Anytime is a terrific time to join the GCAS! Membership runs from January through December of the current year. Our individual membership is $20 and our family membership is $30. Click through to this page to join online via our PayPal link; or if you're Old Skool you can download, print, fill out our Membership form, and send it with a check by mail to: Grant County Archaeological Society, PO Box 1713, Silver City, NM 88062. Thank you for joining us!
Fill your calendar by scrolling down through all these upcoming events. Plan ahead but be mindful that any of the following events may be postponed or cancelled on very short notice for any number of weather-related or other reasons.
Watch this Events Page for details on our GCAS general meetings, held in-person or alternatively online via Zoom.
Please join our supporters in the GCAS's ongoing priority project, the Mimbres Archaeological Research and Education Center (MAREC) located in the historic Wood House at the Mimbres Culture Heritage Site. The GCAS is working in our library and lab/workroom in the Wood House's ground floor. We welcome donations and volunteers so that we may continue expanding and improving our resource materials and educational programs. Learn about the beginnings of our GCAS project here, make your donations either online or by standard mail here; and if you'd like to volunteer email us for ideas of the projects and events where we need you the most. [Photo: Mattocks Site/Mimbres Culture Heritage Site. Wood House, center. © Mitchell Clinton, Mitchell Clinton Photography. All Rights Reserved.]
Beginning May 2024 and continuing: David Greenwald of the Jornada Research Institute has announced the resumption of JRI's excavations at the Cornelius Locus site in the Ruidoso NM area. Upcoming September dates there include September 15, 21, 22, 28, and 29, 2024, with more dates in October TBA. Contact Dave Greenwald to check excavation status and for details on how you (yes, you!) can participate in an official archaeological excavation.
2024, various dates: The Jornada Research Institute offers one more archaeologically-flavored international tour. Sign up early for an 11-day tour of Greece and Ephesus, Turkey in October 2024. In August 2025 JRI plans a tour to Ireland and in 2026, Egypt is on the menu. OF SPECIAL INTEREST TO GCAS MEMBERS, JRI's President, Dave Greenwald, reports that JRI has developed a policy that allows them to 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! More information on each overseas journey here.
Throughout 2024, various dates, it's the year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of the world's first designated wilderness area, our very own Gila Wilderness! Events and lectures are happening all year long so check regularly with the US Forest Service's schedule of centennial events. The Gila Wilderness Centennial Digital Hub has their own separate calendar of events, including their 2024 Ancestral Gila Homelands Events and Zoom Lecture Series. Visit their calendar here.
Wednesdays, September 4, 2024, through December 11, 2024:The Hohokam Culture of Southern Arizona: a 14-session online adult education class. Contact Old Pueblo Archaeology Center for times and other details.
Wednesday, September 18, 2024, 6:00PM: the GCAS in-person monthly meeting begins with the last potluck of the summer at the Roundup Lodge in San Lorenzo (Mimbres Valley). As usual bring your own plates & utensils, and a dish for yourself or to share. A brief business meeting follows at about 6:45PM, after which we will welcome our Featured Speaker, Allen Denoyer, preservation archaeologist at Archaeology Southwest in Tucson, Arizona. Allen will use examples from his years of experimental archaeology projects to introduce us to the wonderful world of MUD, ranging from how mud is utilized in pithouse construction, to excavations of mud-built agricultural fields, to the amazing impressions that archaeologists can find in prehistoric mud. Join us!
Thursday September 19, 2024, 4:00PM Mountain Daylight Time (current New Mexico Time) Online - FREE presentation (donations encouraged) by archaeologist John Douglas PhD: Abandonment Issues? The Indigenous People of the Casas Grandes Valley and the Legacy of Paquimé sponsored by Crow Canyon Archaeological Center, Cortez, Colorado.
In 1974, archaeologist Charles Di Peso and the Joint Casas Grandes Expedition published a vivid interpretation of the archaeological ruins called Paquimé in the Casas Grandes Valley of Chihuahua, Mexico. They imagined Paquimé as a bustling regional center with magnificent buildings and ceremonial structures, producing and trading prized goods, which abruptly fell silent before the arrival of Spanish colonizers. Di Peso and his team proposed that a violent assault by ancestors of the post-Paquimé Native people of the Casas Grandes Valley – labeled the Suma by 17th century Spanish administrators – had wiped out all settlements in the valley, sparing only a handful of distant outposts. More recent studies question whether this agriculturally fertile valley was abandoned after a single cataclysmic event. Dr. Douglas will reconsider the colonial documentary evidence and the archaeological architecture, burial data, and ceramics at the Casas Grandes Valley’s Convento site (Mission San Antonio) to investigate the mysteries of the valley and its resilient people.
