Pursuant to Governor Michelle Lujan-Grisham's most recent public health advisory, beginning on June 5, 2020, the Mimbres Culture Heritage Site will reopen their Museum three days per week: Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays from 11:00 AM - 3:00 PM. Certain exhibits have been refurbished, so everyone is invited to visit and inspect the changes. However, please be mindful that masks and social distancing will be required at all times. The number of individuals allowed in the Museum at any one time will be limited. Outdoor tours of the Mattocks Ruin will be offered to limited numbers of visitors on the first and third Saturdays of each month, again in accordance with our Governor's advisory.

A few months ago in the pre-COVID-19 days when the world was young, a majority of the GCAS general membership approved the pre-publication purchase of a special volume for the GCAS Library. We are thrilled to now add to our research library, The Vidal Site: An Isolated Great Kiva in Heaton Canyon Near Gallup, New Mexico.

Published by the Archaeological Society of New Mexico and edited by Frances Joan Mathien, this compelling book (ASNM Special Publication Series No. 7) comprises reports of the surveys, excavations, and materials analyses directed by Richard A. Bice and Phyllis S. Davis at the Vidal Site from 1979 through 1993.

Some time ago there was a post on this here website discussing the consumption of wild potatoes in the US Southwest by native populations as early as 8000-9000 BCE. It appears similar activity was occurring far to the south, in Andean cultures. Emergence Magazine provides us a "Potato Travelogue" of Peru. The investigative authors describe that:

The GCAS is very proud to announce to all of cyberspace that the Society for American Archaeology has awarded our very own Marilyn Markel their 2020 Crabtree Award for outstanding Avocational Archaeologist. The SAA will present the award to Marilyn at their annual meeting, to be held this year in Austin, Texas, from April 22 through April 26.

To be nominated for this honor, a person

"...should have made significant contributions to advance understandings of local, regional, or national archaeology through excavation, research, publication, site or collections preservation, collaboration with the professional community, and/or public outreach."

Marilyn Markel personifies all of the above, as the awards committee acknowledged:

"Marilyn Markel has a deep passion for archaeology and has spearheaded efforts in the Mimbres Valley, New Mexico, to preserve archaeological sites and educate young people of all ages on the value of the archaeological past. She has made significant contributions to our understanding and preservation of Mimbres sites in New Mexico, through over 20 years of volunteer work on university field school excavations, promotion of site protection through stewardship, transforming the local artifact-collecting community into an avocational/professional archaeological society, and educating schoolchildren about the value of archaeological heritage. Ms. Markel has assisted archaeological field schools, preserved sites, published children’s books on archaeology, and created a center devoted to the preservation and interpretation of Mimbres archaeology through educational outreach. Marilyn Markel is highly deserving of the Crabtree Award for her exemplary service to enhancing the preservation and public appreciation of New Mexico’s archaeological past."

Our very own GCAS President, Kyle Meredith, has dropped by this part of the blogosphere to take us all on a virtual trip that he and two other hardy GCAS members (plus one mascot) recently took to a petroglyph site near Deming. All text and photos are courtesy of Kyle Meredith. Away we go!

Back in April, Josh and I and Greg went for an overnighter down south of Deming to look for a hill with petroglyphs we had been told about. I located our probable destination on a map and set up a route on my GPS.

The Mesa Prieta Petroglyph Project in Velarde, New Mexico, is hosting a live discussion on their Facebook page at 1:00 PM on Friday, May 1, 2020. Copied from the MPPP newsletter:

A NOTE FROM THE FOUNDER

Dear Friends,

We here at the GCAS are very pleased to announce this year's recipient of our 2020 Nancy Coinman Grant Awards, Danielle Romero of the University of Nevada at Las Vegas. [She might be found somewhere in that field school work photo over there on the right.]

Danielle is a third-year PhD candidate majoring in Archaeology with a minor in Anthropology, working toward her PhD dissertation in May 2021. In addition to her formal studies, Danielle works as a Graduate Assistant in UNLV's Mimbres Archaeology Lab. She has been part of UNLV's excavation and research field schools at the Elk Ridge archaeological site in the Mimbres Valley for several years. An accomplished public speaker, she often presents topics on archaeology, ceramics, and ancient cultural interactions at regional and statewide archaeological conferences. In the past she has also shared aspects of her research as a featured speaker at our own GCAS monthly meetings.

Danielle's current research is a fascinating study of how an analysis of Elk Ridge ceramics may sharpen archaeologists' understanding of the social and cultural interactions among the groups inhabiting the entire Mimbres Valley during the period from AD 200 to AD 1150. Read the details of Danielle's research in her own words.

Congratulations, Danielle!

/s/ webmaster

The GCAS is very proud to announce to all of cyberspace that the Society for American Archaeology has awarded our very own Marilyn Markel their 2020 Crabtree Award for outstanding Avocational Archaeologist. The SAA will present the award to Marilyn at their annual meeting, to be held this year in Austin, Texas, from April 22 through April 26.

To be nominated for this honor, a person

"...should have made significant contributions to advance understandings of local, regional, or national archaeology through excavation, research, publication, site or collections preservation, collaboration with the professional community, and/or public outreach."

Marilyn Markel personifies all of the above.

UPDATE 3:19PM, March 13, 2020: THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED AND MAY BE RESCHEDULED AT A LATER DATE. Check with the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum's website for more info as it comes available.

On Saturday, March 14, 2020, it's the 9th Annual Buffalo Roast Fundraiser at the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum in Las Cruces! Human Systems Research Inc. proudly presents the keynote speaker, Mark Santiago, discussing "Labyrinth of Blood: Apaches and the Spanish Empire." This is an Advance-Ticket-Only event with tickets going for $50/person. For time of presentation, tickets, and other information please telephone the NMFRHM at 575-524-9456. Meanwhile, enjoy the presentation summary:

Saturday, March 21, 2020 through Sunday, March 22, 2020: David Greenwald, President and Board member of the Jornada Research Institute, plans a field session at Creekside Village and the Twin Kivas sites north of Tularosa, New Mexico, just after the vernal equinox (March 19). If enough participants join in there will be excavating at both sites.

Mr. Greenwald has focused the past 18 years of his work upon the history and archaeology of the entire Tularosa Basin. He is eager to share his knowledge with all who wish to participate and it is bound to be a worthwhile experience.

If interested, please follow the Jornada Research Institute's Events page as things develop, or contact them directly for details.

/s/ webmaster [photo via Jornada Research Institute]