Brazen Thieves Remove California Petroglyphs

Brazen Thieves Remove California Petroglyphs
A gang of art thieves armed with circular saws, ladders, and a generator have stolen a series of ancient rock engravings from a remote set of volcanic cliffs in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains. Six of the petroglyphs, which are sacred to the local Paiute Native American tribe, were removed from the site and dozens more destroyed. Conservationists described the raid as “akin to someone going and cutting off a piece of the Wailing Wall”.  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/thieves-steal-rock-engravings-from-sacred-native-american-site-8336161.html

Reward Offered for Information on Stolen Petroglyphs
Archeologists offered a US$1,000 (S$1,225) reward on Tuesday for information leading to the arrest of vandals who stole four priceless ancient rock carvings, and damaged others in the California desert. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) called the carvings – sliced out of the rock face with cement-cutting circular saws – an “irreplaceable part of our national cultural heritage.” http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking-news/world/story/reward-offered-stolen-california-rock-carvings-20121121 

Phoenix Archaeology Café to Feature “Field of Schemes” 
On Wednesday, November 28, at 6:00 pm, historian Pat Stein (Arizona Preservation Consultants) shares her research on Lincoln Fowler’s canal and farm on the Gila River Indian Reservation. Seating is open and unreserved, but limited. It’s best to arrive half an hour before the presentation begins. Share tables and make new friends! The event is free. Please support our hosts at Macayo’s Central (near the Indian School light rail stop) by purchasing refreshments from the menu. https://www.archaeologysouthwest.org/event/archaeology-cafe-phoenix-field-of-schemes/

Valuable Navajo Rug Stolen from New Mexico Resort
Investigators are looking for a $75,000 Navajo wall rug that disappeared this week from Bishop’s Lodge Ranch Resort & Spa north of Santa Fe. The Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office says the large-scale rug — 77 by 131 inches — was last seen at about 4 p.m. Tuesday in the resort’s main Tesuque Ballroom. http://www.santafenewmexican.com/Local%20News/112412MissingRug#.ULLLwId9A3U

2013 Arizona Archaeology Expo Participation Forms 
The 2013 Archaeology Expo is being held at the Historic Horseshoe Ranch on the Agua Fria National Monument on March 16, 2013. For those that would like to participate in the Archaeology Expo, please fill out an Archaeology Expo Participation Form and return the form to kdobschuetz@azstateparks.gov or by fax to 602-542-4180. The Expo Participation Form can be found at http://azstateparks.com/SHPO/downloads/SHPO_2013%20_Expo_Participation_Form.pdf.

Ancient Skywatchers at the Anasazi Heritage Center
The Anasazi Heritage Center’s new winter-season exhibit “Ancient Skywatchers of the Southwest” showcases prehistoric astronomical markers in the Four Corners region. The images are the work of explorer and photographer John Ninnemann, and will be displayed from Nov. 23, 2012, through April 27, 2013, in the museum’s Special Exhibit Gallery.  The Anasazi Heritage Center will host an opening celebration with a book signing and lecture by Ninneman at 1 p.m on Sunday, Nov. 25.  Ninnemann will sign his book, Canyon Spirits: Beauty and Power in the Ancestral Puebloan World. During the lecture, he will explain the tradition of the “skywatcher” among the Pueblos and how it illustrates the importance of astronomy in the early Southwest. The Anasazi Heritage Center is an office of the Bureau of Land Management, and is headquarters for Canyons of the Ancients National Monument. The museum is open daily from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., with free admission November through February. For more information, visit the Center’s website at www.co.blm.gov/ahc or call (970) 882-5600.

