“Kennewick Man” Repatriated

“Kennewick Man” Repatriated
Less than 24 hours after they were inventoried in Seattle, the remains of the Ancient One — also known as Kennewick Man — were laid to rest at a private ceremony at an undisclosed location Saturday, according Colville tribal chairman Michael Marchand.  The repatriation of the bones, which were found near the Columbia River in Kennewick in 1996, came after the five claimant tribes — the Colville, Yakama, Nez Perce, Umatilla and Wanapum — received the remains Friday. “Thank you for everyone’s help and prayers from all over the planet,” Marchand Told the Tribune. “Yesterday the (Ancient One) was transferred to the tribes in Seattle. Today he was buried. … There were some amazing songs and ceremonies. This took most of the day Friday.” http://bit.ly/2lASD4R – Tribal Tribune

Did a 16th-Century Salmonella Outbreak Depopulate the Americas?
One of the worst epidemics in human history, a sixteenth-century pestilence that devastated Mexico’s native population, may have been caused by a deadly form of salmonella from Europe, a pair of studies suggest.  In one study, researchers say they have recovered DNA of the stomach bacterium from burials in Mexico linked to a 1540s epidemic that killed up to 80% of the country’s native inhabitants. The team reports its findings in a preprint posted on the bioRxiv server on 8 February. This is potentially the first genetic evidence of the pathogen that caused the massive decline in native populations after European colonization, says Hannes Schroeder, an ancient-DNA researcher at the Natural History Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen who was not involved in the work. “It’s a super-cool study.” http://go.nature.com/2kNH3yT – Nature

Editorial: Utah Leader’s Recalcitrance over Bears Ears Will Cost the State Dearly
Losing Outdoor Retailer over Bears Ears represents a reversal of a half century of progress in inviting the world to appreciate Utah. We could be Hawaii, and instead our leaders want us to be Oklahoma. Gov. Gary Herbert, who has made economic development his reason for living, couldn’t get a very lucrative 20-year visitor to keep coming. The seeds of that failure were sown in the rejection — first by Rep. Rob Bishop and later by the governor and the Legislature — of the unprecedented unity of five Indian nations coming together to protect their ancestral homeland. http://bit.ly/2kNXgUU – Salt Lake Tribune

Linguistic Data Point to Waves of Migration to the Americas
University of Virginia linguistic anthropologist Mark A. Sicoli and colleagues are applying the latest technology to an ancient mystery: how and when early humans inhabited the New World. Their new research analyzing more than 100 linguistic features suggest more complex patterns of contact and migration among the early peoples who first settled the Americas. The diversity of languages in the Americas is like no other continent of the world, with eight times more “isolates” than any other continent. Isolates are “languages that have no demonstrable connection to any other language with which it can be classified into a family,” Sicoli said. There are 26 isolates in North America and 55 in South America, mostly strung across the western edge of the continents, compared to just one in Europe, eight in Africa[?] and nine in Asia. http://bit.ly/2kNLppM – Phys.org

Steve Lekson Stirs Some Pots in Santa Fe
Slip slop, a term relating to the pottery of the ancient Mimbres people in what is today southwestern New Mexico, is an example of a seemingly trivial point that can illustrate something big. Slip slop shows what archaeologist Stephen H. Lekson, discussing Mimbres in his 2008 book A History of the Ancient Southwest, calls “the one-two historical punch of Hohokam and Chaco.” This style of pottery serves as evidence that Mimbres had contact with these two large, influential communities in Arizona and Northern New Mexico, respectively. http://bit.ly/2kNB65e – Santa Fe New Mexican

As Two Looters Are Found Guilty, BLM Asks the Public for Help to Stop Looting on the Arizona Strip
In the wake of the looting of a prehistoric Native American village near Beaver Dam, Arizona, land managers are asking the public’s help in protecting the wide variety of cultural resources located on the Arizona Strip. The looting case has prompted Bureau of Land Management to ask for increased awareness of the role the public can play in preserving archeological resources for present and future generations of Americans, BLM Arizona Strip District spokeswoman Rachel Carnahan said. http://bit.ly/2kNxFeH – St. George News

