A mere 2 days from now, on Tuesday August 31, 2021, at 7 PM Central Daylight Time, and free online via Zoom, Dr. Michael Ruggeri, Professor Emeritus from the City Colleges of Chicago, presents “Mesoamerica/Ancient Southwest Chocolate Trade,” sponsored by the Aztlan Listserv. He will explain that although trade between Mesoamerica and the ancient Southwest in macaws, parrot feathers, copper bells, turquoise, turkeys, and pottery has been well known to archaeologists, they have only recently become aware of the large chocolate trade that began in about the 9th century.

Until you can schedule a trip to the Santa Fe/Espanola area to see the Mesa Prieta petroglyphs for yourself, please enjoy a virtual tour courtesy of the Archaeological Conservancy's Virtual Tour Series. To date the Archaeological Conservancy has released four episodes showcasing some of the sites they have acquired for preservation and protection. They are all worth your time.

Scroll down at this link to check out Episodes 1 through 3, but Episode 4 is the one that is all about petroglyphs the like you have never seen before. It features their Wells Petroglyph Preserve narrated by their archaeologist, Chester Liwosz, and former owner/donor/founder of the Mesa Prieta Petroglyph Project, Katherine Wells. If time permits you can watch the full hour-long virtual tour here, or see the same episode in four shorter segments by clicking here.

Of course, the Archaeological Conservancy also has an ongoing Virtual Lecture Series to keep you apprised of the latest in research. Get busy!

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If you plan to travel to the Blanding, Utah area in late September, you may want to join a special one-day ceramics event on Thursday, September 23, 2021, to precede this year's Southwest Kiln Conference. It's a one-afternoon workshop in ancient ceramics painting techniques hosted by Cherylene Caver and Tori Hoopes, both accomplished ceramics replicators. Their announcement for "Painting Pottery the Ancient Way" describes,

Our monthly GCAS general meeting returns to Zoom format on Wednesday, August 18, 2021, at 7 PM. As is our Zoom custom, our brief-if-any business meeting will be immediately followed by our Featured Speaker, David Lee, founding member of Western Rock Art Research, who will present "Closer Than We Know: Comparing the Rock Art of Australia and Western North America."

David Lee is an independent rock art researcher, focusing on the function and context of Native American rock art of western North America and the rock art and associated traditional knowledge of northern Australia. He is a founding member of Western Rock Art Research, a non-profit organization located in Bishop, California and dedicated to the study and management of rock art and the cultures who produced it. He has documented rock art in California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Idaho, Oregon and Australia, and has written or co-authored many papers, reports and books on the Mojave Desert, eastern California, and Australia including "Rock Art East of the Range of Light" and "Learning to Listen: A Personal Journey to the Land of the Lightning People." In 2005 he and his wife Charlotte began a project to document the rock art and associated traditional stories of the Wardaman People in northern Australia, work that continues to shed light on how rock art fit into the lives of the peoples who made it.

David's presentation will describe how:

The ceiling lights and fans are up and running in both library and lab. Ceilings and walls have their final coats of paint and IFWEF’s contractor has installed laminate flooring throughout the two rooms except where work is pending on two exterior doors and their wood jambs and transom lights. Baseboards are cut to size, painted, and in place. The rooms’ four interior doors await only their final coats of paint.

We are thrilled to announce that the following friends have contributed a combined total of $8,022.12 in support of our MAREC rehabilitation project. Thanks to them the GCAS's two rooms in the historic Wood House have fresh coats of paint in cheerful colors, bright lights and ceiling fans, a utility sink/workbench assembly that can't be beat, and much more. Thank you, one and all, for making the MAREC dream come true: