NEXT MEETING: Wednesday, April 16, 2025, 6:00 PM at 2045 Memory Lane in Silver City, New Mexico. The GCAS's next monthly IN-PERSON ONLY meeting features speaker geoarchaeologist Dave Rachal PhD of Tierra Vieja Consulting in Las Cruces NM. Doors open at 6:00 PM with light refreshments on offer. Socializing and a brief-to-nonexistent business meeting will immediately precede Dave's presentation of: How Did The Seeds Get There? Ruppia cirrhosa Ecology, Depositional Context and Accurate Radiocarbon Dating at White Sands: "The stratigraphic and geomorphic contexts, and ultimately the chronometric determinations, at White Sands Locality-2 (WHSA-2) are topics of controversy that stem from conflicting interpretations of the processes that deposited the Ruppia cirrhosa (Ruppia) seeds within the paleo-Lake Otero footprint site....[O]ur interpretation depicts the shoreline as an unstable, dynamic lake margin to which Ruppia seeds...were transported from deep-water, offshore growth beds during storm events and deposited on the lake shore in seed balls. These unusual aggregates, known to mix seeds of wide-ranging ages, were gradually broken apart by several cycles of wave action and erosion and redeposited in layers....[W]e will delve into both the ecology and the depositional context of Ruppia and discuss why the Ruppia seeds at paleo-Lake Otero are problematic materials for radiocarbon dating." Check out Dave's and Tierra Vieja Consulting's YouTube videos (links are on our Events page) and bring your questions for him!

NEXT FIELD TRIP: Sunday, April 6, through Tuesday, April 8, 2025: Lyman Lake State Park/Springerville/Casa Malpais AZ. Sunday-Monday, explore Lyman Lake's petroglyphs & archaeological site on your own or with a group. On Tuesday 4/8, we have guided tour of Casa Malpais archaeological site. Reservations are required for ONLY the guided tour to the Casa Malpais site but we must give them a final tally no later than March 23, 2025, so please let trip co-leader Torie Grass ([email protected]) or Eduardo Argüello ([email protected]) know to put you on the list. More details available in newsletter and on Events page of this website, and in the blog posts below. As usual for any GCAS field trip, wear sturdy shoes and pack sun protection & water. See you there!

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Mark Your Calendars - Join the AAHS and Us for a Special March Event

02/08/2023

Wednesday, February 15, 2023: the GCAS meets again at 2045 Memory Lane in Silver City, New Mexico. Light refreshments provided and OK to bring your own light snacks or handy meal (burrito, etc.) and beverage. Meeting starts at 5:30PM sharp with a brief to nonexistent business meeting followed at 5:45PM by our featured speaker, the redoubtable archaeologist Chris Adams. Chris will showcase for us the Feather Imagery Depicted on Mimbres Pottery. Expect meeting to adjourn about 7:00PM. As ever, 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. Learn more about Chris's significant career in protection and preservation:

Chris Adams attained his anthropology/archaeology degrees at Arizona State University. His career included over 11 years of service as Archaeologist for the US Forest Service based in Alamogordo, New Mexico, after which he became the District Archaeologist for the US Forest Service, headquartered in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. He has served in this post for the past 15 years and counting. His career has involved extensive field work, including numerous archaeological surveys and excavations.

His current research includes tracing the origins, fabrication, and distribution of prehistoric copper artifacts found at archaeological sites. Chris works the sites with sophisticated metal-sensing technology and analyzes the results by collaborating with metallurgical specialists. Chris also uses this expertise to survey historic Apache battle sites, with a view toward confirming the historical record as well as illustrating in better detail the locations and scope of Apache encounters with US cavalry and Anglo settlers. In addition to relying upon metal-scanning equipment, Chris has investigated these sites by forming collaborative relationships with other governmental agencies, and has even worked with out-of-state rescue teams and their cadaver dogs to survey prehistoric and historic sites and mark and record locations of graves. In some cases Chris has been an essential member of teams who have performed the first professional documentation and study of archaeological/historic sites.

Please join us to learn more about Chris's insights into the cultural influences inherent in Mimbres pottery. For further reading about Chris's professional work, please enjoy: https://savingplaces.org/stories/interview-qa-little-bighorn-archaeologist-douglas-scott#.X8mDNC1h2lM with a 2014 photo of Chris Adams in in the field deploying strong metal detector fu and https://maxwellmuseum.unm.edu/news-events/blog/research-wednesday-prehistoric-copper-artifacts - an article about certain copper artifacts Chris helped locate in the Mimbres Valley area.

/s/ webmaster

Posted at 06:00 AM in Anthropology, Archaeology, Mimbres-Mogollon | Permalink | Comments (0)

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02/08/2023