Fill your calendar with a number of adventures on offer by the Jornada Research Institute. Consider any or all of the following:

Tuesday, May 20, 2025: sponsored by the Jornada Research Institute, Acting Superintendent at White Sands National Park will present his interpretations regarding the investigations of the Trackways on the Shore of Lake Otero. More on this in future JRI announcements; contact Dave Greenwald for details.

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. Dave has been involved in some YouTube interviews that discuss various aspects of geoarchaeology, site formation processes related to the formation of ancient footprints and megafauna tracks, and the peopling of the New World. This evening Dave will describe to us the issues surrounding the specific data sets that scientists are applying to the ancient human footprints recently found at White Sands National Park. 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:

Fill your calendar with a number of adventures on offer by the Jornada Research Institute. Consider any or all of the following:

Tuesday, April 15, 2025: sponsored by the Jornada Research Institute, Joan E. Price, MFA and JRI Research Associate, presents her most recent studies, MONEY RUNS UPHILL:THE PRIVATIZATION OF A COMMONWEALTH IN SOUTHERN NEW MEXICO. This presentation explores the cultural history of Tularosa, a Mexican American "acequia democracy" known for its equitable water irrigation and traditional settlement practices. It examines the ethnic conflicts and rapid cultural assimilation during the New Mexico Territorial Era (1848-1912), within the ambiguous relationship with the U.S. military presence and American capitalists who eventually gained control of the Rio Bonito, Rio Tularosa and the streams along the west slopes of the Sacramento Mountains. Contact Dave Greenwald for details.

Wednesday thru Sunday, April 23-27, 2025, Denver, CO: it's the SAA's 90th annual meeting with forums and presentations galore, including topics like Avocational Archaeology in the Twenty-First Century: Volunteers as Lifelong Learners and Researchers scheduled for Thursday, April 24, 2025: 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM, Plaza, FORUM- Governor's Sq. 12; and Continued Work on the Ray Robinson Collection: The Perishable Assemblages from Bonita Creek Cave Cache and Hackberry Ranch Sites in Southeastern Arizona (Session: Modern Methods in the American Southwest) scheduled for Saturday, April 26, 2025: 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM, Tower, Tower Court B. All registration details, schedules, and updates are here. Denver is lovely in the spring!

/s/webmaster

Friday, May 2, 2025, thru Sunday, May 4, 2025, in Albuquerque NM: it's the annual meeting of the Archaeological Society of New Mexico (ASNM). The theme for 2025 is Archaeology of the Greater Middle Rio Grande Area to include the Rio Grande region from Cochiti to Socorro, Cochiti Reservoir, a portion of the Galisteo Basin, as well as the Salinas Province. While much of the program will be devoted to the Greater Middle Rio Grande, at least one session will be open to papers on topics from every corner of the state.

Dave Rachal PhD of Tierra Vieja Consulting in Las Cruces New Mexico has linked us to his new 11-minute YouTube video discussion of the complexities surrounding the interpretation of the data collected from the prehistoric footprints found at White Sands National Monument. Dave will be the Featured Speaker at our April monthly meeting so this is a good way to familiarize ourselves with his research. Contact Tierra Vieja Consulting to learn more about geoarchaeology in our region and for links to even more YouTube presentations.

/s/ webmaster

Thursday, January 16, 2025: FREE online via Zoom, 7:00-8:30PM (ARIZONA/Mountain Standard Time): Old Pueblo Archaeology Center's “Third Thursday Food for Thought” program presents If the Shoe Fits: Subarctic-style Moccasins and the Apachean Journey from the Northern Dene Homeland to the Precontact Southwest by HDR Archaeologist Kevin P. Gilmore, PhD.

BSM Type 2(Bb) moccasin from Montezuma Castle, Arizona,
photo adapted from “If the Shoe Fits” article
by Kevin P. Gilmore, Edward A. Jolie, and John W. Ives
(2024, Journal of Arizona Archaeology 10(2):145-162)

The Kane County, Utah Sheriff's Office and the Bureau of Land Management would like a word with them.

On November 23, 2024, the Kane County Sheriff's Office received a report with 4 photos of two people caught in the act of vandalizing a petroglyph panel near the Wire Pass trailhead in Kanab, Utah - a popular hiking area near Arizona's northern border. If anyone recognizes the people or the vehicle in these photos, please contact the Kane County Sheriff's Office on their Facebook page, or by telephone at 435-644-2668 or 436-644-4916.

Thank you for any help you can give to protect our public lands.

/s/ webmaster [all photos courtesy of Kane County Sheriff's Office]

Thursday, October 3 through Saturday, October 5, 2024, Silver City NM: It's the 22d annual Mogollon Conference, hosted by WNMU and the Museum at Fleming Hall.

The Museum will host a complimentary reception for attendees on the evening of October 3 before the two-day conference gets underway on Friday and Saturday at the Bessie Forward GRC on the WNMU Campus. Registration for the conference sessions is $45/person until September 19; thereafter $55/person. BUT: special offer to GCAS members! The Museum needs 3-4 volunteers to help with registration at the conference and would waive the registration fee for those folks! Contact Museum Director Danni Romero to volunteer; check the Mogollon Conference website for all other developing info including fees for the October 4 banquet and the Sunday, October 6 Mimbres Foundation reunion:

Thursday, August 29, 2024, at 5:00 pm MDT (current New Mexico Time) - FREE online lecture hosted by the Archaeological Conservancy: Alan Garfinkel presents Archaic Forager Religious Theology: Coso Region Rock Art of Eastern California.

ABOUT THE LECTURE:

The Coso Range of eastern California, along the western edge of the Great Basin, is the location of a tremendous collection of Coso rock art. With a conservative estimate of more than 100,000 images this collection is attributed to the Coso people and has been dated as far back as the Little Lake Period (6000 to 2000 BC). The rock art here is unique in its detail and depictions of readily identified creatures and anthropomorphic figures. Dr. Alan Garfinkel, considered a well-regarded authority on the Coso Range Rock Art traditions and Coso Region prehistory in general, discusses this rock art, including a very unique panel found at The Archaeological Conservancy’s Portuguese Bench preserve. You will learn about symbolic parallels between the Coso Range prehistoric rock art and Uto-Aztecan religious traditions found farther south and hear about studies that illuminate the significance of female figures in Coso rock art that were previously considered to be dominated by male representations. Dr. Garfinkel will share what he’s learned about attributes of individual images and the significance of some of the motifs, such as the inclusion of avian attributes (legs, feet, and feather adornments) and the presence of serpent-themed designs and images.