It's the time of year to visit the Mimbres Culture Heritage Site for their annual Hummingbird Festival, this coming weekend on Saturday, July 29 and Sunday, July 30. It starts tomorrow, people, so get ready now! Gas up the car, load the family, and drive eastbound from Silver City out Highway 152 to the Mimbres Valley. Turn left (north) onto Highway 35 and continue past mile marker 3; a few yards past the defunct Mimbres Valley Cafe turn right where you see the brown sign pointing you to the Mimbres Culture Heritage Site. Join the action from 8AM to 3PM both days for all kinds of big fun as we all learn about archaeology, ornithology, and much, much more. The GCAS will have an educational booth on site, and our GCAS library will offer a used book sale with titles to suit all tastes. Check out the HummerFest flyer over here on the left. For details, click to enlarge!

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Our July 19, 2023, general meeting and fundraiser for the WNMU Museum featured US Forest Service archaeologist Chris Adams who presented Mimbres Pottery - Feather Imagery." An in-person audience of 48 enjoyed Chris's presentation in air-conditioned splendor, surrounded by the Museum's exhibits of Mimbres artifacts.  Over 36 others had signed up online via Zoom. We were thrilled with the crowd's enthusiasm for Chris's talk and their generous support of the Museum during this fundraiser. The Museum wrote:

Join our monthly GCAS meeting at the Mimbres Valley's Roundup Lodge, 91 Acklin Hill Road in San Lorenzo, New Mexico, near the junction of Highways 152 and 35, when we welcome our Featured Speaker, Katie Baustian - Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York.

Doors open at 5:00 PM for a potluck dinner so bring a dish for yourself or to share. Brief GCAS business meeting begins at 5:30 PM followed immediately by Katie's presentation that will guide us to: Understanding the Mimbres Through Bioarchaeology.

Using bioarchaeological and archaeological methods, Katie Baustian's work explores the use of violence, adaptations to stress, and social relationships among the Mimbres and Mogollon of the prehistoric American Southwest. She excavated for seven seasons at the Harris and Elk Ridge sites in the Mimbres Valley but has more recently been conducting research at museum repositories to understand how teeth can show evidence of relatedness and kinship in the region.

In order to offer our members a safe and comfortable experience at our in-person meetings 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.

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Thursdays, 10:00 AM to 3:30 PM, from March 23, 2023, and continuing each following Thursday at WNMU's Museum in Fleming Hall: the public is invited to see the Archaeologist in Action in the museum's second floor exhibit room, currently featuring the Elk Ridge Open House. Visit WNMU Museum director Danni Romero and a group of the museum's volunteer explainers as they process and prepare a new museum collection for future exhibit. Repeat visitors welcome!

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Wednesday, April 19, 2023: the GCAS meets at 2045 Memory Lane in Silver City, New Mexico. Light refreshments provided; OK to bring your own light snacks or handy meal (burrito, etc.) and beverage if desired. Doors open at 5:00 PM for socializing. Meeting starts at 5:30PM sharp with a super-short business meeting followed at 5:45PM by this month's Featured Speaker: historian, award-winning author, and GCAS member Carolyn O’Bagy Davis. Carolyn is a fourth-generation descendant of Utah pioneers who has written 16 books on the history of archaeology, quilting, and Southwestern history. So far. When taking breaks from writing, she has curated numerous traveling museum exhibits. Please join us as Carolyn reintroduces our group to Bert and Hattie Cosgrove, avocational archaeologists who were very active in our area during the 20th Century and who were instrumental in documenting and preserving a number of local sites, including Treasure Hill in the Arenas Valley. As Carolyn describes in Hattie Cosgrove: Pioneer Mimbres Archaeologist:

Current 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.”

Current 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!

Wednesday, February 15, 2023: the GCAS meets again at 2045 Memory Lane in Silver City, New Mexico. Light refreshments provided and OK to bring your own light snacks or handy meal (burrito, etc.) and beverage. Meeting starts at 5:30PM sharp with a brief to nonexistent business meeting followed at 5:45PM by our featured speaker, the redoubtable archaeologist Chris Adams. Chris will showcase for us the Feather Imagery Depicted on Mimbres Pottery. Expect meeting to adjourn about 7:00PM. As ever, 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. Learn more about Chris's significant career in protection and preservation:

Current 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.

This is an excellent opportunity for GCAS members to get acquainted with our neighbors in Arizona's AAHS, so the GCAS has scheduled this weekend event as our March field trip - please join us!

Wednesday January 11, 2023, 4:00PM MST in-person in Silver City, New Mexico; and online via Zoom: sponsored by Silver City's Southwest Word Fiesta, it's a FREE presentation by WNMU's Director of the Fleming Museum, archaeologist Danni Romero, who will discuss the Hidden Word of the Mimbres: Glimpses of Daily Life through Pottery.