Pit-Firing Festival Highlights Ancient Traditions in Southern Arizona
The sixth annual Cochise College Pit Fire Festival, produced by the Douglas campus art department, is inviting the public to discover a myriad of ceramics, sounds, tastes, and visual and performing artists from 5 to 9 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 29. Alongside the large-scale firing of more than 1,000 ceramic works, the college transforms the ceramics studio and the surrounding area into a celebration of creative collaboration with local sounds, flavors and talented performers united to form a beautiful scene of culture and diversity. http://www.willcoxrangenews.com/news/article_8787751e-336e-11e2-be0b-001a4bcf887a.htm

Poster Contest for Utah Archaeology Week
Utahns of all ages are invited to participate in a poster contest for Utah Archaeology Week, which is May 4-11. Entrants may choose any material, design, or medium, but the principal elements of the design should depict aspects of Utah archaeology. Entries should be less than 16 inches by 24 inches. http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865567224/State-holding-poster-contest-for-Utah-Archaeology-Week.html

Historic Preservationists in Sedona Work to Preserve Hummingbird House
The Hummingbird House, also known as the Hart Store, near Uptown, cleared a hurdle at Sedona City Council on Tuesday, Nov. 13, when it comes to protecting the landmark from future floods. Council unanimously agreed to forward a request for a historic preservation grant to be used for flood control at the historic landmark. Hummingbird House, built in 1926, is a designated historic landmark in the city of Sedona and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. http://www.redrocknews.com/News/new-grants-could-save-history.html

Seeking the Seeds of Tucson’s Colonial Past
The lost pueblito of Tucson is a Spanish outpost of Pima Indians, soldiers and ranchers on the banks of the Santa Cruz River. On a clear, sunny fall day (which could be just about any day in the desert), Jesús Manuel García Yánez will sometimes look for the missing settlement from the top of a black volcanic heap that the locals call A Mountain, after the gigantic concrete letter on the side. In a straightforward sense, Mr. García, 44, is a Mexican ecologist. More broadly, though, he is a self-appointed emissary from the land once known as Pimería Alta, an interpreter of its culture, plants and people. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/22/garden/in-tucson-a-search-for-fruit-the-missionaries-knew.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1 

How Will Climate Change Affect the Past?
Mike Newland, an archaeologist at Sonoma State University and president of the Society for California Archaeology, is leading an effort to record California’s archaeological sites before they’re destroyed by rising seas. In October, an all-volunteer team surveyed 30 miles of Marin County’s coastline, and turned up 20 new-to-science archaeological sites.  http://blogs.kqed.org/newsfix/2012/11/20/what-will-climate-change-do-to-our-past/

Lecture Opportunity – Tucson
At 6 p.m. Thursday December 20, 2012, archaeologist Jesse Ballenger will present “From Kill Sites to Hunting Grounds: The Late Prehistoric Stone Architecture of the Two Medicine River Valley, Montana” during Old Pueblo Archaeology Center’s “Third Thursday Food for Thought” program at La Parrilla Suiza Mexican Restaurant, 2720 N. Oracle Road, Tucson. The program is free but donations will be requested to benefit Old Pueblo’s educational efforts, and guests are encouraged to order dinner at the restaurant. Dr. Ballenger will summarize the results of five years of intensive survey and excavation by the University of Arizona’s Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology (BARA) and the Blackfeet Tribe in the Two Medicine River Valley, Montana, where in 2012 alone more than 6,500 individual rock cairns were point-located to reveal a glimpse of what may
be the most complete bison drive-line systems yet documented in the northwestern Plains. He will relate the subtle monumentality and complexity of these ephemeral hunting features to intensified bison harvesting between AD 1000 and 1700. Reservations are required by 5 p.m. Wednesday December 19 – 520-798-1201 or info@oldpueblo.org.

The Latest News from the Archaeology Channel
One of the greatest places to see rock art is Nevada, which has lots of rock faces, a dry climate that preserves it, and limited vegetation to cover it up.  The Nevada Rock Art Foundation is busy recording what’s there and finding ways to preserve it.   Lots of archaeology goes on in Illinois all the time, outside the attention of most people.  In this segment, the Illinois Archaeological Survey describes how they do that work.  Visit some excavation sites and drop in on the lab where the archaeologists organize, catalog and interpret what they find. You can see these stories in the November 2012 edition of this monthly half-hour show, available now on our nonprofit streaming-media Web site, The Archaeology Channel (http://www.archaeologychannel.org) as well as on cable TV in cities across the US.