Southwest Archaeology Today for October 2, 2006

Archaeology Making the News – A Service of the Center for Desert Archaeology

– High School Student Makes Important Find, Then Demonstrates Excellent Archaeological Skills: A Texas teenager has found what one archaeologist at the Gila Cliff Dwellings in southwestern New Mexico describes as a “pretty big deal.” Andrew Connell, 15, was on a hike with his classmates in the Gila Wilderness this spring when the group was distracted by what sounded like an owl. While looking for the bird, he spotted something among the rocks and oak leaves. After Connell spotted the bowl under a rock wall, trip leaders suggested they return the bowl to the niche and report the find to the visitor center. The group took GPS coordinates, sketched a map and took photos.
http://www.kfmb.com/stories/story.65026.html

– Canyon of the Ancients Management Plans Include Allowing Ancient Sites to “Deteriorate”: Balancing energy development and site protection is the main thrust of an early draft of management alternatives for Canyons of the Ancients National Monument. Jacobson gave a brief summation of the alternatives, two of which include allowing standing walls at sites to slowly crumble.
http://tinyurl.com/pblz4 – The Cortez Journal

– Lecture on Ancient Pottery in Mesa Verde County (Denver): Scott Ortman, director of the research laboratory at Crow Canyon Archaeological Center since 2000, will present “Ancient Pottery of the Mesa Verde Country: Window into Another World” on Thursday, Oct. 5, at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.
http://tinyurl.com/qd9vw – The Cortez Journal

– Free One-Day Course on Utah Archaeology Offered in Salt Lake City:Utahns are invited to take an eye-opening class about the lives of hundreds of generations who lived in the area, from their first settlement to modern times. It will be a “quick, one-day overview of the last 11,000 years,” said Ron Rood, Utah’s assistant state archaeologist. The free Utah archaeology course, to be held on Oct. 14, will be taught by staff members of the Antiquities Section, Utah Division of State History
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,650195287,00.html

– Bisbee Mining and Historical Museum to Open New Exhibit: The Bisbee Mining and Historical Museum, a Smithsonian affiliate, in historic Old Bisbee, will officially open “Digging In: Bisbee’s Mineral Heritage” a permanent exhibit in the second floor gallery of the museum. The grand opening ribbon cutting ceremony for the new exhibit will be Oct. 28 at 4:30 p.m. on the Bisbee Mining and Historical Museum’s front steps.
http://www.svherald.com/articles/2006/10/01/local_news/news7.txt

– Book Review, “Blood and Thunder” Reexamines the US – Navajo Wars: When you pick up “Blood and Thunder,” Hampton Sides’s new history of how the U.S. government almost destroyed the Navajo Nation in the 1800s, you can’t help thinking, “Here we go again” All the usual suspects are present. Again, government and military leaders, besotted with the idea of Manifest Destiny, are unapologetic land-grabbers, and the Navajos are victims of the white man’s treachery. But Sides, to his credit, doesn’t stop there. Resisting the impulse to think that he’s wiser than the people whose story he narrates, he concentrates instead on the mysteries and contradictions in human behavior that compose the heart of all good story-telling.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15078345/site/newsweek/

– Travelogue, Acoma Cultural Center: The $15 million project, which opened in March, was designed to look and feel like home for Acomas. The community it was built for wants it to sustain a 2,000-year-old culture. “This facility blends with the landscape,” says center Director Brian Vallo. “It amplifies really the impact that one gets when they drive into the Acoma valley and see the old village perched atop the mesa.”
http://tinyurl.com/mtvja – Ashury Park Press