Southwestern Archaeology Today for May 26, 2009

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

– Southwest’s Earliest Irrigation Features Discovered at Las Capas: Archaeologists preparing for the expansion of a Tucson wastewater treatment facility have discovered the remains of the earliest known irrigation system in the Southwest, a farming community that dates to at least 1200 BC. That predates the well-known and much more sophisticated Hohokam tribe’s canal system, which crisscrossed what is now Phoenix, by 1,200 years. The find suggests that the people who inhabited the region began with relatively simple irrigation systems and built up to more complex projects as the climate became hotter and drier.
http://www.cdarc.org/page/kpd0 – Los Angeles Times

Oil Exploration Drilling to Move within 45 Yards of Aztec National Monument: A natural-gas company plans to drill a well less than 45 yards from a corner of Aztec Ruins National Monument, and the director is concerned about possible damage. Maana Gas Inc. plans to use directional drilling to tap resources on 160 acres it leases beneath the national monument, going 1,000 to 2,000 feet deep. The well pad will be 125 feet from the northwest corner of the monument. Larry Baker, executive director at nearby Salmon Ruins, said Aztec Ruins has many culturally significant artifacts that could be damaged, and even building new trails could be curtailed by potential vapors from drilling.
http://www.cdarc.org/page/ia1l – The Durango Herald

– Nine Mile Canyon Coalition Honored by ARARA: The rural residents who wanted to educate the public about the wonders of Nine Mile Canyon didn’t realize when they formed their coalition in 1991 they were in for a fight. Eighteen years later, the Nine Mile Canyon Coalition has not only battled its way to the table with federal officials considering a massive natural-gas drilling project, the group has won an award from an international cultural preservation group. The coalition, along with the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the Colorado Plateau Archaeological Alliance, were honored Saturday night with the Conservation and Preservation Award from the American Rock Art Research Association during its annual conference in Bakersfield, Calif.
http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_12442948

– New Mexico History Museum Opens in Santa Fe: Deep in the bowels of the Conservation Laboratory on Museum Hill in Santa Fe, Rebecca Tinkham uses a thin bamboo skewer to remove more than 20,000 flyspecks from one of the oldest textiles in New Mexico: a devotional medallion that arrived in the late 16th century with Juan de O