Wednesday, September 20, 2023: Join us at our regular monthly meeting as we return to the Roundup Lodge in San Lorenzo (Mimbres Valley) near the junction of Highways 152 and 35 for the last time this year. Potluck starts at 5PM with your own plates/utensils/beverage & a dish for yourself or to share. Brief general meeting will begin at 5:40PM, then at 6PM sharp we welcome our Featured Speaker, GCAS member Jeff Banfield, who will present Hunting for Anasazi (Ancestral Puebloan) Sites in Canyon of the Ancients National Monument. Jeff arrived in the Canyon of the Ancients in an unconventional way: after retiring from the Math Department at Montana State University in 2012, Jeff and Lisa Banfield moved to Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic) where Lisa taught at an international school. Since returning to the US they have lived in Tucson, Cortez, and now Silver City. Jeff tells us:

In Santo Domingo I learned to never buy bananas from the street vendors because they always give you your change in bananas. In Tucson I volunteered as a naturalist in Sabino Canyon where I got to see a tarantula and a tarantula hawk battle it out (the wasp won). In Cortez I volunteered at the Anasazi Heritage Center and was able to spend four years wandering through Canyons of the Ancients National Monument looking for Anasazi (Ancestral Puebloan) sites. Now that we live in Silver City, I volunteer at City of Rocks State Park on Mondays and I spend the rest of the week trying to persuade something besides goatheads to grow in the caliche that makes up most of our yard.

We'll see you at the Roundup for a fine meal and to learn from Jeff about Ancestral Puebloan sites in Colorado!

/s/ webmaster

Everyone is welcome to attend the GCAS's monthly in-person meeting on Wednesday, June 21, 2023, at the Mimbres Valley's Roundup Lodge, 91 Acklin Hill Road in San Lorenzo, New Mexico, when we welcome our Featured Speaker, the GCAS's own archaeologist Marilyn Markel. Doors open at 5PM for a potluck dinner so bring a dish for yourself or to share. Brief GCAS business meeting begins at 5:45 PM followed immediately by Marilyn's presentation, Ridge Ruin: an Extraordinary Sinagua Site and a Story of Repatriation.

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.

Read on to learn more about Marilyn and the work she loves:

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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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!

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!

Register now! The 21st Biennial Mogollon Conference is happening early next month on Friday, November 4, 2022, thru Saturday, November 5, 2022, in the Student Union building on the University of Arizona campus in Tucson, Arizona. A reception, free of charge to all attendees, hosted by Archaeology Southwest on the evening of Thursday, November 3, 2022, kicks off the weekend and offers an excellent opportunity for students to mix with faculty and the rest of the professional community. Click here for registration info and more details, and revisit the Conference website for any updates. We'll see you in Tucson!

/s/ webmaster [photo by M.Smith]

The 2022 Southwest Kiln Conference is coming to town from Thursday, Oct. 6 thru Sunday, Oct. 9 at Silver City's own Western New Mexico University. Everyone is welcome and the conference is free. Expect to meet potters who work in a variety of ceramic traditions, making replicas of Anasazi, Hohokam and Mogollon pottery, offering glimpses of the entire process from collecting raw clay to forming and firing pots.

WNMU and museum director Danni Romero are hosting a conference room in the museum for lectures, and WNMU is providing an open space for the firing of the kilns. WNMU will also provide overnight parking for conference attendees who intend to boondock; contact Southwest Kiln for parking location and other details.

This year's Mogollon Conference is set for Friday, November 4, 2022, thru Saturday, November 5, 2022, in the Student Union building on the University of Arizona campus in Tucson, Arizona. Go here for details on registration, the Call for Papers (deadline is September 2, 2022), Conference Schedule, and more as they develop. Register before October 1, 2022, for a sweet early-bird discount. There will be a reception (cost estimated at $50-$65) hosted by Archaeology Southwest on the evening of Thursday, November 3, 2022, which offers an excellent opportunity for students to mix with faculty and the rest of the professional community.

Finally, please re-check the Conference website for periodic updates. We'll see you in Tucson!

/s/ webmaster [Photo by M.Smith]

The 2022 Southwest Kiln Conference is coming to town from Friday, Oct. 7 thru Sunday, Oct. 9 at Silver City's own Western New Mexico University. The WNMU Museum and director Danni Romero are hosting a conference room in the museum for lectures, and WNMU is providing an open space for the firing of the kilns. However, here's what SW Kiln needs from pottery-oriented folks right now:

"We are looking for folks who would like to present subjects on prehistoric pottery making on Friday and would welcome interested parties to send a note back on a subject you may want to present on."