting, to be held this year in Austin, Texas, from April 22 through April 26.

To be nominated for this honor, a person

"...should have made significant contributions to advance understandings of local, regional, or national archaeology through excavation, research, publication, site or collections preservation, collaboration with the professional community, and/or public outreach."

Marilyn Markel personifies all of the above, as the awards committee acknowledged:

"Marilyn Markel has a deep passion for archaeology and has spearheaded efforts in the Mimbres Valley, New Mexico, to preserve archaeological sites and educate young people of all ages on the value of the archaeological past. She has made significant contributions to our understanding and preservation of Mimbres sites in New Mexico, through over 20 years of volunteer work on university field school excavations, promotion of site protection through stewardship, transforming the local artifact-collecting community into an avocational/professional archaeological society, and educating schoolchildren about the value of archaeological heritage. Ms. Markel has assisted archaeological field schools, preserved sites, published children’s books on archaeology, and created a center devoted to the preservation and interpretation of Mimbres archaeology through educational outreach. Marilyn Markel is highly deserving of the Crabtree Award for her exemplary service to enhancing the preservation and public appreciation of New Mexico’s archaeological past."

For the past 20 years Marilyn has devoted untold hours to develop regular open-air museum workshops for our area's grade-school and high-school students; trained and supervised youth and adults to become volunteer stewards of archaeological sites; and engaged in numerous archaeological excavations and scientific research. Marilyn acts as liaison between the GCAS, the Mimbres Culture Heritage Site, and the archaeologists and educators working in our region. She routinely offers tours to schools and the general public at the Mimbres Culture Heritage Site, as well as leading field trips to other archaeological sites throughout our area. An accomplished writer and public speaker, she has promoted the message of archaeological preservation to the general public at local events and as a monthly contributing author for the Mimbres Messenger area newsletter.

Congratulations, Marilyn - the sound you will hear in Austin in April is all of us standing up and cheering for you.

/s/ webmaster

Posted at 06:00 AM in Archaeology, Current Affairs, Education, Get Involved, Volunteering | Permalink | Comments (0)

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