Places Too Wild to Drill

Places Too Wild to Drill
Two of Utah’s scenic landmarks — Arches National Park and Desolation Canyon — made a list released Tuesday by the Wilderness Society as areas “too wild to drill.” The group said areas adjacent to Arches National Park and Desolation Canyon are under threat to oil and gas drilling, which would spoil the visitor experience. “There are many different qualities that make these places special, but they all have one thing in common: they are threatened by oil and gas drilling,” said Jamie Williams, president of the Wilderness Society. http://bit.ly/1byvCoC – Deseret News

Preservation Archaeology: The Casa Grande Community
Just when cynicism seems at its most pervasive, I am glad to see that community spirit can still shine through. It certainly infuses the new legislation for the expansion of Casa Grande Ruins National Monument.A bipartisan group of Arizona Representatives—Paul Gosar (R-4), Ann Kirkpatrick (D-1), Raúl Grijalva (D-3), and Ed Pastor (D-7)—introduced the legislation late last month. Let’s show the spirit of our community—the Preservation Archaeology community—and strongly advocate for a “grander” Casa Grande Ruins National Monument. http://bit.ly/16dbrrz – Archaeology Southwest

Tucson Preservation Project’s Parking Problem
The restoration of the historic officers’ quarters at Fort Lowell has been put on indefinite hold just a month after Pima County hired a contractor to do the job. The county was well on its way to preserving the three officers’ quarters at the fort until city officials insisted they had to include a new parking lot to comply with city codes. The county already spent more than $1.5 million to buy the site on East Fort Lowell Road at North Craycroft, clean it up and get it ready for the restoration and for planning. http://bit.ly/12vo16u – Arizona Daily Star

Early Spanish Fort Located in Western North Carolina
In the Appalachian foothills of western North Carolina, archaeologists have discovered remains of a 16th-century fort, the earliest one built by Europeans deep in the interior of what is now the United States. The fort is a reminder of a neglected period in colonial history, when Spain’s expansive ambitions ran high and wide, as yet unmatched by England.  http://nyti.ms/16ddAU8 – New York Times

Preservation Archaeology: An Arizona Icelandic Saga
I was lucky enough to travel with ten other Southwestern archaeologists to the city of Akureyri in northern Iceland. We went there to take part in a collaborative research meeting with a group of climate scientists and archaeologists working in the circumpolar North Atlantic. Together, we have been addressing a number of questions, mostly revolving around human responses, vulnerabilities, and resilience to environmental change over the long term. By comparing different areas in the Southwest and the North Atlantic, we ask how climatic events of varying temporal scale influence social change. http://bit.ly/12VHjN4 – Archaeology Southwest

Celebrate a Joint Effort in Preservation at Homol’ovi State Park
Pueblo villages were built with stone. It is tempting to think of them as permanent structures, but Pueblo clans traveled frequently. The Hopis, whose ancestors built villages throughout the Southwest, consider their past as a series of migrations with many stops. One of those stops was Homolovi. Today, Homolovi is a state park near Winslow, and it celebrates Hopi culture during Suvoyuki Day, an annual festival featuring cultural demonstrations, lectures, pottery demonstrations, dances and more. http://bit.ly/1c3kMGv – AZ Central

Foraging Cattle at Range Creek Canyon?
Faced with the persistent threat of wildfire in remote Range Creek Canyon, the University of Utah proposes bringing cattle back to the archaeological research area in the hopes of knocking back invasive cheatgrass. Conditions were so hazardous last summer that rockfall triggered a fire that burned 900 acres up canyon from the field station. The Lighthouse Fire was the fourth since the canyon southeast of Price came into public ownership a decade ago, according to Duncan Metcalfe, the U. anthropology professor who oversees excavations there. http://bit.ly/1e4pNex – Salt Lake Tribune

