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 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Watch this Events Page to learn when conditions allow our GCAS general meetings to resume.

May 2020: Celebrate National Preservation Month. Options in the Silver City/Mimbres Valley region remain subject to statewide closures through at least May 15, 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic so celebrate National Preservation Month with your favorite online sources, and consider making a donation to your favorite preservation nonprofit!

Saturday, May 23, 2020, 2:00 PM in El Paso - El Paso Museum of Archaeology's 2020 lecture series features University of New Mexico PhD candidate and 2018/2019 GCAS Coinman Grant Award recipient, Thatcher A. Rogers MS. THE MUSEUM HAS BEEN CLOSED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE. For updates as they develop, contact the museum directly on the EPMA website.

Friday, June 5, 2020: Pursuant to Governor Michelle Lujan-Grisham's most recent advisory, beginning on June 5, 2020, the Mimbres Cultural 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 stop by to inspect the changes. 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. To check Governor Lujan-Grisham's most recent advisory, go to New Mexico's Department of Health newsroom. For updates on tours and visits to the Mimbres Culture Heritage Site, contact the MCHS directly.

Wednesday, June 17, 2020, 6:00 PM: This GCAS general meeting HAS BEEN CANCELLED. Keep safe, take a break, and watch this page for the announcement that regular monthly meetings have resumed. We'll see you soon!

Friday June 26, 2020, 4-5 p.m. (Free), at Hillsboro Community Center, 316 Elenora Street, Hillsboro, NM - archaeologist Allen Dart presents, "Archaeology's Deep Time Perspective on Environment and Social Sustainability" to the Hillsboro Historical Society. Everyone welcome. Allen Dart explains,

The deep time perspective that archaeology and related disciplines provide about natural hazards, environmental change, and human adaptation not only is a valuable supplement to historical records, it sometimes contradicts historical data used by modern societies to make decisions affecting social sustainability and human safety. What can be learned from scientific evidence that virtually all pre-European Contact period farming cultures in Arizona and the Southwest eventually surpassed their thresholds of sustainability, leading to collapse or reorganization of their societies? Could the disastrous damages to nuclear power plants damaged by the Japanese tsunami of 2011 have been avoided if the engineers who decided where to build those plants had not ignored evidence of prehistoric tsunamis? This presentation looks at archaeological, geological, and sustainable-agricultural evidence on environmental changes and how human cultures have adapted to those changes, and discusses the value of a "beyond history" perspective for modern society.

For more information contact Harley Shaw at 575-895-5385 or hgshaw4@gmail.com. For other events in Arizona, check Old Pueblo's Events page for details.

Saturday, June 27, 2020, 2:00 PM in El Paso - El Paso Museum of Archaeology 2020 lecture series continues with Allen Dart RPA. THE MUSEUM HAS BEEN CLOSED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE. For updates as they develop, contact the museum directly on the EPMA website.

Sunday June 28, 2020, 2-3:30 p.m. (Free): Good Samaritan Society Las Cruces Village’s Stuckey Auditorium, 3011 Buena Vida Circle, Las Cruces, NM - archaeologist Allen Dart presents "Southwestern Rock Calendars and Ancient Time Pieces" to the Doña Ana Archaeological Society. Everyone welcome. Allen Dart describes,

Native Americans in the Southwest developed sophisticated skills in astronomy and predicting the seasons, centuries before Old World peoples first entered the region. In this presentation archaeologist Allen Dart discusses the petroglyphs at Picture Rocks, the architecture of the “Great House” at Arizona's Casa Grande Ruins, and other archaeological evidence of ancient southwestern astronomy and calendrical reckoning; and interprets how these discoveries may have related to ancient Native American rituals.

For more information contact David Kirkpatrick at dkirkpatrick49@comcast.net. For other events in Arizona, check Old Pueblo's Events page for details.

