Museum of Northern Arizona and the Glen Canyon Dam Project Today

Museum of Northern Arizona and the Glen Canyon Dam Project Today
Archaeology is still an important research domain at the museum. In 2014, MNA began a cooperative agreement with Glen Canyon National Recreation area to monitor previously-recorded archaeological sites. These are sites known from the Glen Canyon Project as well as from later surveys done during construction of the roads, marinas, and other infrastructure for visitors. MNA’s work has involved boat-based fieldwork to explore the submerged tributary canyons all along the lake and land-based sessions on the upland terraces north of the Wahweap Bay – Lone Rock area and around Halls Crossing. http://bit.ly/2U3WCEG – Arizona Daily Sun

Why Paleontologists Also Sued
At Bears Ears, the potential loss to science—and society—is sizable, says former SVP President David Polly, a paleontologist at Indiana University in Bloomington. Fossils here chronicle major events that remade the world—from the evolution of early life on land 340 million years ago to the shift in climate at the end of the last ice age that ushered in the era of human civilization. “It’s a landscape of stories,” says Rob Gay, a paleontologist and education director with the Colorado Canyons Association in Grand Junction, who has studied the Bears Ears area for more than a decade and was among the first paleontologists to push for monument designation. Without protection, he says, “our knowledge of our planet [will be] diminished forever.” http://bit.ly/2UacOEt – Science

Update on Oil and Gas Leasing near Hovenweep and Canyon of the Ancients
Public lands to the west and northwest of Hovenweep and Canyon of the Ancients were previously designated by the BLM as an “Alkali Ridge Area of Critical Environmental Concern” (ARACEC) due to “extremely valuable and irreplaceable” archaeological and cultural resources, said Landon Newell, staff attorney for Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, one of the groups protesting the oil and gas lease sale. http://bit.ly/2UbiCxz – Moab Sun News

Book Announcement: From Huhugam to Hohokam: Heritage and Archaeology in the American Southwest
Brett Hill examines the history of O’odham heritage as it was recorded from the beginning of European conquest. A parallel history of scientific exploration is then traced forward to produce intricate models of the coming and going of ancient peoples. Throughout this history, Native accounts were routinely dismissed as an inferior kind of knowledge. More recently, though, a revolutionary change has taken hold in archaeology as Native insights and premises are integrated into scientific thought. http://bit.ly/2U9LWUZ – Rowman & Littlefield

Profile of New Multi-Author Book on Ancient Pueblo Life in the Middle San Juan Region
The humble but proud corn plant plays a huge part in the story of the Ancestral Puebloans. The people who lived 800 years ago in what is now northwestern New Mexico had a varied menu that included venison and rabbit, beans, squash, piñon nuts, wild onions, yucca fruit, tansy mustard, and purslane, but corn was a critical staple food. “I just read a paper that suggested that the selection of different colors in the so-called Indian corn started in the 700s,” archaeologist Paul F. Reed said. “The selection was both for decorative purposes and the food quality. The flint or popcorn varieties probably preserved a little better, but the larger ones were great for grinding into cornmeal.” http://bit.ly/2DjVTKg – Santa Fe New Mexican

Profile of Steve Lekson’s New Book on Chaco
Some of Stephen Lekson’s fondest memories from his 45-plus years as an archaeologist are of mornings at Chimney Rock. This site in southern Colorado was a satellite community for a society called the Chaco Canyon culture, which thrived in the Four Corners region from about 850 to 1150 A.D. The town spreads over sandstone cliffs that climb nearly 1,000 feet above a valley. And at the top of what Lekson called a “knife edge ridge” is a great house, a massive living space that overlooks the smaller dwellings below. http://bit.ly/2U9ZArk – CU Boulder Today

