Cliff Palace Closed to Public — Ancient Structures in Peril

Cliff Palace in Peril
Scott Travis stepped delicately around the ruins of Cliff Palace, his eyes deftly scanning the sandstone bricks, the carefully carved windows and the well-worn wooden beams of at one of Mesa Verde National Park’s most extensive cliff dwellings. Below him, hundreds of voices in a harmony of different languages filtered up through the air as tourist groups streamed through the ruins. http://www.durangoherald.com/article/20120804/NEWS01/708049940/-1/news01&source=RSS

Arizona State Museum Shares in Repatriation Funding
The University of Arizona is sharing in more than $1.6 million in federal grant money to document and help return human remains and cultural objects to American Indian tribes. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and National Park Service Director Jon Jarvis announced the funding Thursday. The Arizona State Museum at the UA is getting just under $90,000. http://azstarnet.com/news/local/ua-gets-to-repatriate-indian-artifacts-remains/article_d2bd2315-96e8-5a50-a1a1-8e12d6a128be.html

2012 Pecos Conference Starts Thursday – Preliminary Schedule Published
http://www.swanet.org/2012_pecos_conference/images/2012_draft_schedule.pdf

Excavations Continue at New Mexico’s Ghost Ranch
Crews can sift through dirt at a dig, or spend time in the lab cataloguing the artifacts that are uncovered. File cards give a record of the items, and tell an interested researcher where to find the artifacts stored in clear plastic bags arranged in carefully labeled boxes. Fire-cracked rocks, obsidian or chert points, pieces of bone or pottery are the most frequent finds, according to Cheryl Muceus, director of museums at Ghost Ranch. Two digs are currently under way on the 21,000 acres of the ranch, according to Seebantz. http://washingtonexaminer.com/nm-archaeology-course-lets-all-ages-keep-digging/article/feed/2020249

New Exhibit at the Autry Center Highlights Katsinas as a Window onto the Hopi World
According to the Hopi, when human beings came to the American Southwest, the spirit Maasaw gave them a stick, seeds and a watering gourd — the invaluable gifts of agriculture by which they could sustain themselves. A carved and painted figure of Maasaw begins the story of “Katsina in Hopi Life” (at the Autry through June 23, 2013), an exhibition that ties together katsinas, spirits or deities of Southwest Indians, and the yearly cycle that begins in February and ends in July. http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/culture/la-et-cm-katsina-autry-20120805,0,2056945.story

Border Patrol Locates Prehistoric Cache
At a conservation center here (Tucson), archaeologists are studying several ancient Native American pots discovered earlier this year deep in the remote desert mountains of southern Arizona. The archaeologists believe the pots are hundreds of years old but still haven’t determined their exact age or who made them. That could take a year or more. What they do know is that the discovery of the pots was a rare and unusual find. http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012-07-30/artifacts-found/56587606/1

Unmanned Aerial Archaeology
Archaeological sites that currently take years to map will be completed in minutes if tests underway in Peru of a new system being developed at Vanderbilt University go well. The Aurora Flight Sciences unmanned aerial vehicle will be integrated into a larger system that combines the flying device that can fit into a backpack with a software system that can discern an optimal flight pattern and transform the resulting data into three-dimensional maps.  http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Test_flight_over_Peru_ruins_could_revolutionize_archaeological_mapping_999.html

Tour Opportunity – Missions of Ysleta and Soccoro
Southwestern Mission Research center is sponsoring a 3-day tour of two missions and a presidio near El Paso TX. The tour will take place October 19-21. It will include: a tour of the Amerind Foundation Museum, a tour of the charming, historic plaza in Mesilla NM and the historic Taylor adobe home, a drive along the Camino Real, the Onate Trail to El Paso with a stop at a winery if time permits, a tour of the missions Ysleta and Soccoro,  founded after the 1680 Pueblo Revolt, a tour of San Elizario presidio chapel and museum, and a docent guided tour of the El Paso Museum of History. For information and registration, please see our web site www.southwestmissions.org