Wednesday, August 19, 2020, 6:00 PM: GCAS general meeting at the Roundup Lodge in San Lorenzo (Mimbres Valley). Everyone is invited to bring a dish and share in our potluck dinner. Following is the GCAS General Meeting, and rounding out the evening is our Featured Speaker, Allen Dart, archaeologist with the US Natural Resources Conservation Service in Phoenix and founder/Executive Director of Old Pueblo Archaeology Center in Tucson. His  evening's topic: "Old Time Religion? The Salado Phenomenon in the U.S. Southwest." Join us to hear about how:

When first recognized by archaeologists in the early twentieth century, a constellation of peculiar cultural traits in the southwestern United States, including polychrome (three-colored) pottery, above-ground housing often enclosed in walled compounds, and monumental architecture, was thought to be indicative of a distinct group of people: "the Salado." As more and more research was done and the widespread distribution of Salado material culture became apparent, interpretations of what the Salado phenomenon represents was debated. In this presentation archaeologist Allen Dart illustrates pottery and other cultural attributes of the so-called Salado culture, reviews some of the theories about the Salado, and discusses how Salado related to the Ancestral Pueblo, Mogollon, Hohokam, and Casas Grandes cultures of the "Greater Southwest" (the U.S. Southwest and Mexico's Northwest).

Tuesday, September 22, 2020, in Tucson AZ: Autumn Equinox Tour of Los Morteros and Picture Rocks Petroglyphs Archaeological Sites. Request reservations by going to Old Pueblo Archaeology Center, but first, get current COVID-19-related info from the Arizona Republic.

Saturday October 3, 2020, 8:00 AM - 4:00 PM: Chiricahua Mountains, AZ - Old Pueblo Archaeology Center’s "Historic Camp Rucker: Apache Wars Outpost Tour" with Bill Gillespie meets on west side of Houghton Road just south of Interstate-10 Exit 275, Tucson. This is a fundraising tour – Each registrant is asked to make a donation to help cover Old Pueblo’s tour expenses and support its education programs about archaeology and traditional cultures.

Well off the beaten path in the southern part of the Chiricahua Mountains is the site of Camp Rucker, a small military post established by the U.S. Army in 1878.  The location selected in Whitewater (later Rucker) Canyon was one the ancient Mogollon people had picked centuries before.  The Army post was small, never garrisoned by more than a single company, and officially lasted only a couple of years.  For most of that time soldiers and officers lived in tents but in 1880 soldiers started building a small number of stone and adobe structures, some of which are still standing. High clearance vehicles are recommended.  Participants provide their own transportation, lunches, and water. Bill Gillespie, who was a Coronado National Forest archaeologist for 25 years, and his Forest Service colleague Mary Farrell conducted volunteer projects at Camp Rucker and successfully nominated the Rucker Canyon Archaeological District to the National Register of Historic Places.

Donation prepayment required within 10 days of reservation request; last day to request reservations is 5 p.m. Wednesday September 30: 520-798-1201 or info@oldpueblo.org. IF YOU WOULD LIKE A FLYER emailed to you with color photos about the Camp Rucker tour send an email to info@oldpueblo.org with “Send Rucker trip flyer” in your email subject line.
For other events in Arizona, check Old Pueblo's Events page for details.

February 23-March 5, 2021: Exploring Roman and Etruscan Archaeological History. David Greenwald of the Jornada Research Institute leads an 11-day trip to Rome, Italy, and environs. Interested travelers, please email David Greenwald directly (dgreenwald@tularosa.net) for the itinerary, prices, and more documents.

Thursday, March 18, 2021, in Tucson AZ: “Subjective Color in Mimbres Black-on-white Pottery” dinner presentation by Dr. Stephanie M. Whittlesey as part of Old Pueblo Archaeology Center's Third Thursday Food for Thought program. Follow details by visiting Old Pueblo's website.

May 7-9, 2021: Archaeological Society of New Mexico's annual meeting hosted by the Taos Archaeological Society HAS BEEN POSTPONED UNTIL 2021. Visit the Taos Archaeological Society's website for updates as they develop.

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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