It's a busy summer for all levels of the archaeologically inclined. Pull out your calendars and fill 'em up with one or more of the following:

Monday, July 1, 2019, 7:00 PM: the Archaeology Southwest Lecture Series in Cliff, NM, concludes with Archaeology Southwest's own Allen Denoyer speaking about "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Mule Creek Obsidian." Location is 8179 Hwy 180 W, Cliff, New Mexico. Look for the cream building with blue portable toilets on the north side of Hwy 180 just east of Shields Canyon Road and the highway yard. (This is 2.2 miles west of the 180-211 junction in Cliff.)

Sunday, July 7, 2019, 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM: A second GCAS July field trip! One time only! View the storied Croteau Collection of Elk Ridge artifacts at the Mimbres Culture Heritage Site in the Wood House's panic room.

Please welcome today's guest blogger and photographer, Marilyn Gendron, as she recaps her and Joseph Gendron's recent visit to a museum exhibit in Las Cruces we're encouraging folks to attend!

Living in Sacred Continuum: Art/archaeology exhibit at NMSU until December 15, 2019

Joseph and I recently enjoyed an exhibit at the American Indian Student Union (near the Corbett Center) to view 5 ancient Mimbres pottery bowls and the artwork of five well-known Hopi artists; Ramson Lometewama, Ed Kabotie, Gwen Setalla, Gerald Lomaventema, and Spencer Nutima.

People, the next four weeks are chock-full-o' archaeological goings-on to suit every taste and budget. Carve out some time and mark your calendars for some or all of the following:

Monday, June 24, 2019, through Tuesday, June 25, 2019: Archaeology Kid's Camp at the Mimbres Culture Heritage Site gets underway with a field crew trip to the Cottonwood Site. To volunteer yourself, or to sign up your favorite kid for camp, contact Marilyn Markel at 575-536-9337 or email mmarkelmimbres@gmail.com.

If you happen to be traveling along Highway 70 between Lordsburg, New Mexico, and Phoenix, Arizona, you may want to plan an extra 45 minutes to make a quick side trip when you reach Thatcher, Arizona. The Eastern Arizona College in Thatcher proudly displays the Native American artifacts collected from numerous sites throughout Arizona and New Mexico by the well-trained avocational archaeologists Jack and Vera Mills during the four decades from the 1940s through the 1970s. [Far left photo via eac.edu; near left photo via travel2arizona.com.]

The 2019 Southwest Kiln Conference will be taking place during the weekend of October 4, 2019 - October 6, 2019 in Globe, Arizona, and everyone is invited. The organizers stress that "...attendance is free and open to the public so come up to Globe and learn about the exciting things being done in the fields of prehistoric pottery replication and experimental archaeology."

We at the GCAS encourage our readers to travel to Las Cruces some time between now and December 15, 2019, to visit some fine examples of Mimbres ceramics. It would make quite the day trip.

"Living in Sacred Continuum" is an assemblage of Mimbres pottery dating from 1000 CE to 1130 CE, and is now on display at the American Indian Student Center on the New Mexico State University campus in Las Cruces. The exhibit features interpretations of the pottery’s designs by five different Hopi artists with five different points of view. [Photo of the Hopi artists at work - by Atsunori Ito via NMSU. Dr. Arakawa is shown in center background.]

The American Southwest Virtual Museum describes itself as "...a digital repository of photographs, maps, information, and virtual tours of National Park Service units and museums across the Southwest." However, they offer much more than that to the avocational archaeologist. For example, browse through their Pottery Guide in the home page's right sidebar, or perhaps start with the home page's Featured Exhibit. Their interactive Artifact Exhibits include animal bone, projectile points, shells, and more - with comprehensive identifications that include provenience.

The American Southwest Virtual Museum is an excellent way for anyone to become better acquainted with the cultures, artifacts, and archaeological sites of the US Southwest. Your GCAS Webmaster says check it out!

/s/ webmaster [Style III Mimbres bowl image by Boone/Belnap, Bilby Research Center, Northern Arizona University]

The Arizona State Museum, located on the campus of the University of Arizona in Tucson, has spent the past six years on a massive conservation project of their collection of over 35,000 Native baskets, sandals, cradleboards, mats, and more. They undertook their Woven Wonders conservation project because their vast collection of perishable items required new conservation techniques to safely store them without further deterioration. Moreover, the ASM aimed to make their collection more accessible to the public as well as researchers. This involved not only improving how the collections were physically stored and climate-controlled, but also updating how the items were organized and catalogued. [Photo via Arizona State Museum.]

If you have ever traveled along Interstate 10 in Arizona between Willcox and Benson, you may have spotted a small roadside sign in the Dragoon Mountains [photo on left via Creative Commons] directing you to the Amerind Museum off of Exit 318. The idea of a museum located in such a beautiful natural setting may have piqued your interest, but at 75 mph you were already past the exit to give much thought to a detour.

How about taking a detour there now?

To read the full narrative of the great GCAS field trip of May 2-4, 2018, see Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, and Part V.

I have been remiss in not disclosing that our group dined - and well - while in Mexico. No photos were taken of the excellent seafood restaurant our guide Luis introduced us to in Janos; but we had a more traditional lunch experience in a small hotel in Mata Ortiz that had little trouble in providing our group of 16 gabachos with a classic lunch of chiles rellenos, tacos, and much, much more.  (h/t Marcia Corl for the dining photo up there on the left; webmaster focused instead on the chile ristras along the garden portal.)

Day 3: May 4, 2018. We arrived in Paquimé. The site's thick adobe walls may be slowly dissolving back into the earth, but it remains an awe-inspiring sight to look out over Paquimé's grand plaza, its ceremonial structures, and its residential areas comprising some 1700 rooms.