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 as we emerge from the coronavirus pandemic.
Watch this Events Page to learn when conditions allow our GCAS general meetings to resume in-person. In the meantime please enjoy our online meetings via Zoom.
Please join our current donors and contribute to the GCAS's priority project, the development of the historic Wood House at the Mimbres Culture Heritage Site into the Mimbres Archaeological Research and Education Center. Rehabilitation/construction is ongoing and we have now passed 80% toward our fundraising goal of $10,000. We welcome donations in any amount so please join our supporters in making this project happen! Learn about the project here, and make your donations either online or by standard mail here. [Photo: Mattocks Site/Mimbres Culture Heritage Site. Wood House, center. © Mitchell Clinton, Mitchell Clinton Photography. All Rights Reserved.]
Considering a visit to the Mimbres Culture Heritage Site? Check for further updates and to confirm tours and museum access by telephoning the MCHS directly at 575.536.3092 or 307.640.3012. To check Governor Lujan-Grisham's most recent advisory, go to New Mexico's Department of Health newsroom.
Thursday September 16, 2021, 7 to 8:30 p.m. ARIZONA/Mountain Standard Time (same as Pacific Daylight Time), free online via Zoom: it's Old Pueblo Archaeology Center’s “Third Thursday Food for Thought” dinnertime program featuring “The People behind the Petroglyphs: The Cultural Landscape of the Lower Gila River” by anthropologist Dr. Aaron M. Wright.
Aaron Wright at a petroglyphs site in the
lower Gila River valley, photo by Paul Vanderveen
The lower Gila River in southwestern Arizona is renowned for the sheer abundance and uniqueness of the petroglyphs adorning the cliffs and buttes lining it. Places such as the Painted Rock Petroglyph Site and Sears Point, and a growing campaign to establish a national monument or conservation area attest to the richness, value, and significance of this cultural landscape. Lesser known, though, are the Indigenous communities responsible for populating the landscape with such a stunning array of images. Hohokam and Patayan cultural traditions are often mentioned, but the relationship between them and each’s role in constructing the cultural landscape we see today has long puzzled researchers. Based on his four years of directing intensive archaeological survey, and analyzing over 30,000 petroglyphs in the lower Gila Valley, Aaron Wright will highlight some of what this work has revealed. He will pay particular attention to relating the region’s petroglyphs to their nearby archaeological habitation sites in an effort to better understand the people behind it all. Dr. Wright is a Preservation Anthropologist with Archaeology Southwest, Tucson. To register go to https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_bJEZgWMbTlydBwV_lCeXqQ. For more information contact Old Pueblo at info@oldpueblo.org or 520-798-1201.
Monday September 20, 2021, 7-8:30 p.m. ARIZONA/Mountain Standard Time, free online via Zoom: “Early Formal Ceremonial Complexes and Olmec-Maya Interaction” presentation by Takeshi 
Inomata and Daniela Triadan, sponsored by Arizona Archaeological and Historical Society (AAHS), Tucson
Illustration courtesy of AAHS
The origins of Maya civilization and its relation with Olmec civilization have long been debated. To examine this question, archaeologists Takeshi Inomata and Daniela Triadan have been conducting archaeological investigations at Ceibal, Guatemala, and in the Middle Usumacinta region in southeastern Mexico. In Mexico, they identified the site of Aguada Fénix, with a rectangular artificial plateau measuring 1,400 m in length and dating to 1,050-750 BC. This is the largest and oldest monumental construction in the Maya area. This find encouraged them to expand their study of similar formal ceremonial complexes by analyzing LiDAR data. By examining low-resolution LiDAR obtained by the Mexican government, they covered an area of 85,000 km2, including the Olmec region and the western Maya lowlands. The identifications of many complexes, most of which were not known to archaeologists before their research, transform our understanding of the emergence of Mesoamerican civilizations. Takeshi Inomata and Daniela Triadan are professors in the School of Anthropology, University of Arizona. No reservations needed for this presentation. For details as they develop visit www.az-arch-and-hist.org.
