NEXT MEETING: Wednesday, April 19, 2023: the GCAS meets at 2045 Memory Lane in Silver City, New Mexico. Light refreshments provided; OK to bring your own light snacks or handy meal (burrito, etc.) & beverage if desired. Doors open at 5 PM for socializing. Meeting starts at 5:30 PM sharp with a short business meeting followed at 5:45 PM by featured speaker and GCAS member Carolyn O’Bagy Davis, who will discuss Bert and Hattie Cosgrove, avocational archaeologists who were instrumental in documenting and preserving a number of local sites including Arenas Valley's Treasure Hill. Meeting to adjourn about 7:00 PM. 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, April 2, 2023, beginning 9:00 AM: Regular GCAS field trip to City of Rocks State Park - view remnants of Apache shelters along the Cienega Trail, plus features in other easy-access locations like a rock shelter, Apache petroglyph, kiva, and multiple mortar holes. City of Rocks is about a 1-hour drive one-way from Silver City. At 9:00 AM meet at the Cienega Trail trailhead parking (a few hundred yards from the Highway 61 turnoff to the City of Rocks - look on the left side of the road for a parking area with a Port-o-Let). Walk the 1-mile easy Cienega Trail loop to inspect some off-trail features. About 11:00 AM, non-hikers can join the rest of the group to learn about the kiva site a few yards from the Visitor Center. About 11:15 AM, drive round the park’s perimeter road to the north side to view the rock shelter, Apache petroglyph, and mortar holes (short but moderately steep walk uphill from area near campsite #35). Picnic lunch follows at any convenient unoccupied campsite.

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December 2022

A Special Gift to the GCAS

Clovis Tool Kit replicas - LeBlanc donation to GCASThe GCAS is thrilled to have received a donation from archaeologist, Harvard professor, and founder of the Mimbres Foundation, Steven LeBlanc PhD. Dr. LeBlanc wanted the GCAS's educational experiential workshops - coordinated by Marilyn Markel - to offer local students the opportunity to handle tools like spear points and scrapers without any risk to the ancient artifacts themselves. Thus Dr. LeBlanc donated to the GCAS a seven-piece replica Clovis Tool Kit, flintknapped by archaeologist Bruce Bradley PhD*. To help students better examine Dr. Bradley's first-rate flintknapping, Dr.LeBlanc added a cherry on top: he included two multi-lens loupes with his donation. Thank you for your generous gift to the GCAS, Dr. LeBlanc. Our local schools will certainly benefit from your generosity. Please visit us soon!

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Congratulations to Coinman Recipient Jonah Jankovik!

Screenshot 2022-12-17 at 16-20-33 ENMU Anthropology Newsletter Spring 2022.pdfJonah Jankovik, a graduate student in Anthropology at Eastern New Mexico University, was one of two recipients of the GCAS's Nancy Coinman Grant Awards in 2021. We awarded Jonah $1000 to offset her transportation and lodging expenses while collecting sand samples throughout the Sapillo Valley drainage, in order to study the sources' relationships to ancient pottery production and pottery exchange among the Lake Roberts Vista and other Sapillo Valley sites. (To those of us who may have earned our university degrees some time during the past century? Please be advised: costs for transport, lodging, food, and tuition have all increased dramatically for kids these days. The GCAS can and should support their research. Contact your faithful webmaster to ask how you can help make it happen for students like Jonah!)

The Covid pandemic caused significant problems to ongoing archaeological research throughout our region, but Jonah overcame those delays to complete her research and successfully defend her master's thesis this past summer. Congratulations, Jonah!

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Reposting: A Holiday Occurrence

Stone_Calendar-RBMark your calendars now for Wednesday December 21, 2022, at 5:00 PM, because it's the GCAS's annual holiday gathering - this year falling upon the date of the winter solstice itself! This special GCAS monthly in-person general meeting returns to 2045 Memory Lane in Silver City, New Mexico. about a block or two south of the intersection of Memory Lane and Hwy 180. Our get-together starts a bit earlier this month at 5PM with a holiday potluck - so bring your most festive dish for yourself or to share, along with your own plates/utensils/beverage. A short business meeting will begin at 6:00PM followed by a program of videos and photo albums of past GCAS field trips, and a small display of samples from recently donated artifacts. If you recognize a person or a place in a video or photo, please sing out! This is the time to tell us a story about what you've seen and who you know.

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San Lorenzo Elementary School's Visit to the WNMU Museum

San Lo students looking at Museum display caseThursday, September 29, 2022, was an auspicious day for San Lorenzo Elementary School's 4th and 5th grade classes. The school arranged with Danni Romero, director of Western New Mexico University's museum, for the students to take a field trip from the school in the Mimbres Valley to the museum in Silver City, with the Grant County Archaeological Society covering the expenses for bus transport. This was a very special occasion, as under Romero's new directorship this field trip marked the first time in 30 years that a school group was invited into the museum. The GCAS was happy to support such a school trip and we look forward to supporting many more of them.

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