The GCAS is happy to congratulate our two 2024 summer interns, Trinton Palomarez (first-year intern) and Gloria White (second-year intern), who headquarter at the Mimbres Culture Heritage Site as they train in educational and scientific activities under the supervision of the GCAS's own Marilyn Markel. This is the second year the GCAS has supported each of two high school level students with a summer internship including $250 stipends.

Wednesday, July 17, 2024, 6:00PM: the GCAS monthly meeting at the Roundup Lodge in San Lorenzo (Mimbres Valley) begins with our usual summertime potluck - bring your own plates & utensils, and a dish for yourself or to share with what we expect to be a larger than usual number of guests, including the starving students of the 2024 Preservation Archaeology Museum Curation and Survey Field School, jointly directed by Archaeology Southwest/ASU's Karen Schollmeyer PhD and WNMU Museum's director Danni Romero PhD. Let's feed these folks well, people, they've earned it!

At about 6:30PM we will have a brief business meeting after which we will welcome our featured speaker, Karen Schollmeyer herself, who will share updates on her and her field school team's current work at the WNMU Museum which includes curating the artifacts comprising the NAN Ranch collection.

Wednesday, June 26, 2024, at 6:30 PM in the WNMU Museum - FREE and open to the public: Dr. Jeffrey Ferguson, University of Missouri Assistant Professor of Anthropology/Research Associate Professor, presents: The Next Stage of Archaeometry in Southwestern Archaeology: New Ways to Explore Old Data. Dr. Ferguson explains, "the application of analytical chemistry and other scientific techniques to Southwestern Archaeology can reveal detailed information about ancient behavior from trade and exchange to large-scale social interaction. I will present three main analytical techniques employed at the Archaeometry Laboratory at the University of Missouri Research Reactor Center (MURR) with a focus on what we can learn about people in the past. These techniques have been in use for decades and we are looking at ways to synthesize the accumulated data at much larger scales. I will also present some new research on site identification using drone-based LiDAR in west-central New Mexico." Join Dr. Ferguson in the WNMU Museum's air-conditioned splendor for an informative discussion surrounded by Mimbres artifacts. Although this lecture is free, please consider making a cash donation in any amount to the WNMU Museum at the door to support their ongoing curation efforts.

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GCAS members and non-members alike are welcome to attend our next monthly meeting on June 19, 2024, at the Roundup Lodge in San Lorenzo (Mimbres Valley). Doors open at 6PM with our monthly summertime potluck so bring your own plates & utensils, and a dish for yourself or to share with the group. At about 6:30PM (or a bit later) we will have a brief business meeting. Immediately thereafter GCAS president, Marianne Smith, will discuss Images in Mimbres Pottery - Plainware to Classic. Join us to explore some common assumptions people make in interpreting Mimbres images, and to consider similarities in ancient and modern ways of seeing.

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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:

The Gila Wilderness holds a special place in the hearts of us out here in the territories. It was the world's first designated wilderness and it's right here in our own back yard. Find out about centennial events throughout 2024 here on the US Forest Service Wilderness Ranger District's web pages. Learn more about the Gila Wilderness's history and culture here.

Save a very special date: Saturday, June 1, 2024, 12:00PM noon-4:00PM, to visit Gough Park in Silver City: join the fun as the GCAS shifts our usual "first Sunday of the month" field trip one day earlier to the first Saturday of June to celebrate the main event of the 2024 centennial of the Gila Wilderness. The US Forest Service Wilderness Ranger District is our host, commemorating the vital partnerships throughout the community that have contributed to the preservation of the Gila Wilderness over the past century. The GCAS is one among many such community organizations that will have a booth in Gough Park to showcase how we local people working together have preserved the Gila Wilderness for us all to love and enjoy.

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The GCAS is saddened to report that anthropologist, professor, and author J.J. Brody, PhD, passed away at age 95 on May 5, 2024.

Among Dr. Brody's many accomplishments in the fields of anthropology, archaeology, and ethnography, he was curator of Albuquerque's Maxwell Museum for 23 years. He wrote a number of books our GCAS members may be familiar with, including Mimbres Pottery: Ancient Art of the American Southwest (1983), and Mimbres Painted Pottery (rev. 2005). The University of New Mexico, his professional home, has more on his life and contributions to science, here.

The University of New Mexico is planning a memorial service for Dr. Brody on Friday, May 17, 2024, from 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM, at a campus location to be determined. Remembrances and condolences to his family can be left on Legacy's page for Dr. Brody.

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The Gila Wilderness holds a special place in the hearts of us out here in the territories. It was the world's first designated wilderness and it's right here in our own back yard. Find out about centennial events throughout 2024 here on the US Forest Service Wilderness Ranger District's web pages. Learn more about the Gila Wilderness's history and culture here.

Save a very special date: Saturday, June 1, 2024, 12:00PM noon-4:00PM, to visit Gough Park in Silver City: join the fun as the GCAS shifts our usual "first Sunday of the month" field trip one day earlier to the first Saturday of June to celebrate the main event of the 2024 centennial of the Gila Wilderness. The US Forest Service Wilderness Ranger District is our host, commemorating the vital partnerships throughout the community that have contributed to the preservation of the Gila Wilderness over the past century. The GCAS is one among many such community organizations that will have a booth in Gough Park to showcase how we local people working together have preserved the Gila Wilderness for us all to love and enjoy.

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The Jornada Research Institute is offering two remaining archaeologically-flavored international tours during 2024. In late July, a tour of ancient sites in Scotland begins. In October, enjoy an 11-day tour of Greece and Ephesus, Turkey. Sign up early for one tour (or both!) while space is still available.

OF SPECIAL INTEREST TO GCAS MEMBERS, the JRI can donate to other nonprofit organizations whose member participates in one or more of their Overseas Journeys Programs. So, for example, JRI will donate $125.00 to the Grant County Archaeological Society for each tour participant who specifies that the GCAS should receive JRI's donation. Join a JRI tour, and you can support two nonprofits at once!

The JRI's President, Dave Greenwald, further describes the tours:

Wednesday, April 17, 2024, 6:00PM (New Mexico - Mountain Daylight Time) online via Zoom: The GCAS monthly meeting begins with the usual brief-to-nonexistent business meeting, immediately followed by our Featured Speaker, Kristin Corl, who will introduce us to Investigating Plant and Animal Resources at the Harris Site: An Exercise in Ecosystem Engineering. Kristin explains,