Video: Sonoran Desert Food and Lifeways, Past and Present
In this Archaeology Café presentation, Melissa Kruse-Peeples and Bernard Siquieros discuss foodways of the Sonoran Desert—which is definitely not a food desert, as it has dozens of edible wild plants and ancient arid-adapted agricultural food crops. In this talk, Kruse-Peeples and Siquieros provide an overview of the food history of the Sonoran Desert and ways you can enjoy many of the flavors of the desert today. https://youtu.be/jb8snu10uEg – Archaeology Southwest (opens at YouTube)

Video: Remapping a Place
Jim Enote, a traditional Zuni farmer and director of the A:shiwi A:wan Museum and Heritage Center, is working with Zuni artists to create maps that bring an indigenous voice and perspective back to the land, countering Western notions of place and geography and challenging the arbitrary borders imposed on the Zuni world. https://youtu.be/hN9RrPxDpj0 – National Geographic

New Exhibition: By Land & By Sea
The San Diego Archaeological Center announces an exhibit opening for By Land & By Sea on Saturday, February 9, from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., as part of their Second Saturday Series. The event will be held at the San Diego Archaeological Center located at 16666 San Pasqual Valley Road, Escondido, CA 92027. Admission is free. https://sandiegoarchaeology.org/2nd-sat-by-land-and-sea-exhibit-opening/

JAZA Goes Open Source
The Arizona Archaeological Council’s (AAC) Board recently made the decision to make all but the current issue of the Journal of Arizona Archaeology open source. http://arizonaarchaeologicalcouncil.org/JAZA

Internship Opportunity, Boulder CO
The SOARS program is seeking to recruit students under-represented students who are majoring in atmospheric science or a related field such as the geosciences, chemistry, computer science, earth science, engineering, environmental science, mathematics, meteorology, oceanography, physics, or social science; and a plan to pursue a career in atmospheric or a related science are the focus of this internship. This also includes students who are interested in education and outreach related to climate change as well as the social impacts of climate change. SOARS is an undergraduate to graduate research internship program for students interested in the atmospheric and related sciences, based at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (Boulder, Colorado). Application deadline: Feb 1, 2019. For more information and to apply, please see www.soars.ucar.edu.

Field School Opportunity, Wyoming
The University of Wyoming Archaeological Field School provides professional-level training in field research methods at two Wyoming locations. Learn to recognize and identify chipped stone tools and debris, ceramic sherds, faunal remains, fire-cracked rock, stone circles and fire hearths; collect sediment, radiocarbon, and flotation samples; read stratigraphic profiles; excavate; record data; read maps; use a GPS; conduct surface survey; fill out site forms—all the basics of archaeological fieldwork.  You will learn how to use field technology, such as total stations. This year’s field school continues the 2014-17 fieldwork at the La Prele Mammoth site in Converse County, Wyoming where students will learn careful excavation methods, screening, and mapping with a total station. The first session will take place near Laramie where students will work on both prehistoric and historic archaeology associated with artesian springs. There, students will learn survey, mapping, augering, and test excavation methods. The field school includes a range of experiences—and at beautiful Wyoming locations. http://bit.ly/2U4VnoE – University of Wyoming

Job Opportunity, Crow Canyon Archaeological Center
Crow Canyon Archaeological Center is currently accepting applications for a field archaeologist. A field archaeologist assists with all aspects of archaeological field investigations, including survey, excavation, mapping, remote sensing, sample collection, material culture identification, field documentation, and preliminary report preparation as well as supervising and teaching participants (ages 10 to adult) in Crow Canyon’s excavation programs. Deadline for applications is February 4, 2019. For more information and to apply, visit http://www.crowcanyon.org/index.php/jobs.

