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NEXT MEETING: Wednesday, January 15, 2024, 6:00 PM New Mexico time - ONLINE VIA ZOOM: The GCAS kicks off 2025 with a brief business meeting to be immediately followed by our Featured Speaker, Rhianna Cooke, senior anthropology undergraduate at Indiana University/Bloomington. Rhianna will discuss Clay in the Kiva: Possible Uses for Natural Clay Beneath Twin Pines Village. Twin Pines Village is a site located in the upper Mimbres Valley area in the Gila National Forest. It has been the subject of years of study under the direction of Dr. Fumi Arakawa, and Rhianna performed fieldwork there during the summer of 2024. She will describe that during their 2024 excavation, Dr. Arakawa’s crew discovered a large natural deposit of clay beneath the site. Later, it became clear that the clay had been manipulated/used in some fashion in the great kiva at the site, although Dr. Arakawa, Rhianna, and other researchers are still questioning the exact purpose that this "clay pit" may have served. Join us on Zoom starting at about 5:45 to get situated and socialize before the official meeting begins at 6:00 PM sharp. A Q&A session will follow Rhianna’s talk. Members, check your email inbox for your Zoom invitation about one week before the presentation (roughly 1/8/2025). Nonmembers, email the GCAS for the Zoom link about a week prior (1/8/2025).

NEXT FIELD TRIP: TBA: watch this space.

GCAS 2024 Field Trip To Treasure Hill
Last Call to Join an International Archaeological Tour

GCAS August 2024 Field Trip To Treasure Hill

08/05/2024

IMG_20240804_103935204_HDRcopy IMG_20240804_101346351_HDROn a very warm and sunny Sunday, August 4, 2024, twenty one members of the Grant County Archaeological Society (GCAS), coming from as far away as El Paso, Texas, gathered together to explore the Archaeological Conservancy’s Treasure Hill site located in our very own Arenas Valley. Archaeologists consider this Late Pithouse-to-Mimbres Classic site (roughly 550 CE – 1130 CE), comprising a total of 100 rooms in 6 room blocks plus an additional 24 outlying sites, to have been the largest Mimbres community in the middle Rio de Arenas/Whiskey Creek watershed. Unfortunately Treasure Hill, like so many other Mimbres sites, has suffered heavy looting from the late 19th Century to the present. A major road and residential development surround it and it has accumulated windblown trash as well as garbage carried in by unauthorized visitors.Consequently...

IMG_20240804_104931429copy IMG_20240804_103602216_HDR...the GCAS volunteered to combine their scheduled field trip to the site with a trash pick-up. Our group spent 1-1/2 hours exploring the prehistoric structures' remains and learning the more recent history of site ownership. Nevertheless everyone was all business the whole time and removed accumulated garbage as they walked from room block to room block.

Starting to gather the trash bags IMG_20240804_103931646_HDR

 Results: 21 volunteers x 1-1/2 hours = 30.5 volunteer hours on behalf of the Archaeological Conservancy. Our group filled 15 garbage bags with an estimated total of 150 pounds of garbage collected. The GCAS's own Gary Barnett trucked the trash to our local landfill - thank you, Gary!

After our combination field trip/work party, those of us still surviving the August temperatures descended on the nearby Whiskey Creek Zocalo for noontime hydration and nutrition. Good times were had at indoor tables and out under the shade trees. The Zocalo managed our large group with ease - thank you, Melanie and staff!

For this first combination field trip/work party, we combed Treasure Hill along its eastern perimeter. There are an additional 13 acres that need to be explored to update site information as well as garbage pick-up, so if you were unable to join us this time you will certainly have other opportunities. This site needs our tender loving care and the Archaeological Conservancy as well as the archaeologists who have studied Treasure Hill in past years would be grateful for our support.

Thank you to all participating GCAS members for your work under the hot sun on August 4 - you all did great!

/s/ webmaster

Posted at 06:15 PM in Archaeology, Art Trafficking-Looting-Vandalism, Current Affairs, Field Trips, Get Involved, Join Us, Mimbres-Mogollon | | Comments (0)

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