Learn more and register here. [Photo by M.Smith]
Thursday September 19, 2024, 7:00PM to 8:30PM ARIZONA/Mountain Standard Time (same as Pacific Daylight Time): FREE online via Zoom: Old Pueblo Archaeology Center's “Third Thursday Food for Thought” presents Archaeology on the Rocks: Investigating an 18th-century Spanish Land Grant in Tijeras Canyon, NM by archaeologist Kelly L. Jenks, PhD:
In 1763, New Mexico’s Spanish colonial Governor Cachupín approved an application by 19 petitioners for a grant of community land east of Albuquerque in Cañón de Carnué, now known as Tijeras Canyon. The grantees were expected to defend these lands by building a fortified plaza. The governor also stipulated that these lands were to be used for agricultural purposes. Seven years later Apaches attacked this settlement and the survivors fled the canyon. When they refused to resettle, they were ordered to go back and destroy their homes. The New Mexico State University Archaeological Field School resurveyed the site of this 18th-century plaza in 2021 and returned in 2022 to do test excavation, stabilization work, and more survey, and to investigate artifacts from a 1946 field school at this site. These projects offer intriguing new insights into who these people were, why they settled in this place, how they made their living, and what happened when they left. Dr. Kelly Jenks is an Associate Professor of Anthropology and Director of the University Museum at NMSU, Las Cruces. Register for the Zoom webinar here and for more information contact Old Pueblo at [email protected] or 520-798-1201.
Friday, September 20, 2024, 11:00 AM-1:00PM at 1712 Little Walnut Road in Silver City: hosted by the Town of Silver City and the Southwest New Mexico ACT, it's the first open house celebrating the rehabilitation and landscaping of the Waterworks Historic Site just north of the Jose Barrios Elementary School near the junction of Little Walnut Road and Highway 180 West. Tour the grounds of the Waterworks and the adjacent Silva Creek Botanical Garden, and line up for a tour of the rehabbed/restored Waterworks building itself. Visit the SWNMACT's Facebook page for a parking map and other info.
Sunday, September 22, 2024, Tucson-Marana, Arizona: Old Pueblo Archaeology Center’s “Autumn Equinox Tour to Los Morteros and Picture Rocks Petroglyphs Sites” with archaeologist Allen Dart departing from near Silverbell Road and Linda Vista Blvd. in Marana, Arizona, 8 am to noon. $35 donation ($28 for Old Pueblo Archaeology Center and S’edav Va’aki Museum Foundation members) supports Old Pueblo’s education programs about archaeology and traditional cultures.
The 2024 autumn equinox occurs on Sunday Sept. 22, 2024 at 5:44 am Arizona/Mountain Standard Time (same as Pacific Daylight Time; 12:44 pm Greenwich Mean Time). To celebrate the equinox day (but not the exact time!) and explore ancient people's recognition of equinoxes and other calendrical events, archaeologist Allen Dart (Old Pueblo Archaeology Center's executive director) leads this tour to Los Morteros, an ancient village site that includes a Hohokam ballcourt, bedrock mortars, and other archaeological features; and to Picture Rocks, where ancient petroglyphs include a solstice and equinox calendar marker, dancing human-like figures, whimsical animals, and other rock symbols made by Hohokam Indians between 800 and 1100 CE. An equinox calendar petroglyph at Picture Rocks exhibits a specific interaction with a ray of sunlight on the morning of each equinox regardless of the hour and minute of the actual celestial equinox, so participants in this tour will see that sunlight interaction with the calendar glyph unless clouds block the sunlight. Registration and prepayment are due 10 days after reservation request or by 5 pm Thursday September 19, whichever is earlier: 520-798-1201 or [email protected].
