NEXT MEETING: Saturday, October 21, 2023, at 6:00PM: The GCAS’s general meeting IS RESCHEDULED from the usual third Wednesday of the month to the following Saturday, October 21, 2023, beginning at 6:00PM, for a special meeting and potluck dinner at 2045 Memory Lane in Silver City to welcome visiting members of the GCAS's friends and generous supporters of our MAREC project, the Albuquerque Archaeological Society. GCAS members, please bring your finest potluck dishes to share with about 15 members of AAS who would love to meet you. As we get to know one another, there will be a slideshow presentation of either the Rock House Petroglyph Site, the Dragonfly Petroglyph Site, or both. Join us on Saturday! (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, October 22, 2023, at 10:00 AM: Due to lack of a selected destination for the usual field trip on the first Sunday of the month, October's field trip is rescheduled to October 22 when members of the Albuquerque Archaeological Society visit our area. Destination will be either Rock House Petroglyph Site in lower Mimbres Valley (pending permit approval) or Dragonfly Petroglyph Site in Arenas Valley. Watch this space as details develop.

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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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