Community-based Archaeology Allows Public Participation in Farmington

Community-based Archaeology Allows Public Participation in Farmington
Researchers speculate that one of the largest Anasazi ruins in the area still lies buried by the banks of the San Juan River on Tommy Bolack’s B-Square Ranch. San Juan College offers students and community members the opportunity to participate in the active archaeological dig, uncovered each summer from the rocks and dust where the bluffs come to a point along the river bank. http://www.daily-times.com/farmington-news/ci_21293459/students-and-community-members-participate-archaeological-dig?source=rss

Archaeological Approach to the Study of Diabetes in the Southwest
The future health of Natives may lie in the scatological remains of the past—a vanguard study of ancient excrement has offered fresh new ways of thinking about the prevalence of diabetes among Native people of the American Southwest. Karl Reinhard, a professor of forensic science and environmental archaeology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, has studied the fossilized feces, or coprolites, of ancestral Pueblo people and documented typical Pueblo diets prior to European contact. He has determined that the overwhelming prevalence of diabetes among Pueblo descendants may stem from their radical departure from the healthy diets of their progenitors. According to his research, high diabetes rates might be caused by what Native Americans eat—not by how much they eat. http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/08/23/study-of-remains-of-the-pueblo-reveals-causes%e2%80%94and-possible-cures%e2%80%94for-diabetes-epidemic-130651#ixzz24f3zIjxp

Navajo and Zuni Tribes Disagree over Disposition of Fort Wingate
After 15 years of struggling to come to an agreement on a fair distribution of thousands of acres of land at Fort Wingate Army Depot, the Navajo Nation and the Zuni Tribe are still miles apart, not only on what justifies “fair,” but whether Congress should make the call on how to divide the parcels. http://newsok.com/navajo-zuni-miles-apart-on-fort-wingate-land/article/feed/420913

Touring Chimney Rock
Between Durango and Pagosa Springs, stone spires reach for the sky and stone ruins outline structures used 1,000 years ago. This is Chimney Rock Archaeological Area, the high mesa home to some 200 structures built by ancestral Puebloan people and giving wide views over the Piedra River valley. http://www.gjsentinel.com/lifestyle/articles/chimney-rock-archaeological-area-rich-in-history-v

New Report to Serve as a Roadmap for American National Parks
On the eve of its 96th birthday on Saturday, the National Park Service is getting a special gift: A new report that is both the first of its kind in the last 50 years and a benchmark for the future. Announced by NPS Director Jonathan Jarvis in a ceremony at Rocky Mountain National Park on Friday, the report represents a science-based effort to ensure America’s parks remain protected, accessible and relevant as the system approaches its second century and the world around them undergoes massive change.  http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/08/24/13439543-report-offers-a-roadmap-for-americas-national-parks?lite

Google and INAH Add 30 Prehispanic Sites to Street View Project
Google Inc. is adding interactive images of dozens of pre-Hispanic ruins to the “Street View” feature on its Google Maps website. Google Mexico and Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History announced Thursday that 30 sites have been added to Street View, and dozens more will be coming online this year. The eventual goal is 90 sites. http://www.seattlepi.com/business/article/Google-adding-panoramic-views-of-Mayan-ruins-3794112.php#ixzz242GvUaCy

Traditional Cultural Landscape Threatened in South Dakota
It’s advertised as a one-of-a-kind deal: Nearly 2,000 acres of prime real estate nestled in the Black Hills of South Dakota for sale to the highest bidder. But the offer to sell the land near Mount Rushmore and historic Deadwood has distressed Native American tribes who consider it a sacred site. Although the land has been privately owned, members of the Great Sioux Nation — known as Lakota, Dakota and Nakota — have been allowed to gather there each year to perform ceremonial rituals they believe are necessary for harmony, health and well-being. http://my.earthlink.net/article/us?guid=20120818/f9a084db-fde1-4cee-b2eb-d82506372de1

Update – Auction Canceled
The planned auction of nearly 2,000 acres of land in South Dakota’s picturesque Black Hills that is considered sacred by American Indian tribes has been cancelled, though it wasn’t immediately clear why. Brock Auction Company planned to auction five tracts of land owned by local residents Leonard and Margaret Reynolds on Saturday. But a message on the auction house’s website Thursday said it has been cancelled at the land owners’ direction. http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/auction-called-off-for-private-land-considered-sacred-by-american-indians-in-south-dakota/2012/08/23/5e14b170-ed81-11e1-866f-60a00f604425_story.html

Training Opportunity – Phoenix – Section 106 & Traditional Cultural Landscape Protection Classes Offered October 15-19
The National Preservation Institute, a nonprofit organization founded in 1980, educates those involved in the management, preservation, and stewardship of cultural heritage. The 2012-2013 National Preservation Institute seminar schedule is now available online at www.npi.org. The 2012-2013 NPI News Release includes the calendar and seminar descriptions – www.npi.org/NewsRelease2012-13.pdf.

Lecture Opportunity – Cortez
The Hisatsinom Chapter of the Colorado Archaeological Society is pleased to present Dr. James Potter on Tuesday, September 4 at 7:00 PM at the Cortez Cultural Center, 25 North Market Street, Cortez, CO, to discuss Early Village Development and Collapse: The Case of Ridges Basin. Migration into the Durango area in the early A.D. 700s produced a landscape newly dotted with clusters of pit structures, one of which was large and aggregated enough to be considered one of the earliest settled villages.  This process created an unprecedented social environment in which some community members occupied a village with highly visible communal-ritual architecture and others settled in dispersed hamlets.  Dr. Potter explores the “us-vs-them” social dynamic that was inadvertently established in the ridges Basin community and discusses some of the untimely consequences that appear to have resulted from the lack of social integration and cohesion within this early village setting.   For questions about this or other lectures, please call Bob Bernhart at 970-739-6772

Lecture Opportunity – Cave Creek
The Desert Foothills Chapter of the Arizona Archaeological Society will host speaker Charly Gullett on Wednesday, September 12, at 7:00 PM at the Good Shepherd of the Hills Episcopal Church, 6502 E. Cave Creek Road, Cave Creek, AZ.  The lecture topic is “Chaco Fractal  Architecture.”  Charly will demonstrate that the ancient pueblo peoples of prehistoric Chaco Canyon knew the mathematics of fractals and applied this knowledge when building their pueblos.  Contact the AAS website, http://www.azarchsoc.org/ or Glenda Simmons at www.glendaann@hughes.net for more information.

Thanks to Cherie Freeman for contributing to this week’s newsletter.