Crow Canyon Offers Summer Institute for Educators
The Crow Canyon Archaeological Center is offering a tuition-free National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute from June 25 to July 15 to help teachers explore the nature of archaeology, history and tribal identity. The program, “From Mesa Verde to Santa Fe: Pueblo Identity in the Southwest,” examines more than 4,000 years of Native American history through field trips, archaeological fieldwork, laboratory analyses, readings and lectures. Institute scholars will spend several days exploring archaeology, ethnology and oral history at Mesa Verde National Park and historic Pueblo and Spanish colonial sites in northern New Mexico. http://bit.ly/2kNyyUB – Cortez Journal

Archaeology Cafe – Tucson: Ute, Comanche, and Pueblo Interaction in the Northern Rio Grande
Dr. Lindsay Montgomery (University of Arizona) joins us for our café on Tuesday, March 7, 2017. We meet on the patio of Casa Vicente, 375 S. Stone Ave., Tucson, after 5:00 p.m. The presentation will begin at 6:00 p.m. Enter through the restaurant.

REMINDER: Archaeology Café – Tempe: Flagstaff’s Ancient Connections
On Tuesday, February 21, 2017, Peter J. Pilles (USDA-National Forest Service) joins us for a look at Flagstaff-area archaeology and what it reveals about connections to other regions of the Southwest. We will meet after 5:30 p.m. at Macayo’s Depot Cantina, 300 S. Ash Ave, Tempe, AZ. The presentation will begin at 6:00 p.m.

15th Annual Historic Preservation Conference Scheduled for Oro Valley, AZ
Make plans now to attend the 15^th Annual Arizona Historic Preservation Conference, June 14-16, 2017 at the Hilton El Conquistador Hotel in Oro Valley, Arizona.  The theme of this year’s conference is inspired by our host community’s tagline, “It’s in Our Nature.” The conference will highlight preservation activities, archaeology updates and projects, mid-century modern architecture, state-of-the-art technology, legislative updates, Tribal preservation programs, the latest preservation efforts of Southern Arizona communities, off-site events and specialty tours that will be of interest to everyone. Please visit www.azpreservation.org for more information and a current list of scheduled sessions, special events, and speaker biographies on the Agenda page.

Canyon Hikers Describe an Amazing, Hidden Place of the Past
Lost cities don’t exist. They are confined to the bottoms of oceans and 19th-century jungles. As children, we all eventually give up on looking for buried treasure in backyards, or undiscovered, ancient ruins down the block because at this point humanity has been around long enough to stumble over most of them. Long before I even started exploring the backcountry, I had dismissed any notion that there were lost remnants of civilizations out there. But in the fall of 2009, I discovered there are still blank spots on the map (relatively undocumented throughout history) when a group of us found one of them in, of all places, Arizona. http://bit.ly/2kNHUjh – Mountain Zone

Lecture Opportunity – Santa Fe
Southwest Seminars Presents Dr. Norman Yoffee, Professor Emeritus, Department of Near Eastern Studies and Anthropology, University of Michigan and Senior Fellow, Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York University; Editor, Cambridge World Archaeology; and New Directions in Sustainability and Society, Cambridge University/Arizona State University School of Sustainability who will give a lecture New Perspectives on Ancient Trade in Mesopotamia and Beyond on February 27 at 6pm at Hotel Santa Fe as part of the Ancient Sites Ancient Stories Lecture Series. Admission is by subscription or $12 at the door. No reservations are necessary. Refreshments are served. Seating is Limited. Contact Connie Eichstaedt, tel: 505 466-2775; email: southwest seminar@aol.com; website: http://southwestseminars.org/

Lecture Opportunity – Sedona
The next monthly meeting of the Verde Valley Chapter of the Arizona Archaeological Society will be held on Thursday, February 23rd, in the Community Room of the Sedona public Library, 3250 White Bear Road, Sedona, at 7:00 pm. The evening’s program, presented by Ted Neff will be From the Macal to the Colorado: Households and Site Planning in the Study of Agricultural Terracing in Belize and Ancestral Puebloan Sites at the Bottom of the Grand Canyon Please join us this month for this fascinating program.  Admission is free.  For additional information or questions, contact Nancy Bihler at 203-5822, or check out our website: http://www.azarchsoc.org/VerdeValley