NEXT MEETING: Wednesday, November 20, 2024, 6:00 PM: Please join the GCAS as we move to our wintertime location - the clubhouse at 2045 Memory Lane in Silver City, New Mexico. Our November meeting is our GCAS annual meeting so bring your questions, opinions, and votes (!) as we elect two new members to our board of directors. No potluck during the winter months but some light refreshments will be on offer. We will follow our typically brief business meeting with our Featured Speaker, NMSU graduate student in Anthropology, Tuesday Critz, who will discuss her ongoing research at Cottonwood Spring Pueblo (LA 175): Ceramic Exchange in a Multiethnic Community during the El Paso Phase (AD 1275/1300 – 1450). Tuesday indicates her research is in its early stages so the GCAS is being treated to a sneak preview. Please join us for our annual meeting and to learn more about Tuesday and her work.

NEXT FIELD TRIP: November 3, 2024: Marilyn Markel will lead GCAS members and their guests on this month's field trip to two sites - a Mimbres site and the nearby Terry Canyon Village pithouse site. Meet at 10:00 am sharp at the Mimbres Ranger Station on Hwy 35 at about mile marker 11. The large Georgetown phase pithouse site is a steep/rough hike but worth it. Those who don't hike to the top of the hill can wait below at the pleasant pine forest by the Mimbres site where we will eat lunch. Please be aware November 3 is the start of Daylight Saving Time when clocks are turned back an hour. As always, in order to protect sensitive archaeological sites we limit our field trips to GCAS members and their guests who can ride in the member's car. See you there and, mind the time!

Field Trips

GCAS August 2024 Field Trip To Treasure Hill

IMG_20240804_103935204_HDRcopy IMG_20240804_101346351_HDROn a very warm and sunny Sunday, August 4, 2024, twenty one members of the Grant County Archaeological Society (GCAS), coming from as far away as El Paso, Texas, gathered together to explore the Archaeological Conservancy’s Treasure Hill site located in our very own Arenas Valley. Archaeologists consider this Late Pithouse-to-Mimbres Classic site (roughly 550 CE – 1130 CE), comprising a total of 100 rooms in 6 room blocks plus an additional 24 outlying sites, to have been the largest Mimbres community in the middle Rio de Arenas/Whiskey Creek watershed. Unfortunately Treasure Hill, like so many other Mimbres sites, has suffered heavy looting from the late 19th Century to the present. A major road and residential development surround it and it has accumulated windblown trash as well as garbage carried in by unauthorized visitors.Consequently...

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GCAS 2024 Field Trip To Treasure Hill

MA198 - Treasure Hill - restoredSunday, August 4, 2024, 10:00 AM: This month's field trip takes the GCAS to Treasure Hill, located 4 miles east of Silver City in the Arenas Valley and about 1 mile south of Highway 180. Treasure Hill is a heavily looted 15-acre site with a total of about 100 pueblo rooms, ranging from the Late Pithouse to the Classic Mimbres era (about 550 CE - 1130 CE). We will meet at the gate to the site at 10:00 AM sharp but this site is in a sensitive location so please contact trip leader Marianne Smith ([email protected] or phone/text 772-529-2627) for specific directions.

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News from the Jornada Research Institute

Our friends to the east at the Jornada Research Institute have sent us an update on their archaeological activities and invite interested folks to join in the fun. JRI president Dave Greenwald reports that their work continues at Creekside Village including in the great kiva area. During March into April, volunteers will help complete one 2 m by 5 m area within the great kiva. Dave describes JRI’s further investigations:

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2023's Last Field Trip

C-Bar EA1 C-Bar EA7Our last field trip of 2023 happened on December 3 when Kyle Meredith guided about 13 GCAS members to the C-Bar Ranch area of the Burro Mountains. The day was cool, dry, and pleasant - well suited to exploring archaeological sites and features on foot. Kyle reported it was a perfect day, with the group about equally divided between established members and folks fairly new to the GCAS. We're certain everyone enjoyed the trip, judging by the photos Kyle and Eduardo Arguello took of people in action.

C-Bar EA8Kyle provided the two photos shown of pictographs enhanced by dStretch software, and Eduardo shared his group shots. Thanks to both Eduardo and Kyle for their reports!

Pictos 1b Pictos 2b/s/ webmaster


San Lorenzo Elementary Returns to WNMU Museum!

IMG_1800Last week, on September 29, the 4th and 5th grade classes at San Lorenzo Elementary School returned to the WNMU Museum for a special tour and workshop day. This was their second year in a row to visit the museum and the GCAS was happy to once again cover the cost of their bus transport and to volunteer to help the museum director and teachers make the day a success.

IMG_1805These young students first learned about the Mimbres and puebloan cultures from the museum director, Danni Romero herself. Then they got busy with a range of hands-on activities. They selected their favorite image from a Mimbres bowl on display, then were challenged to recreate it as their own sketch...

IMG_1801...They examined and sorted a table full of potsherds painted in the Reserve style located at sites in the Quemado, New Mexico area....

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IMG_1803 IMG_1806...At yet another workshop station these students painted assorted images in their own designs -- but the results looked like the kind of fine imagery we see in pictographs and petroglyphs at sites throughout our region.

The GCAS will continue to support the industrious young folk at San Lorenzo Elementary and we look forward to making this a regular, annual event at the WNMU Museum. Thanks go to the museum staff, the teachers, the volunteers, and especially the students for having made this day a special one. We'll be all set next year to welcome the San Lo 4th-5th grade classes of 2024!

