Did Ancient Humans Shape Our Climate?

Did Ancient Humans Shape Our Climate?
We all know that humans are having a massive impact on the planet. Our effects include altering the Earth’s rotation by damming large amounts of surface water; changing the composition of the atmosphere by punching a hole in the ozone layer and adding vast amounts of CO2, methane and other pollutants; transforming the composition and temperature of the oceans; and clearing large tracts of land and removing or dramatically altering vast numbers of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems in the process. Plenty of these changes are plain for all to see; others are more obscure, but no less significant. http://bit.ly/1NbPvCD – The Conversation.Com

Reflections on Chaco, Puyé, and Climate Change
On the day Pope Francis released his encyclical on the fate of the Earth, I was struggling to climb a near vertical cliff on the Parajito Plateau of northern New Mexico. My fingers gripped tightly to handholds notched into the rocks hundreds of years ago by Ancestral Puebloans, the anodyne phrase now used by modern anthropologists to describe the people once known as the Anasazi. The day was a scorcher and the volcanic rocks were so hot they blistered my hands and knees. Even my guide, Elijah, a young member of the Santa Clara Pueblo, confessed that the heat radiating off the basalt had made him feel faint, although perhaps he was simply trying to make me feel less like a weather wimp.  http://bit.ly/1NbTDCw – Counterpunch

Will Fracking Be the End of Chaco?
Once the center of a thriving population of native people, Chaco Canyon National Historical Park is now the object of a battle for its very existence. The key Native American heritage site came under increased threat last month when a federal judge ruled to allow the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to continue to permit new gas and oil drilling permits in the Mancos shale in Northwest New Mexico. Now, more than 165,000 people have signed petitions calling on elected officials from New Mexico to protect the land from hydraulic fracturing or fracking, Meanwhile, a bill that would prohibit fracking on all federal public lands, is gaining sponsors in the U.S. House of Representatives. http://bit.ly/1i5Xshp – Ecowatch.com

The National Trust’s HOPE Initiative Preserves Native American Architecture, As Well As Native Skills
With the sun blazing overhead, the crew of Native American youth tries to work quickly. Their hands are covered with dry, cracked mud as they repair the stone walls that make up one of the more prominent cultural sites at Bandelier National Monument. The teens spent most of the summer helping with a massive preservation project as part of the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s HOPE initiative, or Hands-On Preservation Experience. http://bit.ly/1O6CwTy – The Houston Chronicle

Cliff Palace to Close Two Months Early for Stabilization Assessment and Treatment
The iconic Cliff Palace at Mesa Verde National Park will close for the season on Sept. 14 so that crews can work to repair parts of the 700-year-old structure. Parts of it are cracking, which is prompting the park to bring in its own masons to assess the problem. “I don’t think we really know yet how serious it is,” Park Ranger David Franks said. “We do know it’s fairly serious, though.” http://on9news.tv/1JMB3i2 – 9News.com

Apparently, Ohio State Geology Students Vandalized Large Pictograph Panels in Utah
Police are investigating after rock art was vandalized in a canyon near Levan. The vandalism occurred sometime in August in a tributary of Chicken Creek Canyon, about 10 miles southeast of Levan, according to Manti-La Sal National Forest Heritage Program Leader Charmaine Thompson. The area has a small collection of pictographs —painted figures — on exposed round rocks on the conglomerate canyon wall. Lindon resident Rex Daley said he first saw the rock art around 40 years ago when his father-in-law showed it to him. Daley was in the area bidding for a construction job in Chicken Creek Canyon when he decided to go look at the beautiful rock art. When he discovered the graffiti, Daley quickly reported it to Forest Service officials. http://bit.ly/1PULmCm – KSL.com

Texas Man Caught in the Act of Vandalizing the Alamo
Alamo officials credited a female tour guide and a security officer at the historic site with catching a 22-year-old Laredo man before he finished carving his name into a 250-year-old interior limestone wall of the state shrine late Thursday. Julio Perez was charged with criminal mischief and placed in jail on a $20,000 bond, San Antonio police officials said. http://bit.ly/1i5ZNsH – MSN.Com

