Southwest Archaeology Today for Nov 16, 2005

Archaeology Making the News – A Service of the Center for Desert Archaeology

– Brown bag Lecture on Archaeological Evidence for Mining and Metallurgy in Colonial New Mexico (Santa Fe): David Vaughan, Ph.D. Candidate at the University of New Mexico will present the results of his dissertation research on Spanish colonial metal production in Central New Mexico, focusing specifically on those portions addressing the archaeology and materials science of historical mining studies. He will describe the current archaeological record of Spanish colonial metallurgy in Central New Mexico and the results of his recent materials science-based analyses of metallurgical artifacts from a number of Colonial Period sites. Drawing on these results, he will discuss how and why New Mexico’s unique physical, social and cultural landscapes appear to have significantly defined and redirected the ‘quest for mineral wealth’ in Colonial New Mexico. The programs are held at 12:05 pm in Meem Hall at the Laboratory of Anthropology. Bring a lunch and enjoy the intellectual stimulation! The talks are free to the public.

– Mesa Verde National Park Prepares to Celebrate it’s 100th Birthday: America’s premier archaeological preserve of ancient Indian ruins, Mesa Verde, will be marking its 100th birthday as a national park in 2006. A happily harried National Park Service staff is kicking off a year of celebrations with its biggest- ever holiday open house 4-9 p.m. Dec. 8. Tessy Shirakawa, head of visitor services, says the event will feature never-before-seen sites.
http://www.denverpost.com/ci_3216121?rss

-New Video on the Archaeology Channel Highlights the Life of the “Shovelbum:” The life of an archaeologist can be rather routine, especially for your typical field technician, aka “shovel bum.” For that downtrodden class, we now have a new hero, T-Bone, whom we introduce in The Shovel Bum’s Lot, the latest video feature on our nonprofit streaming-media Web site, The Archaeology Channel
http://www.archaeologychannel.org

– Arizona State Museum Roadshow an Interesting Success: Elise Gilden of Oro Valley is handing down a 1920s Navajo rug to her 9-month-old great-grandson in Brooklyn, but first she wanted to know how much it was worth. Gilden took her rug yesterday to the Arizona State Museum Roadshow, where hundreds of people brought their family heirlooms and Southwest antiques for unofficial appraisals and some information. The roadshow was inspired by the popular PBS series “Antiques Roadshow,” in which expert appraisers from Christie’s, Sotheby’s and other national and international auction houses visit U.S. cities and appraise items brought in by area residents.
http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/news/local/111405a1_Weather

– Legal Arguments over Snowbowl Near an End: When businessman Eric Borowsky bought Arizona Snowbowl in 1992, good financial years far outnumbered bad and the mountain hadn’t seen short seasons back to back. Then the drought hit. And business “was totally different than anything we’d envisioned or imagined,” Borowsky told the judge deciding Snowbowl’s fate here Monday.
http://www.azdailysun.com/non_sec/nav_includes/story.cfm?storyID=119270

– New State Monument Offers History on the Road (Eastern New Mexico):It is El Camino Real International Heritage Center, a 20,000-square-foot structure that suggests the image of a ship in the desert, symbolic of the life-sustaining caravans that for centuries moved livestock, merchandise and culture between Mexico City and San Gabriel in the Espanola Valley north of Santa Fe. The Center is a joint project with the United States Bureau of Land Management and supported by El Camino Real International Heritage Center Foundation. It opens as the sixth New Mexico State Monument. “You might call the Heritage Center a modern day paraje” mused Jos