Thursday, September 23, 2021, in Blanding, Utah, at the Edge of the Cedars State Park Museum: "Painting Pottery the Ancient Way," a one-afternoon workshop in ancient ceramics painting techniques hosted by Cherylene Caver and Tori Hoopes, both accomplished ceramics replicators. Students will complete a bowl or mug with a design of their choice. Pieces will then be fired in the group kiln on Saturday morning. The 5 hours of instruction will include how to prepare organic paint, mineral based paint, how to make a yucca brush and tips on how to "pull a line", how to load a yucca brush, "getting into the flow", how to deal with mistakes, pros and cons of green vs. dried yucca leaf, as well as endless other tips! Class fee is $100-$150 depending on the ceramic of your choice. To register go to cherylenecaver.com/contact to send an email message asking to sign up. Include your name and email address. Full workshop announcement is here, and learn even more at the Home page here.
Friday, September 24 through Sunday, September 26, 2021: It's the 2021 Southwest Kiln Conference at the Edge of the Cedars State Park Museum in Blanding, Utah. Details and registration here.
Tuesday October 5, 2021, 6 to 7 p.m.: Archaeology Café's free online lecture, “Ancestral Pueblo Turkey Penning in Perspective,” by Cyler Conrad sponsored by Archaeology Southwest (ASW), Tucson. Cyler Conrad (Los Alamos National Laboratory and University of New Mexico) will discuss “Ancestral Pueblo Turkey Penning in Perspective” to explore how archaeologists have identified and contextualized turkey pens in the Ancestral Pueblo archaeological record, what that means for understanding turkey management, and how conceptualizing turkey penning allows us to better understand the processes of turkey domestication and long-term human-turkey relationships. More info and registration here.
October 18, 2021, 7-8:30 p.m. ARIZONA/Mountain Standard Time: Free online presentation of “Eastern Pueblo Immigrants on the Middle Gila River” by archaeologist Chris Loendorf sponsored by Arizona Archaeological and Historical Society (AAHS), Tucson. Description coming. For details as they develop visit www.az-arch-and-hist.org.
Tuesday November 2, 2021, 6 to 7 p.m.: Free online via Zoom, join Archaeology Café's lecture, “Turkeys in the Mimbres Valley” by archaeologist Sean Dolan sponsored by Archaeology Southwest (ASW) of Tucson. Sean Dolan (N3B Los Alamos) will discuss Turkeys in New Mexico’s Mimbres Valley using pottery iconography, ancient mtDNA analysis, and stable carbon and nitrogen bone isotope analysis. He also will explore how people in the Mimbres Valley interacted with turkeys. More info and registration here.
Wednesday, October 20, 2021, online via Zoom: GCAS general meeting. Our Featured Speaker will be our own Thatcher Rogers, research associate at the Jornada Research Institute, discussing his investigations into late prehispanic dynamics in the Northern Jornada Mogollon (Lincoln) area, with special emphasis on the excavations at Robinson Pueblo village. Details forthcoming about this enticing subject. As usual, expect to receive your Zoom invitation/link about a week prioer, then hop online on October 20 at about 6:45 PM to get settled; Thatcher will begin his talk at 7PM sharp.
Tuesday November 16, 2021, 7 p.m. CENTRAL Standard Time: Free online presentation of “Hohokam and Mimbres Rock Art and Ideology” by archaeologist Allen Dart sponsored by The Aztlander Magazine of the Ancient Americas. Comparison of 1000-1130 CE Mimbres-culture petroglyphs in New Mexico and contemporaneous glyphs of the Hohokam culture of southern Arizona helps define the limits of these two ancient southwestern cultures. Aspects of their rock art and other material culture also provide clues to their different ideologies. Certain icons are common to both Mimbres and Hohokam rock art, whereas each culture also exhibits repeated motifs that apparently were not produced by the other. Comparing and contrasting the shared and unshared rock art images, and other aspects of Mimbres and Hohokam cultures, suggests similarities as well as differences in their respective religious practices and beliefs. For more information contact Michael Ruggeri at michaelruggeri@mac.com.
Thursday November 18, 2021, 7 to 8:30 p.m. ARIZONA/Mountain Standard Time, free online via Zoom: Old Pueblo Archaeology Center’s “Third Thursday Food for Thought” features “Horses in Rock Art” by archaeologist Larry Loendorf. 
