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 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) in the historic Wood House at the Mimbres Culture Heritage Site. The GCAS is now working in our newly-furnished library and lab/workroom. 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 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.]
From now and continuing through February 8, 2023: The El Paso Museum of Archaeology on Transmountain Road features a temporary exhibit in their North Gallery, White Sands Fossil Tracks, that includes casts and molds of the fossilized animal and human tracks found at various sites in White Sands National Park and the surrounding White Sands Missile Range. These tracks have recently been dated to be about 23,000 to 21,000 years old, impelling anthropologists and archaeologists to reconsider their assumptions that early human occupation of the Western Hemisphere did not begin until about 15,000 years ago. The exhibit uses the fossil footprints and animal tracks to explain the interaction of ancient humans with their environment and the last of the Ice Age megafauna. Archaeology Magazine proclaimed these findings as one of 2021's top ten world archaeological discoveries. Click here to arrange your trip in accordance with the museum's address, open hours, and directions.
Sunday, December 4, 2022, 10:00AM - The GCAS meets for this month's field trip at WNMU's Museum at Fleming Hall for a guided tour by museum director Danielle Romero. Come to view the new and innovative exhibits that Danni and her staff have already put on display, and hear about the museum's work in curating their vast collections. Ask about the museum's plans for future displays and how you can become involved in the process! (For those unfamiliar, the entrance to the museum is across a small parking lot adjacent to the Aldo Leopold Charter School. From downtown Silver City, drive westbound along W 10th Street until it curves uphill and becomes N Louisiana Street right where the school and the museum are located, on the north side of the street. For more details, visit the museum's web page.) We'll see you there!
Thursday December 15, 2022, 7PM-8:30PM Arizona/Mountain Standard Time: Free Online via Zoom: Old Pueblo Archaeology Center's "Third Thursday Food for Thought" features archaeologist Vance Holliday's presentation, Tracking the First Americans Across White Sands. 
Human footprints at White Sands locality Site 2, photo by Vance Holliday
The scientific community has debated the question of when people first arrived in the Americas for centuries. The conventional answer had been estimated at about 13,000 years ago based on the appearance of people who made distinctive Clovis points. Subsequently most (but not all) archaeologists accepted a few early occupations ca. 14,000 to ca. 16,000 years old as the oldest well-documented sites. The White Sands locality changed that for many, because it provides convincing evidence that humans were in what is now southern New Mexico between 23,000 and 21,000 years ago - the oldest obvious case thus far. In contrast with other sites debated as older than Clovis, in which evidence of human presence is based on interpretations of broken rocks or bones as possible tools, the human activity at White Sands is quite clear in the form of numerous footprints, and the dating of them is solid. The time range for the tracks at White Sands is significant because it puts people in the Americas during the last Ice Age, which means they were likely here before the last Ice Age covered essentially all of Canada from coast to coast maybe 25,000+ years ago. To register go to https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_WaNXdpOkRqarLzJO17MXgQ. For more information contact Old Pueblo at info@oldpueblo.org or 520-798-1201. For each Old Pueblo Zoom presentation, Old Pueblo's presenter decides whether to have their program recorded and made available online; no recording decision has yet been made for this program. If you would like Old Pueblo to email you a flyer with color photos about the above-listed activity email Old Pueblo with “Send December Third Thursday flyer” in your email subject line.
Wednesday, December 21, 2022, 5:00PM - The GCAS monthly in-person general meeting returns to 2045 Memory Lane in Silver City, New Mexico. about a block or two south of the intersection of Memory Lane and Hwy 180. This holiday get-together starts a bit earlier this month at 5PM with a holiday potluck - so bring your most festive dish, along with your own plates/utensils/beverage. A short business meeting will begin at 6:00PM followed by a program of videos and photo albums of past GCAS field trips, and a small display of samples from recently donated artifacts. Watch this space for more details as they develop but plan now to join us! In order to offer our members a safe and comfortable experience the GCAS follows CDC and New Mexico Department of Health guidelines for indoor gatherings including masking, distancing, and vaccinations. We recommend all attendees follow the same.
Sunday, January 1, 2023: The GCAS monthly field trip is deferred, as it falls on the New Year holiday.
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)
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.
As a member of the Council of Allied Societies, the GCAS receives 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.
Crow Canyon Archaeological Center: Programs, Research, and Education
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: Events and Programs
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 barbers6@aol.com . Click here for more of Ron's background.
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