Wednesday, September 25, 2024, 12:00 PM noon, at Eastern New Mexico University-Ruidoso, 709 Mechem Dr., Ruidoso, NM: Dave Greenwald of the Jornada Research Institute offers a FREE in-person presentation describing JRI's excavation of the great kiva at Creekside Village. This is the first great kiva of this time period (AD 673-724) documented in the Tularosa Basin. Dave will discuss its importance to Creekside Village as well as the significance and inter-associations of as many as six other great kivas the JRI crews have found in Tularosa Canyon. The newest findings reflect the Creekside great kiva's use as a prehistoric observatory from which at least 7 celestial events were observed and the eastern horizon was used as a horizon calendar. This discovery and other sites in the general area previously identified as prehistoric observatories have led to the planning of the next Tularosa Basin Conference in early July, 2025 (scroll below for details), which will be open to the public and bring researchers to Ruidoso from around the globe.
Wednesday, September 25, 2024, 2 sessions at 12:15PM and again at 2:00PM, at San Lorenzo Elementary School in San Lorenzo: Marilyn Markel is seeking volunteers to help San Lo's first through 5th grade classes in a fun and educational pottery program. Please telephone Marilyn directly at 575-536-9337 with the time you can help the school and for program details.
Wednesday, Sept 25 through Friday, September 27, 2024: Sherry Hardage, President of the Friends of Coronado & Jemez Historic Sites, announces that they are planning a 3-day bus tour of the Four Corners area of New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah. This fundraiser supports the programs and improvements needed at both the Coronado & Jemez historic sites. The Friends group invites any interested GCAS members to join them; tour spots are still available.
The group will visit Salmon ruins and Aztec the first day, spend the second day at Mesa Verde with a guide, and see Hovenweep on the last day, also with a guide. Please contact FCHS President Sherry Hardage through their website, via email, or phone (505) 670-4884 for all details, itinerary, and payment options.
Thursday September 26, 2024, 4:00PM MDT (current New Mexico Time) FREE online (donations encouraged): Jacelle Erin Ramon-Sauberan PhD (Tohono O'odham) presents Caretakers of the Land: A Story of Farming and Community in San Xavier sponsored by Crow Canyon Archaeological Center, Cortez, Colorado. 
Dr. Ramon-Sauberan explains, "Farming has always been the way of life for the Tohono O’odham community in San Xavier, located just south of Tucson. Their way of life depended on access to the land and to the water, namely the Santa Cruz River, which nourished agriculture in the area for generations. But a history of division sown through government land allotments and land development plans, coupled with the declining flow of the Santa Cruz, fractured community farming. How did the community come together to revitalize the land for future generations? What lessons can we learn from their story?" Join Dr. Ramon-Sauberan for this program about land, water, and community in San Xavier by registering at: https://crowcanyon.org/
Photo of Jacelle Ramon-Sauberan courtesy of Arizona Humanities
Friday, September 27, 2024, 9:30AM to 12:00PM Noon at the WNMU Museum in Silver City: the San Lorenzo Elementary School's 4th and 5th grade classes, guided by the GCAS's own Marilyn Markel, visit the WNMU Museum for a morning or education and activities, immediately followed by a pizza lunch for the kids and all other participants in a nearby outdoor area. Marilyn Markel is seeking two volunteers to help at the Museum and to enjoy a slice of pizza afterwards. Please telephone Marilyn directly at 575-536-9337 to help out and for extra details.
Thursday, October 3 through Saturday, October 5, 2024, Silver City NM: In lieu of the GCAS's typical monthly field trip, we encourage GCAS members to attend 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.
Sunday, October 6, 2024, 10:00 AM-12:00PM noon, at the Mimbres Culture Heritage Site, Mimbres, NM: it's the 50th reunion of Mimbres Foundation alumni, held at the MCHS and the Mattocks Site where they spent four seasons of archaeological excavations in the mid-1970s. A tour of the archaeological site and the historic buildings is planned for the morning, with light refreshments on offer. Everyone is welcome to attend by reservation only with a contribution of $5 per person to offset expenses of refreshments and supplies. For preliminary details and to reserve a spot, Email the GCAS to sign up for the reunion only; or instead register for this reunion when signing up for the rest of the Mogollon Conference.
