Southwest Archaeology Today for May 1, 2008

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

– Excavations Complete, the Analysis of Honey Bee Village Continues: Even though the Hohokam site known as Honey Bee Village in Oro Valley already has provided rich data, archaeologists say more surprises may be in store. “There is so much we still do not know about the Hohokam,” said Henry Wallace, a senior research archaeologist at Desert Archaeology Inc. whose work on the site goes back to the mid-1980s. “Most of the really interesting stuff will come out of the analysis,” Wallace said.
http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/northwest/236744.php

– (Related Story) Developer of Honey Bee Village Site Preserves a Part of the Past for the Future: The remnants of an ancient civilization will be showcased as an archaeological jewel in a modern development of luxury condos, houses, shops and restaurants in Oro Valley. The developer of Vistoso Town Center, a planned 87-acre community in Rancho Vistoso, wants to make the most of the site where a Hohokam village once thrived. “I’m very interested in archaeology and the past of the Southwest, so I was very excited to acquire a piece of land that had such a significant archaeological value,” local developer Steve Solomon said.
http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/236728

– Artist Recreates Cachoan Sun Dagger: “Chaco Rising” is not only a work of art, it is something more: a timepiece, possibly a flash of light, and a symbol to Rio Rancho’s future – “The City of Vision.” It depicts the ancient Sun Dagger Solar Calendar at Chaco Canyon. Between 900 and 1150 A.D., Chaco Canyon located in northwestern New Mexico, was a center of culture for ancient Pueblo people. Dudding’s piece recreates the phenomena of the Sun Dagger petroglyph, which during the Summer Solstice, created a band of light that bisected the center of a rock spiral. Recently, the phenomena has been not occurring at Chaco.
http://www.observer-online.com/articles/2008/04/29/news/anews1.txt

– May is National Preservation Month: This May, citizens in Nevada will join thousands of individuals around the country as part of a nationwide celebration of 2008 National Preservation Month. “This Place Matters” is the theme of the month-long celebration, which is sponsored by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Since the National Trust created Preservation Week in 1971 to spotlight grassroots preservation efforts in America, it has grown into an annual celebration observed by small towns and big cities, with events ranging from architectural and historic tours and award ceremonies, to fundraising events, educational programs and heritage travel opportunities.
http://www.cdarc.org/page/26nn – Nevada Journal

– Utah Prehistory Week begins Saturday, May 3: Sometime around 10,000 B.C. the last great Ice Age came to an end. As the ice retreated, it left behind fertile lands and abundant plant life, which attracted both animals and humans. From that time to this, an unfolding story of life has played out across our valley, our state, our region.A lot can happen in 12,000 years, says assistant state archaeologist Ron Rood.
http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,695274600,00.html

– Ancient Sunflower Domestication Poses Intriguing Questions: “First of all, sunflower is one of the world’s major oil seed crops and understanding its ancestry is important for modern crop-breeding purposes,” Lentz says. “For a long time, we thought that sunflower was domesticated only in eastern North America, in the middle Mississippi valley – Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee, Illinois. This is what traditional textbooks say. Now it appears that sunflower was domesticated independently in Mexico.”
http://www.physorg.com/news128668719.html

– Mississippian Archaeology in Illinois to be the Topic of the Next Pacific Coast Archaeological Society’s May 8th Meeting: This lecture will feature Dr. Colleen Delaney-Rivera speaking on “Peripheries, Frontiers, and Chiefs: The Mississippian Occupation of the Lower Illinois River Valley.” Meeting information: Thursday, May 8th, 2008, 7:30 pm at the Irvine Ranch Water
District, 15600 Sand Canyon Ave., Irvine, CA. Meeting is free and open to the public. For information:
Http://www.pcas.org

– Archaeology Channel Film Festival This Month: The fifth annual installment of The Archaeology Channel International Film and Video Festival will take place May 20-24, 2008. This event, which includes a keynote address by the former Director of the Iraq Museum in Baghdad, Dr. Donny George, is highlighted in TAC Festival 2008 Preview, the latest video feature on our nonprofit streaming-media Web site, The Archaeology Channel.
http://www.archaeologychannel.org