Robert Mark photograph of a segment of the
1805 Spanish Cavalcade rock art panel
in Canyon del Muerto, Arizona
Pictographs and petroglyphs of horses have been made since those animals were reintroduced to North America by the Spanish in the 1500s. After horses were in use by northern Plains Indians, they drew hundreds of scenes that include horses and their riders, often in war-related activities. Archaeologists have studied enough of these scenes to be able to recognize Crow horses, Blackfoot horses, Comanche horses, and those of other peoples. Depictions of horses also are found on rocks on the southern Plains and across the Colorado Plateau, but not in large numbers. There are places, however, where they are common. For example, there are hundreds of horse depictions at sites in Canyon del Muerto, Arizona. Archaeological research on one spectacular panel there by Robert Mark, Stephen Jett, and Sacred Sites Research, combined with information gleaned from studying other rock art horses in the Intermountain West, is the topic of this presentation by archaeologist Lawrence (Larry) Loendorf, PhD. To register go to us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_8GG8qpgjRPOeqJ1pvge1hQ. For more information contact Old Pueblo at info@oldpueblo.org or 520-798-1201.
Tuesday December 7, 2021, 6 to 7 p.m.: Free online, it's “Turkey Feather Blankets in Ancestral Pueblo History” Archaeology Café lecture by Bill Lipe and Mary Weahkee sponsored by Archaeology Southwest (ASW) of Tucson. For over 1,600 years, a distinctive Southwestern domestic turkey furnished feathers for ritual uses and for making warm blankets. The birds also became a significant food source after about 1200 CE. Bill Lipe (Professor Emeritus, Washington State University) will discuss archaeological evidence of the development of feather blankets and how they contributed to Ancestral Pueblo lives, and Mary Weahkee (New Mexico Office of Archaeological Studies), the best known present-day replicator of turkey feather blankets, will discuss some techniques used in making them. More info and registration here.
Thursday December 16, 2021, 7 to 8:30 p.m. ARIZONA/Mountain Standard Time. Free online via Zoom, it's Old Pueblo Archaeology Center’s “Third Thursday Food for Thought” dinnertime program featuring “Apache Warriors Tell Their Side” presentation by author-historian Lynda A. Sánchez. Eve Ball (1890-1984) was a noted New Mexico chronicler of Apache, Anglo and Hispanic history. Obtaining their trust over many years, she began interviewing over 67 of the participants and descendants of those implacable warriors who fought the Apache Wars. By listening to, rather than trying to talk over, the old-timers, Eve gathered fresh information and a differing point of view long before it was popular to do so. Historian and educator Lynda A. Sánchez will present background about Eve and her stubborn desire to learn from the Apaches and from their side of the fence, and will describe what it was like working side by side with this amazing woman. To register go to https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_JYWiXGriRjOBGKe5OW0rfA. For more information contact Old Pueblo at info@oldpueblo.org or 520-798-1201.
January 4, 2022, 6:00PM MST: “Ducks, Power, and the San Juan Basketmakers” featuring Polly Schaafsma (Museum of Indian Arts and Culture/Laboratory of Anthropology). FREE online via Zoom and Archaeology Southwest. More info and registration here.
February 1, 2022, 6:00PM MST: “The Importance of Birds in Chaco Canyon” presented by Katelyn Bishop (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign). FREE online via Zoom and the folks at Archaeology Southwest. More info and registration here.
March 1, 2022, 6:00PM MST: “Birds, Feathers, and Ancient Pueblo Pottery” featuring Kelley Hays-Gilpin (Northern Arizona University and Museum of Northern Arizona). FREE online via Zoom and Archaeology Southwest. More info and registration here.
April 5, 2022, 6:00PM MST: “A Rafter of Burials: Sapa’owingeh Turkey Interments” offered by Rachel Burger (Southern Methodist University). FREE online via Zoom and Archaeology Southwest. More info and registration here.
May 3, 2022, 6:00PM MST: Archaeology Southwest closes their Avian Archaeology season with "Birds of the Sun: Macaws, Parrots, and People" - presented by Christopher W. Schwartz (Arizona State University), Patricia A. Gilman (University of Oklahoma) and Stephen Plog (Professor Emeritus, University of Virginia). FREE online via Zoom. More info and registration here.
Through August 4, 2022: "Woven Through Time: American Treasures of Native Basketry and Fiber Art" at the Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona, Tucson. Details here.
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