Thursday & Friday, October 10 & 11, 2024, in Tucson AZ: the Arizona Archaeological and Historical Society's (AAHS's) annual Used Book Sale happens in front of the Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona, 1013 E. University Blvd. Free to browse on Thursday 1-4 PM and on Friday 10 AM-4 PM. Sales proceeds support the Arizona State Museum Library. Browse and buy anthropology, history, biography, and general nonfiction books priced from $2 to $20. New inventory includes many beautiful American Indian art books. The Arizona State Museum will be closed during this event due to ongoing restoration work so this may be AAHS’s last book sale for some time - don’t miss it! For more information contact Katherine Cerino at 520-907-0884 or by email. If any GCAS member plans to attend this book sale, please email Marianne or phone/text her at 772-529-2627 for a short list of titles the GCAS is seeking for our own library.
Thursday October 17, 2024: 7:00-8:30 PM ARIZONA/Mountain Standard Time (same as Pacific Daylight Time) online via Zoom: “Third Thursday Food for Thought” free program featuring New Archaeological Insights from Ancient DNA by archaeologist/geneticist (and longtime GCAS member) Jakob W. Sedig, PhD sponsored by Old Pueblo Archaeology Center.
Sedig explores how ancient DNA (aDNA) data generated by Proyecto de Investigación de Poblaciones Antiguas en el Norte y Occidente de México (PIPANOM) are providing new insight on the people who lived in central, western, and northern Mexico hundreds and thousands of years ago. Data from over 300 individuals spread across Mexico, including from sites such as Tzintzuntzan, Cueva de los Muertos Chicos, and Paquimé, have shed light onto long-standing questions about migration and interaction of different archaeological cultures in key eras of Mexico’s past. Jakob will also discuss how the PIPANOM dataset has revealed previously unknown information about the individuals who lived at these sites, and how combining the PIPANOM dataset with previously published aDNA data from across the Americas allows researchers to understand better the movement and interaction of different groups across cultural boundaries. Finally, he will review how PIPANOM has brought together archaeologists, geneticists, researchers, analysts, and students from different backgrounds and countries.
For more information contact Old Pueblo via email or phone 520-798-1201.
Saturday, October 19, 2024, 10:00AM to 3:00PM, at the Mimbres Culture Heritage Site in Mimbres, NM: the MCHS celebrates National Archaeology Day with guided site tours, tales of local legends, and activities for the whole family. Immediately following, from 4:00PM to 5:00PM at the Roundup Lodge, Marilyn Markel will present Apaches on the Mimbres and the Story of the Captive Boy, Santiago McKinn. Santiago McKinn's later residence has recently been located at a Mimbres Valley historic/archaeological site so this is a talk you won't want to miss. Telephone Marilyn directly at 575-536-9337 with any questions.
February 20, 2025, 7:00PM-8:30PM ARIZONA/Mountain Standard Time - FREE online via Zoom: Old Pueblo Archaeology Center's “Third Thursday Food for Thought” program welcomes archaeologist Paul Minnis, PhD, who will present The Closest Neighbors of Paquimé
Paul Minnis perspective on Paquimé from Cueva de la Olla, Chihuahua, Mexico
(Photos courtesy of Dr. Minnis,
Paquimé aerial photo by Adriel Heisey)
Paquimé, also known as Casas Grandes, was one of the major pre-Hispanic centers in the US Southwest and northwestern Mexico. Despite the historical neglect of this site and its surrounding region by archaeologists, researchers from several countries have begun to better illuminate its rise, influence over surrounding areas, and final demise. This talk especially highlights two decades of research that Paul Minnis and colleague Michael Whalen have conducted around this important ancient community. Dr. Minnis is a professor emeritus of Anthropology, University of Oklahoma. For more information contact Old Pueblo at [email protected] or 520-798-1201.
Monday, July 7 through Wednesday, July 9, 2025: The Jornada Research Institute is busy organizing the 2025 Tularosa Basin Conference at the Ruidoso Convention Center in Ruidoso, New Mexico. The theme for 2025 is Archaeoastronomy and Celestial Geometry: Understanding Ancient Astronomy, with archaeological tours planned on Thursday, July 10, 2025, following the conference.
The dates of the Tularosa Basin Conference fall on each side of the lunar maximum event that can be witnessed from inside the great kiva at Creekside Village in Tularosa Canyon. This celestial event only occurs once every 18.6 years, and we will gather for it late afternoon and hike in to Creekside Village. The event will conclude prior to sundown allowing observers to easily hike back out while it is still light. We seek presenters from the various areas described above and we are actively contacting individuals with specific knowledge of such sites and their recent investigations. The conference is open to the public with various activities planned. They expect a large turnout and will have ample space for vendors in the Ruidoso Convention Center. Contact JRI president Dave Greenwald if you would like to volunteer to help put this conference together, and for further details as they develop.