American Archaeology Takes a Look at Rock Art Ranch
This past summer, a University of Arizona field school completed another season of work at, and around, the ranch, which is located about 25 miles southeast of Winslow. The field school has been surveying the ranch since 2011, and excavating a prehistoric pueblo known as Multi-Kiva, which is roughly 10 miles southeast of the ranch, since 2013. The focus of this project, which is codirected by E. Charles Adams, a University of Arizona archaeologist and a curator at the Arizona State Museum, and Richard Lange, a research specialist at the museum, is learning how people used this region over the past 13,000 years, and why they migrated to and from it. http://bit.ly/1NjJcym – The Archaeological Conservancy

James Skibo on the Need to Save State Museums
My parents weren’t wealthy, but these museums were either free or the admission fee was minimal. If I had grown up in Illinois I would have no doubt visited the Illinois State Museum in Springfield, which is one of the top state museums in the country. Founded in 1877, its mission is to inspire “discovery and caring about Illinois’ cultural and natural resources and heritage.” For 138 years this institution has been dedicated to learning and teaching, and each day a child, like me many years ago, for the first time finds the joy of discovery and perhaps a life’s work.  This is all in jeopardy now that state leaders have decided to lay off the museum staff and shutter the doors. We certainly know there is a budget crisis in Illinois, as there no doubt has been many times during the museum’s almost one and half centuries of existence. But this time our leaders seem ready to sacrifice the state museum. http://bit.ly/1KUtIiE – The State Journal Register

Lecture Opportunity – Albuquerque
As part of its La Canoa Series, the National Hispanic Cultural Center (NHCC) will be sponsoring the talk: Under the Mexican Eagle: Hispanic New Mexico and Colorado, 1821-1848 by Joseph Sanchez on Sat., Oct. 17, at 2:00 p.m., at the History & Literary Arts Research Library, 701 4th St. SW, Albuquerque, NM (NE side of the Plaza Mayor in the center of the NHCC campus).

Lecture Opportunity – Santa Fe
Southwest Seminars Presents David Grant Noble, who will present Ancient Ruins and Rock Art of the Southwest on September 14 at 6:00 p.m. at Hotel Santa Fe as part of the annual Ancient Sites Ancient Stories II Lecture Series held to honor the work of The Archaeological Conservancy. Admission is by subscription or $12 at the door. No reservations are necessary. Seating is limited. Please come early to get a seat. Refreshments are served. Contact Connie Eichstaedt tel: 505 466-2775 email: southwest seminar@aol.com  http://bit.ly/YhJddr – Southwest Seminars

Lecture Opportunity – Santa Fe
On Tuesday, September 8, the Santa Fe Chapter of the Archaeological Institute of America will present Alysia Abbott, who will give a talk entitled Santa Fe’s Missing Historic Cemeteries. The lecture will begin at 7:30 p.m. in the back room of the Pecos Trail Cafe. The lecture will be followed with a visit to some of the city’s missing cemeteries on Saturday, September 12. Contact Diane Lenssen @ 505-6704001 or Tim Maxwell @ 505-820-1299 with questions. http://bit.ly/1vZQsn4 – SFAS

Reminder – Lecture Opportunity Taos
The Taos Archaeological Society is pleased to present Paul Reed, Preservation Archaeologist with Archaeology Southwest, New Mexico, who will lecture on Preservation of the Chaco Landscape on Tuesday, September 8, 2015, at 7:00 p.m., at the Kit Carson Electric Board Room, 118 Cruz Alta Road, Taos. Contact Chris Riveles @ 575-776-1005 for questions or further information.  http://bit.ly/1O6JmZj – Archaeology Southwest

Solstice Rock Art Tour Opportunity – Tucson
On September 23, from 8:00 a.m. to noon, archaeologist Allen Dart leads Old Pueblo Archaeology Center’s Autumnal Equinox Tour of Los Morteros and Picture Rocks Petroglyphs Archaeological Sites, departing from the Silverbell Road and Linda Vista Blvd. area in Marana, Arizona, to celebrate the autumnal equinox. Los Morteros includes a Hohokam ballcourt and bedrock mortars, and ancient petroglyphs at Picture Rocks include a solstice and equinox marker, dancing human-like figures, whimsical animals, and other Hohokam rock symbols. Reservations required by 5 p.m. Tuesday September 22: 520-798-1201 or info@oldpueblo.org

Thanks to Cherie Freeman for contributions to this week’s newsletter