Southwestern Archaeology Loses a Beloved Patron

Remembering Molly Thompson
Molly Coit Kendall Thompson died at home in Tucson on Monday, February 10, 2014, at the age of 90. Her husband of 65 years and her older daughter were with her. Molly was born in Tombstone in 1923, where she grew up on the Kendall family ranch with her two sisters. Her parents ran cattle in an area so remote that the girls’ teacher lived with the family. As the Depression deepened, the ranch took in paying guests who also brought a wider view of the world to an isolated region. bit.ly/1pF8iXY – Arizona State Museum

Jerry Howard Presents the History of Hohokam Canals
As people walk the streets in the Valley, how many realize the unique history that is buried just below their feet? The work of ancient engineers reflects monumental efforts in the familiar, modern-day topics of sustainable agriculture and the organization of people to construct enormous infrastructure. http://bit.ly/1hRuB8A – Arizona Republic

Archaeological Excavations at La Villa
La Villa is a prehistoric Hohokam village site located on the first terrace above the Salt River. It was occupied primarily during the pre-Classic period. Early recordings of La Villa were conducted by local archaeologist, Frank Midvale, in 1928 and again in 1941; he documented a number of trash mound locations, artifact scatters, and a prehistoric canal. He also identified an area that may have been a compound, suggesting a Classic Period component to the site. bit.ly/O7ROvp – Pueblo Grande Museum

Rebranding Tusayan
Take away the Grand Canyon, and the town of Tusayan probably wouldn’t exist. Most of the businesses in the tiny town just outside the canyon’s South Rim entrance cater to tourists at the national park. The two locales even share a zip code. That has town officials thinking maybe “Tusayan” isn’t the best-suited name. They are floating the idea of changing the community’s moniker to “The Town of Grand Canyon,” “Grand Canyon South” or something similar that reflects its ties to the Grand Canyon and gives it a better marketing tool. bit.ly/1geHDfn – Navajo Times

Teen Digging Utah Trout Pond Encounters Ancient Human Remains
A 14-year-old boy digging a trout pond in the backyard of his father’s Salt Lake City home stumbled across a surprise: the remains of an American Indian who lived about 1,000 years ago. Experts from the Utah Department of Heritage and Arts spent Friday removing the remains, which were confirmed by medical examiners as those of a person from a millennium ago, and investigating the site for archaeological clues after ninth-grader Ali Erturk’s discovery earlier in the week. nbcnews.to/1mDNp2v – NBC news

Children Find Ancient Remains on the Arizona Strip
Human remains found last year near Colorado City could be those of an American Indian man from at least 1,800 years ago, representing an uncommon but not rare find, authorities said. Children hiking with their mother in the hills outside Colorado City near the Arizona-Utah border discovered the remains last November. Deputies from the Mohave County sheriff’s office responded and sent the remains to a medical examiner. From there, they went to Amy Kelly-McLaughlin, a Flagstaff anthropologist who told authorities that the remains appear to be those of a prehistoric man. bit.ly/1pF7kuS – Navajo Times

Travelogue: Exploring the Four Corners
The mesas loom above us on either side as our raft drifts down the San Juan River. Sheer cliffs of crumbly sandstone and shale rise hundreds of feet into the air, eating into the blue sky, of which only a sliver is visible. On the rocky shore to our left, a bighorn ram looks up from its grazing to calmly take us in. We’re in the middle of the Navajo Nation and in the heart of the Four Corners area — the intersection of New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and Utah. For years I’d driven through this arid, haunting part of the country, wanting to explore it but overwhelmed by its vastness and rugged beauty and not knowing where or how to begin. hrld.us/1fEdQ0r – Miami Herald

Archaeology Southwest at Silver City
Come say hello to Archaeology Southwest at the 2014 Annual Meeting of the Archaeological Society of New Mexico, April 11–13, 2014, hosted by the Grant County Archaeological Society. We’ll have a booth at the conference, which is focused on “Mimbres Connections—Then and Now.” bit.ly/1lxd10y – Grant County Archaeological Society

Crow Canyon Offers Scholarships for Summer Teen Archaeology Camp 
The Crow Canyon Archaeological Center in Cortez, Colo., offers an extraordinary opportunity for teens seeking an exciting summer adventure that also will look great on a college application. Some participants will be able to attend on scholarships that will help cover the costs of tuition, room and board. Students participating in Crow Canyon’s Middle School Archaeology Camp, High School Archaeology Camp, and High School Field School excavate alongside archaeologists in the field, analyze artifacts in the lab, visit archaeological sites, and discover the rich cultural history of the ancestral Pueblo Indians of the American Southwest. The camps offer a rare opportunity for students at the pre-college level to perform on-site archaeological work. bit.ly/1p3fAr5 – Crow Canyon

Lecture Opportunity – Glendale
The public is invited to a free lecture on The Continuity Between the Hohokam and the Akimel O’Odham People offered by the Agua Fria Chapter of the Arizona Archaeological Society at 7:00 PM on Monday, April 14, 2014 at the West Valley Unitarian Universalist Church, 5904 W. Cholla St., Glendale, AZ (off 59th  Avenue, south of Cactus).  Membership in the Society is not required.

Workshop Opportunity – Tucson
On April 12, 13, and 26, ceramist Andy Ward leads “Ancient Native American Pottery Replication Workshop: Decorated Wares of the 1300s” at Old Pueblo Archaeology Center, 2201 W. 44th Street, Tucson. The workshop focuses on replicating pottery types produced by Puebloan peoples in southern Arizona between AD 1270 and 1450, such as Gila, Tonto, and Tucson polychromes, concludes with an authentic outdoor pottery firing, and provides each participant with an authentic, finished reproduction of a prehistoric pot. Fee $57 ($46 for Old Pueblo Archaeology Center and Pueblo Grande Museum Auxiliary members) for all three days. Reservations required: 520-798-1201 or info@oldpueblo.org

Reminder – Ancient Shell Trade in the Southwest is the Topic of Archaeology Southwest’s Next Tucson Archaeology Café on April 8th – Please Note Later Date
Join us on April 8th as Archaeomalacologist Arthur Vokes explains what marine shell and other precious raw materials reveal about the extent and significance of trade in the ancient Southwest. We gather after 5:00 p.m., and presentations begin around 6 p.m. Seating is open and unreserved, but limited. Share tables and make new friends! The event is free. Please support our hosts at Casa Vicente by ordering refreshments from the menu.