There are even more online and in-person events happening all over the place. Make it a regular habit to check out what the following organizations offer the avocational archaeologist:
American Rock Art Research Association (ARARA)
The Archaeological Conservancy posts recorded lectures on YouTube and on their website's event page after the event occurs. Visit them for this and lots more information, and follow them on their Facebook page.
Archaeological Society of New Mexico
Archaeology Southwest: Things To Do, and More Things To Do
The Arizona Archaeological and Historical Society produced a virtual field trip of the Mattocks Site and Mimbres Culture Heritage Site on February 5, 2022, which is now available via the AAHS's YouTube channel. Click here and enjoy as Marilyn Markel and Professor Emerita Pat Gilman, the supervising archaeologist for the 1970s Mattocks Site excavation, lead you through the site while discussing the future opportunities it offers for local educational programs and archaeological research.
Borderlandia offers specialized tours of the Arizona-Mexico borderland including Tubac & Tumacácori; and greater Mexico including locations such as Paquimé & Mexico City
As a member of the Council of Allied Societies, the GCAS and our members receive access to the CoAS monthly newsletter. The most recent CoAS newsletters are available by scrolling down to the bottom-most right-hand sidebar entitled "Council of Allied Societies Newsletter Archives" on this page. For further CoAS doings, visit their Facebook page and check out their directory of links to member organizations' newsletters and publications. GCAS members may also attend one free and one discounted online seminar; contact [email protected] to verify your GCAS membership and for all other details.
Crow Canyon Archaeological Center: Programs, Research, and Education
The Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument hosts a free series of presentations at their Visitors Center where folks can meet a number of speakers giving short presentations on a variety of archaeological and cultural topics. Follow them on Facebook too!
The Jornada Research Institute - JRI's past newsletters are informative on a wide variety of intriguing archaeological research in our local area and beyond. Join a JRI international archaeological tour, identify your favorite 501(c)(3) charity in your registration, and JRI will make a cash donation to that charity. Coincidentally, the GCAS is a 501(c)(3) public charity.
Mesa Prieta Petroglyph Project: Events, Mesa Talks Lecture Series, Chats with the Archaeologist, and Tours
Considering a visit to the Mimbres Culture Heritage Site? Check for events; to confirm tours and museum access telephone the MCHS directly at 575.536.3092 or 307.640.3012.
Old Pueblo Archaeology Center: at times throughout the coming year, Old Pueblo is offering multi-session online classes on a variety of topics including - but not necessarily limited to! - Archaeology of the Southwest, The Fiber of our Being: The Origins and Antiquity of Perishable Material Culture, and Recent Discoveries Regarding Point of Pines Pueblo. Click on these links for more information from Old Pueblo on these and other programs and events. Because the GCAS maintains an organizational membership with Old Pueblo, Old Pueblo offers discounts to individual GCAS members on many of their programs and events, so when signing up for an event, make a point of telling them you're a GCAS member. Old Pueblo has also posted recordings of many of their Third Thursday Food for Thought and Indigenous Interests webinar presentations on their Youtube channel. GCAS says check them out: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDgPTetfOL9FHuAW49TrSig/videos.
The Society for American Archaeology (SAA) and their affiliate, the Council of Allied Societies (CoAS) work to build meaningful relationships between professional and avocational archaeologists. They act as clearinghouses for events, programs, and volunteer opportunities to suit all tastes and abilities. Go here to access SAA's digital versions of a variety of their regular publications. Enjoy!
Ron Barber, creator of the Stone Calendar Project, has been studying rock art sites throughout the Southwest and Northern Mexico identifying glyphs that mark specific times of the year using unique light and shadow interactions. He has some survey predictions for glyphs along the Gila Narrows and other southern sites and is looking for volunteers to help in further research. Anyone who is interested in spending time in the field recording/filming calendar sun light interactions in the region, please contact Ron directly at [email protected] . Click here for more of Ron's background.
The Texas Archaeological Society is based in San Marcos, Texas, and offers a wide variety of events and research/educational opportunities for the avocational and professional communities. Visit their website to learn how they provide support for research grants, scholarships, and more.
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