REPOST: Job Opportunities, Desert Archaeology, Inc.
Desert Archaeology is seeking to fill two Field Director/Project Director positions (one in the Phoenix office, one in the Tucson office) for directing survey, testing phase projects, and small data recovery projects and in assisting Senior Project Directors and Principal Investigators with field supervision of large projects. Field Directors/Project Directors direct and participate in all phases of a project, from pre-field planning (including writing research designs and work plans) and logistical support, to crew supervision, work with laboratory personnel, and post-field analysis and report preparation. Applications will be reviewed beginning January 21, 2019. Positions open until filled. https://desert.com/open-positions/

REMINDER: Special Program, Tucson AZ, TONIGHT 1/23
Reflections about Bears Ears: An Evening in Honor of Karen Strom. Wednesday, January 23, 7:00 – 9:00 p.m., CESL 103, Free. This program honors a recent gift of Native American art from astronomer and photographer Dr. Stephen Strom, in memory of his late wife, Karen. Dr. Strom will tell us about his latest project documenting the southern Utah region known as Bears Ears. Keynote speaker, Carleton Bowekaty, a member of the Pueblo of Zuni Tribal Council and the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition, will share the experiences of the coalition as it advocated for the establishment of Bears Ears National Monument in 2015/16, and how it is responding to the monument’s subsequent downsizing in 2017. At a reception following the program, selections from the Strom Collection will be on display and Dr. Strom will sign copies of his new books, Bears Ears: Views from a Sacred Land, with introduction by journalist Rebecca Robinson and poetry by Joy Harjo; and Voices from Bears Ears with Rebecca Robinson. The Center for English as a Second Language (CESL) is one building east of ASM north. Program co-sponsored by Archaeology Southwest. http://bit.ly/2CXolBc – Arizona State Museum

Lecture Opportunity, Santa Fe NM
Southwest Seminars Presents Jonathan Till, M.A., Archaeologist and Curator, Edge of the Cedars State Park and Museum, Blanding, Utah and Co-Author (w/Winston Hurst) “Mesa Verdean Landscapes,” in The Mesa Verde World: Explorations in Ancestral Pueblo Archaeology; and former Archaeologist, Rio Abajo Archaeology. Jonathan will give a lecture Bears Ears Archaeology: Ancient Cultural Landscapes in Southeastern Utah on January 28 at Santa Fe Women’s Club, 1616 Old Pecos Trail, as part of the annual Ancient Sites Ancient Stories Lecture Series. Admission is by subscription or $15 at the door. No reservations are necessary. Light refreshments will be served. Seating is limited. Contact Connie Eichstaedt, Director, at 505 466-2775; email: southwestseminar@aol.com; website: southwestseminars.org

Lecture Opportunity, Durango CO
“Evidence of a trans-Atlantic contribution to the Ice Age peopling of the Americas” will be the topic of a special archaeology lecture by Dr. Bruce Bradley, co-sponsored by the San Juan Basin Archaeological Society (SJBAS) and the Fort Lewis College (FLC) Department of Anthropology. The lecture will be held at 7:00 pm on February 4, 2019 at room 130, Noble Hall, FLC. Bruce will also bring a collection of casts of older-than-Clovis stone tools for people to examine.

Archaeology Café (Tucson): Precontact Agriculture, Tucson versus Phoenix
Join us on Tuesday, February 5, 2019, for Precontact Agriculture, Tucson versus Phoenix: It’s Not the Same! by Gary Huckleberry. Archaeologists have found strong evidence for irrigation agriculture in both the Tucson and Phoenix areas, but the histories of the two areas are very different. Canal irrigation is known from a much earlier date in the Tucson region, while Phoenix ultimately became home to the most massive and complicated irrigation systems later in time. Dr. Huckleberry will compare the two regions and explore how environmental and technological differences resulted in the variations we see in the archaeological record. We gather at The Loft Cinema (3233 E. Speedway Blvd.) around 5:30 p.m. to visit and enjoy food and beverages. Programs begin at 6 p.m. in Theatre 1. Seating is open and unreserved. http://bit.ly/2UdFzQP – Archaeology Southwest

Thanks to Brian Kreimendahl for his contribution to today’s newsletter.

Please submit news, book announcements, and events at this link for consideration: https://www.archaeologysouthwest.org/submit-to-sat/

Questions? sat-editor@archaeologysouthwest.org