Pieces of the Puzzle on Display at the El Paso Museum of Archaeology
What happened to the Hohokam? Technological and methodological advances are providing researchers with new tools for investigating the environmental and social stresses that led to depopulation. A fresh perspective on life in the southern Southwest in the 1300s and 1400s is emerging. In Pieces of the Puzzle: New Perspectives on the Hohokam, you can examine some of the Puzzle Pieces that, when assembled, help explain Hohokam population decline. http://bit.ly/15pnEs9 – Archaeology Southwest

New Curator at the El Paso Museum of Archaeology
The El Paso Museum of Archaeology welcomed its new Curator, George Maloof, III to its staff in April 2013. Mr. Maloof will be responsible for the permanent and changing exhibits, care and management of the collection, and many other aspects of professional museum oversight.  http://bit.ly/11ofVK5 – El Paso Museum of Archaeology

Lecture Opportunity – Cortez
The Hisatsinom Chapter of the Colorado Archaeological Society presents Jason Chuipka on Tuesday, August 6, at 7 pm, at the United Methodist Church of Cortez, 515 Park Street for his investigations on Whiskey is for Drinking, Water is for Fighting: Water Projects and Archaeology in the Desert West 1950-present. The discussion will examine the relationship of archaeological research to development of the western states, which hinges on water. Chuipka is the Principal Investigator for the Navajo Gallup Water Supply Cultural Resources Project for PaleoWest Archaeology, the largest archaeological project in the US, bringing water to the Navajo Nation and treaty water rights. Chuipka has directed projects for more than a decade and is an expert in the field of digital data collection methods. Contact Diane McBride, 970-560-1643, for more information.

Lecture Opportunity – Santa Fe
Southwest Seminars Presents Jimmy Arterberry (Comanche), Comanche Nation Tribal Historic Preservation Officer, Activist and Historian, Lawton Oklahoma, who will give a lecture on August 5 at 6pm at Hotel Santa Fe on A Glimpse Into Comanche History: The Archaeological Record. The Lecture is part of the annual Voices From the Past Lecture Series given to honor and acknowledge the New Mexico History Museum in Santa Fe. No reservations are necessary. Admission is by subscription or $12 at the door and refreshments are served. Please contact Connie Eichstaedt at 505 466-2775 or email:southwestseminar@aol.com or

Lecture Opportunity – Tucson
On Saturday August 10 from 10 to 11 a.m. the Pima County Natural Resources Parks and Recreation Department and the Arizona Humanities Council will offer a free presentation titled “Arts and Culture of Ancient Southern Arizona Hohokam Indians” by archaeologist Allen Dart at the Brandi Fenton Memorial Park visitor center, 3482 E. River Road, Tucson. Mr. Dart will illustrate Hohokam artifacts, architecture, and other material culture, and will discuss how these materials provide archaeologists with clues for interpreting how the Hohokam adapted to the Sonoran Desert for centuries and for explaining why this ancient culture mysteriously disappeared. For details contact Meg Quinn in Tucson at 520-615-7855 ext 6 or meg.quinn@pima.gov.

Employment Opportunity – Virginia
The University of Virginia Department of Anthropology is currently seeking to hire a part-time Post-doctoral Fellow who will contribute to the further development of the Chaco Research Archive and also begin creating and developing a separate, comparative database on the prehispanic regional center of Paquimé (Casas Grandes) in northern Mexico.  A PhD in Anthropology/Archaeology is required.  This individual will assess and thoroughly analyze field reports and journals, published documents, catalog lists, and images from archaeological excavations in Chaco Canyon and at Paquimé and begin entering information into complex, multi-table, online databases.  Tasks include creating site and regional maps, scanning documents and images, establishing digital links between geographical areas (e.g., individual dwellings or sites) and excavation data, creating Adobe Acrobat-compatible files to be posted on websites, and continuing the development of an Adobe Lightroom image database and initiation the migration of that database to a central server. The University of Virginia is an Equal Opportunity Employer. http://jobs.virginia.edu – posting #0612576