Low-Impact Archaeological Research – Drone with Thermal Camera Quickly Maps Ancient Pueblo Village

Low-Impact Archaeological Research – Drone with Thermal Camera Quickly Maps Ancient Pueblo Village
Thermal images captured by an small drone allowed archaeologists to peer under the surface of the New Mexican desert floor, revealing never-before-seen structures in an ancient Native American settlement. Called Blue J, this 1,000-year-old village was first identified by archaeologists in the 1970s. It sits about 43 miles (70 kilometers) south of the famed Chaco Canyon in northwestern New Mexico and contains nearly 60 ancestral Puebloan houses around what was once a large spring. http://bit.ly/1iKdWWg – Live Science

Zuni Begin Effort to Reclaim Heritage from European Museums
Octavius Seowtewa, an elder of the Native American Zuni tribe from New Mexico, was sitting in a Paris cafe late last month, scrolling through his iPhone pictures of Ahayuda, carved and decorated wooden poles that are considered sacred to the Zuni. They were taken at his recent meetings with representatives of major European museums, whom he is hoping he can persuade to return the artifacts. Mr. Seowtewa, who exudes a quiet persistence and was dressed that day in a black leather blazer, dark slacks and a button-down shirt, acknowledged that he hadn’t had much luck in his meetings at the Musée du Quai Branly here or at the Ethnological Museum in Berlin, among others. But he said he was just getting started. http://nyti.ms/1qW6k68 -New York Times

New Chaco Canyon Video Available
How do you tell the story of a vast landscape? In this case, the 50,000-square-mile area in the Southwest that was home to Ancestral Puebloans hundreds of years ago. And what is the best way to convey the threat to these ancient sites scattered across rugged mountains and valleys? A new video from the National Trust for Historic Preservation transports you to this historic landscape through a seldom-seen aerial perspective that illustrates Chaco-related sites, their connectivity to the landscape, and the threats they face from energy development in the San Juan Basin. Follow this link to see the video “From Chaco Canyon to Chimney Rock: A Landscape Worth Protecting”:  http://youtu.be/DBaTghyEQyI National Trust for Historic Preservation via Youtube

New Findings on Ancient Turquoise Trade Networks
About a millennium ago, the ancestral Pueblo Indians in the Chaco Canyon in northwestern New Mexico obtained their precious turquoise using a large trade network spanning several states, new research reveals. In the new study, researchers traced Chaco Canyon turquoise artifacts back to resource areas in Colorado, Nevada and southeastern California. The results definitively show, for the first time, that the ancestral Puebloans — best known for their multistoried adobe houses — in the San Juan Basin area of New Mexico did not get all of their turquoise from a nearby mining site, as was previously believed. http://bit.ly/1eyjI0p – Live Science

Tucson’s Tumamoc Hill – Ancient Trincheras, Desert Laboratory, Outdoor Gym
When local politicians talk about the hill, it’s often described as our Acropolis, a geographic landmark that anchors us to our history. These days, more than 10,000 people walk—or run—up the hill every week, and scientists have studied the ecology of the Southwest from the hill’s renowned Desert Laboratory for decades. But the ancients who first populated Tumamoc some 2,500 years ago also considered the 750-foot-high hill a special place. http://bit.ly/1eBb0sH – Tucson Weekly

Animation Recounts the First American Revolution
The Pueblo Revolt had to happen. Life was out of balance. Drought, hunger, colonial violence and religious persecution brought indigenous societies of New Mexico to the brink of collapse. The Pueblo people orchestrated the unthinkable: a pan-Indian uprising successfully expelling the Spanish occupiers from the entire Rio Grande region leading to an indigenous cultural and social renaissance. The documentary animation, Frontera! Revolt and Rebellion on the Río Grande, traces the seminal events and colonial entradas that has shaped the deeply contested territories of the US-Mexico borderlands. Native and Chicana narrators recall this living history through memory, play, humor and song. http://bit.ly/1qW4Vws – Vimeo

Canyon of the Ancients Seeks Two Artists in Residence
The Bureau of Land Management is encouraging interested artists to grab a camera, sketch pad, paints or any other artistic tool and prepare to capture the beautiful landscapes found at Canyons of the Ancients National Monument during the Artists-in-Residence program. Proposals for the 2014 residency must be submitted by Friday, May 16, 2014. Two talented people will spend at least one week developing artwork inspired by and representative of the monument. http://on.doi.gov/1gsoMly – BLM

Efforts to Declare Cahokia a National Park Gain Steam
Ancient Greece had its Parthenon, Egypt its Pyramids and St. Louis its Cahokia Mounds and more than 550 other Mississippian mounds that experts say are of comparable importance to North American ancient civilization. Now, an effort is gaining strength to urge Congress to designate Cahokia Mounds and the similar sites in the St. Louis area a part of the National Park Service as a national historical park or to get the president to designate Cahokia Mounds a national monument. http://bit.ly/1hCXWsF – St. Louis Post-Dispatch

National Trust for Historic Preservation, Arizona Tribes, and Archaeology Southwest Seek Protections for the Great Bend of the Gila
The Great Bend of the Gila National Monument proposal, in Arizona’s Sonoran Desert, is 84,000 acres of what the National Trust for Historic Preservation believes is one of the Bureau of Land Management’s most important cultural sites in the Southwest. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has recognized the importance of the area’s cultural and historical resources in an administrative designation, but these highly significant resources need a higher level of protection, management, and funding. http://bit.ly/1gs6s8N – National Trust for Historic Preservation

Help Get the Word Out about the Great Bend of the Gila – Vote for Robert Mark’s Fantastic Photo in the National Trust’s Calendar Competition
The National Trust for Historic Preservation’s 2015 Membership Calendar will celebrate the work we’re doing together to preserve and protect the buildings, landscapes, and communities that tell the stories of the past. Vote now to help us choose a beautiful photo of one of our National Treasures for the cover. http://bit.ly/1ey7Sn7 – National Trust for Historic Preservation

Lecture Opportunity – Verde Valley
The Verde Valley Archaeological Center is pleased to host Harvey Leake on Tuesday, April 15, for his talk entitled The Wetherills and their Archaeological Investigations on the Colorado Plateau.”  This presentation will be held at the Camp Verde Community Center Rooms 206/207, 395 S. Main Street, Camp Verde at 7:00 pm.  This presentation is free to the public.