(November 1, 2017)—Every so often, I ask our staff to say a few words about what they’re working on that week. Here’s this week’s edition:
Aaron Wright:
I’m managing data and records from our roads survey in the Sonoran Desert National Monument, and strategizing upcoming field sessions. I’m also preparing a presentation on my work with the petroglyphs at Taliesin West for the 42nd annual Rock Art Symposium in San Diego this Saturday.
Allen Denoyer:
I’m preparing for the Hands-On class on knife-hafting I’m teaching this Saturday (November 4)—and I have a few spots still open, if anyone wants to join us! Gary Owens (Huhugam Ki Museum) and I are writing a joint post for this blog about the replica pithouse we have been building at the museum, so watch for that. I’m also helping our new staff member, Carly Stewart, prepare public outreach programs she will be undertaking at Tonto National Monument. I’m excited for her and for her visitors, because the Upper Cliff Dwelling there will be open to visitors (by reservation) from November to April. That’s a must-see.
Andy Laurenzi:
I’ve been spot checking sites in the Sonoran Desert National Monument to evaluate impacts related to recreational shooting. I’m also putting the finishing touches on an update to our database on Hohokam ballcourts.
Bill Doelle:
November means assessing how we have done in 2017 and budgeting for 2018. Bears Ears continues to be a high priority, and I’m helping organize sessions on Bears Ears for the January 2018 Southwest Symposium in Denver and the April Society for American Archaeology meetings in Washington DC. An exciting new public outreach effort with the National Park Service is in the planning stages this week and next. Those activities will include our current staff to some extent but largely involve new staff member Carly Stewart. Earlier this week, I provided comments on two papers related to aboriginal use of agave in southern Arizona to the primary authors, and those papers are about to go into journals—that was fun to participate in. And then there was the moment of silence that took place for a few short seconds when the Phoenix Underground issue went to the printer and the Bears Ears issue began to loom large over us all. (You remember those few seconds, don’t you, Kate?)
Doug Gann:
I’m finishing the digital modeling of Homol’ovi I, a large pueblo near Winslow, Arizona, through five periods of time. The spatial reorganization of the village around A.D. 1350 records an amazing social transformation that we will be sharing through a touch screen exhibit that will open at the Arizona State Museum in December.
Jeff Clark:
On the cyberSW project, our RIDIR team is conceptualizing the Mother of All Archaeological Databases. I’m reviewing submissions for the first issue of Archaeology Southwest Magazine 2018, which will be on Chaco Social Networks. And Lewis Borck and I are wrapping up our Edge of Salado project grant responsibilities.
Karen Schollmeyer:
I’ve been making a few final edits to an article on long-term patterns in archaeological animal bone from the Mimbres area for an upcoming issue of Kiva. This article grew out of an NSF project Mike Diehl and I are working on analyzing legacy faunal and paleoethnobotanical collections and data from that region. As part of the same project, I’ve also been working with datasets from the Mimbres Foundation in the 1970s that were recently converted to digital format by tireless Archaeology Southwest volunteer Jaye Smith. Finally, Kathleen Bader and I have been updating our website with information on our upcoming 2018 Preservation Archaeology Field School while I work on reports from our 2017 field season.
Kate Sarther Gann (me!):
On Monday, Kathleen Bader, Bill Doelle, Leslie Aragon, Catherine Gilman, and I finalized page proofs of the forthcoming double-issue edition of Archaeology Southwest Magazine: Phoenix Underground. Expect that in mailboxes soon. (So, yeah—yesterday, I took the day off to space out for a bit!) Today, I’m compiling our “This Month at Archaeology Southwest” email and editing Aaron’s new guide to visiting the Painted Rock Petroglyph site. Tomorrow, I have the pleasure of diving in to the content for the next issue of the magazine, which will be devoted to Bears Ears. Our friends R.E. Burrillo and Ben Bellorado are serving as guest issue editors for that.
Kathleen Bader:
Now that we’ve sent the new magazine issue to our printer (whew!), I’m setting up membership renewals (watch for those if you’re due in January), designing our year-end fund-raising campaign materials, and designing the call to applicants for our 2018 Preservation Archaeology Field School.
Leslie Aragon:
For most of this week, I’m working on my dissertation proposal/NSF Dissertation improvement grant. For this research I’ll be using a multidisciplinary approach, incorporating archaeology, social network analyses (SNA), petrographic analyses, stylistic analyses, and spatial analysis to address how group identity at multiple scales was structured and how different expressions of identity intersected. I use a multiscalar approach to group identity, emphasizing both active and latent expressions, to demonstrate that outward displays of cohesion at Hohokam sites mask underlying social diversity related to persistent local identities at the village and multi-village community scales. On Friday, Jeff, Karen, and I are going down to Cochise College to look at a recently donated collection of whole vessels.
Linda Pierce:
I’m raising money and managing the Archaeology Café program. I’m also preparing our year-end fund-raising campaign and getting ready to hit the road to meet our members and friends in the Albuquerque-Santa Fe region.
Paul Reed:
All will be revealed in my blog post tomorrow!