Thursday September 16, 2021, 7 to 8:30 p.m. ARIZONA/Mountain Standard Time (same as Pacific Daylight Time), free online via Zoom: it's Old Pueblo Archaeology Center’s “Third Thursday Food for Thought” dinnertime program featuring “The People behind the Petroglyphs: The Cultural Landscape of the Lower Gila River” by anthropologist Dr. Aaron M. Wright.

Aaron Wright at a petroglyphs site in the
lower Gila River valley, photo by Paul Vanderveen

The lower Gila River in southwestern Arizona is renowned for the sheer abundance and uniqueness of the petroglyphs adorning the cliffs and buttes lining it. Places such as the Painted Rock Petroglyph Site and Sears Point, and a growing campaign to establish a national monument or conservation area attest to the richness, value, and significance of this cultural landscape. Lesser known, though, are the Indigenous communities responsible for populating the landscape with such a stunning array of images. Hohokam and Patayan cultural traditions are often mentioned, but the relationship between them and each’s role in constructing the cultural landscape we see today has long puzzled researchers. Based on his four years of directing intensive archaeological survey, and analyzing over 30,000 petroglyphs in the lower Gila Valley, Aaron Wright will highlight some of what this work has revealed. He will pay particular attention to relating the region’s petroglyphs to their nearby archaeological habitation sites in an effort to better understand the people behind it all. Dr. Wright is a Preservation Anthropologist with Archaeology Southwest, Tucson. To register go to https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_bJEZgWMbTlydBwV_lCeXqQ. For more information contact Old Pueblo at [email protected] or 520-798-1201.

The following month, on October 18, 2021, 7-8:30 p.m. ARIZONA/Mountain Standard Time: there is another free online presentation of “Eastern Pueblo Immigrants on the Middle Gila River” by archaeologist Chris Loendorf sponsored by Arizona Archaeological and Historical Society (AAHS), Tucson. Description coming, but for details as they develop visit www.az-arch-and-hist.org.

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