Southwest Archaeology Today for December 13, 2007

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

– Time Magazine Advises the Public that Investment in Antiquities is “Hot:” The good news is that it is possible for the individual investor to buy antiquities – and for a surprisingly moderate sum. According to John Ambrose, founder and director of Fragments of Time, a Boston-area antiquities dealer, they’re within even a modest investor’s reach. “For under $10,000 a year you could acquire two to four quality objects with good provenance that you could expect would not only hold their value but increase in value over time,” he says. In the past, the increase was anywhere from 8 to 9% annually, but in recent years that figure has gone up.
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1693792,00.html?xid=rss-business

– Nominations for the 2008 Joe Ben Wheat Research Scholarship are Being Accepted
at the University of Colorado Museum: The scholarship was established to honor the memory of Joe Ben Wheat, a leading scholar of the American Southwest. Dr. Wheat was a curator at the University of Colorado Museum for over 40 years. He was a consummate scholar of the anthropology of the American Southwest and Colorado Plains. His work in Southwestern Indian jewelry, textiles, and pottery significantly expanded the scope and quality of the Museum’s collections. His archaeological research in Paleoindian and Puebloan archaeology was original and challenging. The scholarship supports graduate studies in Dr. Wheat’s areas of research.
http://www.cdarc.org/sat/jbw-scolarship.doc – Ms Word Document

– Native American Protests Begin at 9th Circuit Court of Appeals: Chanting and beating drums, American Indians marched to a federal appeals court to oppose the use of treated sewage to make snow in Arizona mountains they hold sacred. About 150 activists marched Tuesday to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for a hearing in the case.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/20071212-1010-wst-skiflap.html

– National Spatial Data Infrastructure Program Open for Cooperative Programs and Projects: You may want to pass this information along to your state, local, tribal, and academic partners for their interest: the 2008 National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) Cooperative Agreements Program (CAP) is still open for proposal submittal and will close on December 18, 2007. The purpose of the NSDI CAP is to fund innovative projects in the geospatial data community to build the infrastructure necessary to effectively discover, access, share, manage, and use digital geographic data. A short description of this year’s categories and a link to the full 2008 NSDI CAP announcement can be found at http://www.fgdc.gov/grants/2008CAP/2008CAPschedule

– Lecture in Tucson to Discuss Hohokam Survival in the Arid Desert Southwest: “Ancient Farming Strategies: How Did the Hohokam Survive in Our Arid Landscape?” will be presented by archaeologist John Madsen, Thursday, Dec. 20th at 7:30 p.m. at the Old Pueblo Archaeology auditorium, 5100 W. Ina Road Bldg. 8, Our guest speaker, Mr. John Madsen, is an Associate Curator of Archaeology at the Arizona State Museum, John’s research interests have included close examination of early and late Classic period Hohokam platform mound communities. He has coauthored and authored articles and books on Hohokam prehistory within the region of the lower Santa Cruz River basin. The presentation, part of Old Pueblo’s Third Thursday lecture series is free and open to the public.

– Lecture in Tucson to Explore the Topic of Preservation Archaeology in the Upper Little Colorado Basin. As part of the Arizona Historical and Archaeological Society’s December meeting, Doug Gann will present “Preservation Archaeology at Casa Malpais.” Doug is a preservation archaeologist at the Center for Desert Archaeology in Tucson. He has been assisting the Little Colorado Chapter of the Arizona Archaeological Society as they continue their heroic efforts to preserve and understand the unique ancestral Puebloan site of Casa Malpais. Lecture will be held at 7:30 pm, Monday, December 17th at the Duval Auditorium, within the Arizona Health Sciences Center, 1501 N Campbell Ave, Tucson.

– Employment Opportunities (Casa Grande Ruins): Casa Grande Ruins National Monument (CAGR) will be filling three to four jobs in the Cultural Resources Division this year. The first job is being advertised as a GS-5 Archeological Technician right now. The others will be advertised on the http://www.USAJobs.gov website between now and January 30 as GS-7 Archeological Technicians and a GS-5 Laborer. These positions are all entry level. Due to the small size of our park, these new staff will have a unique opportunity to participate in various aspects of resource management. Upcoming projects at CAGR include the drafting, compliance and implementation of the Compound B Preservation Plan, documentation and condition assessment work, treatment history research projects, site impacts monitoring, and preservation of both historic buildings and prehistoric sites. Skill with databases, word processing, and mapping programs will be helpful. Though these positions are being advertised under the archeological technician and laborer series, students with a background in historic preservation, materials science, natural resource management, biology, ecology, archeology, museum studies, and/or archeology are all encouraged to apply for these positions. Please be sure to include a short essay with your application materials that answers the set of 3-5 questions listed under “How you will be evaluated:” in the “Qualifications & Evaluations” tab of each Job Announcement. Please also indicate if you are only available for summer employment. Each announcement is scored separately according to applicants’ qualifications, so submitting your resume to more than one announcement will only increase your chances of getting hired. CAGR website:
http://www.nps.gov/cagr/index.htm

Thanks to Gerald Kelso for contributions to today’s newsletter.