/s/ webmaster [All photos courtesy of Marilyn Gendron]


Field Trip Ideas, Please!

Indian Wells pit house vista 1The GCAS always looks for new places to visit or old places to revisit. Day trips and overnight adventures are in the mix. We welcome every one of our members, from brand-new to our Grizzled Old Timers, to give our group your own ideas - where would YOU like to go for our next field trip? Archaeological sites and historic sites like forts, missions, & mines are all cool by us.

Ft bowie ruin - photo by G.ConlinWe've traveled as far afield as Paquime, Mexico; and as close to home as Gomez Peak. We've visited Three Rivers, and have recorded the rock art at the Dragonfly Petroglyph. Anything goes, near or far! Some of our members are willing to lead any field trips up their way -- but new leaders are welcome too! What do you know? What areas do you like the best? Please share with us - we want to keep exploring!

/s/ webmaster


Repost: Archaeological Society of New Mexico's Annual Meeting Is Next Month

Plan now for the Archaeological Society of New Mexico (ASNM)'s annual meeting at the Ruidoso Convention Center from Friday, May 5 through Sunday, May 7, 2023. The Jornada Research Institute, one of ASNM's affiliate organizations, is planning and organizing this year's meeting. Tentative theme is “By Leaps and Bounds: Recent Advances in Archaeological Inquiry across Southeastern New Mexico,” which explores a number of contributing discoveries that have expanded archaeological interpretations across this vast region of the State.

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Archaeological Society of New Mexico's Annual Meeting Comes in May

3riosFriday through Sunday, May 5 through 7, 2023: The Archaeological Society of New Mexico (ASNM)'s annual meeting is scheduled for the Ruidoso Convention Center. ASNM affiliate organization, planned and organized this year by the Jornada Research Institute. Tentative theme for this meeting is “By Leaps and Bounds: Recent Advances in Archaeological Inquiry across Southeastern New Mexico,” which explores a number of contributing discoveries that have expanded archaeological interpretations across this vast region of the State. The 2023 meeting launches on the afternoon of May 5 with ASNM's board meeting, a rock art meeting, and certification meeting followed by a “meet and greet” cash bar, buffet dinner, and presentation on The Archaeology of Tularosa Canyon. The day of May 6 will consist of the presentation of papers by various speakers, an evening social hour, dinner, and awards. Myles Miller will present the evening's Bandelier Lecture, summarizing the advances that have been made and interpretations generated through archaeological survey, excavations, rock art studies, ethnohistory, and archaeoastronomy; and describing the increasingly greater precision of various remote sensing techniques, artifact analyses, and chronometric dates. Expect a variety of tours (still TBD) to local sites on May 7.

Save the dates and watch JRI's announcement page for registration information and updates as they develop. We'll see you there!

/s/ webmaster


Reposting: Special March Event with AAHS

Pat Gilman describes her excavationCurrent GCAS member and supporter, and past member of the Mimbres Foundation, archaeologist Pat Gilman announces that the Arizona Archaeological and Historical Society is in the preliminary stages of planning a field trip to the Mimbres Valley from Friday, March 10, through Sunday, March 12, 2023. They've booked a room at the Little Toad Creek Brewery for Friday dinner (March 10), hoping that they can also use the room for a brief Powerpoint overview of Mimbres archaeology presented by Pat Gilman herself.

AAHS is inviting GCAS members to join them for the March 10 dinner - dutch treat - and then join them for any or all parts of the weekend tour they have in mind. Pat reminds us that the AAHS is still in the early planning stages for this field trip, but she asks GCAS members to “Please let me know if you can join us for dinner and the show*.  The Little Toad Creek Brewery would like to know about how many people will be at dinner.  I don’t need to know if you will join us for any parts of the field trip itself, but I hope you can.  I want to show off what you all have done, and I’d like you to talk about it. And I’d like our members to be able to chat with you all who know so much about the local archaeology and the valley.”

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Mark Your Calendars - Join the AAHS and Us for a Special March Event

Pony Hills panel 1Current GCAS member and supporter, and past member of the Mimbres Foundation, archaeologist Pat Gilman announces that the Arizona Archaeological and Historical Society is in the preliminary stages of planning a field trip to the Mimbres Valley from Friday, March 10, through Sunday, March 12, 2023. They've booked a room at the Little Toad Creek Brewery for Friday dinner (March 10), hoping that they can also use the room for a brief Powerpoint overview of Mimbres archaeology presented by Pat Gilman herself.

AAHS is inviting GCAS members to join them for the March 10 dinner - dutch treat - and then join them for any or all parts of the weekend tour they have in mind. Pat reminds us that the AAHS is still in the early planning stages for this field trip, but she asks GCAS members to “Please let me know if you can join us for dinner and the show*.  The Little Toad Creek Brewery would like to know about how many people will be at dinner.  I don’t need to know if you will join us for any parts of the field trip itself, but I hope you can.  I want to show off what you all have done, and I’d like you to talk about it. And I’d like our members to be able to chat with you all who know so much about the local archaeology and the valley.”

This is an excellent opportunity to get acquainted with our neighbors in Arizona's AAHS so the GCAS is welcoming our members to this weekend event as both our monthly field trip AND our monthly meeting for March!

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