Preservation Archaeology Today

Preservation Archaeology Today (PAT) is a free, weekly e-mail news digest. In addition to sharing regional archaeology news, events, opportunities, and publications, PAT connects readers with news and commentary on U.S. public lands policy, global heritage protection and preservation, and the peopling of the North and South American continents. Review our submission guidelines here.

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Six Tribes Announce Formation of GSENM Inter-Tribal Coalition

Hi everyone! Steve is on a prospective colleges tour with his twin sons this week. He hoped he’d be able to check in with you all, but: Teenage boys. A lot of driving. So, I’m here to share something I read yesterday that really moved me, and that I shared with Steve (we’re both from the...

Raúl Grijalva’s Legacy

Dear Friends, THEY’RE HERE! HOT OFF THE PRESSES! I am thrilled to report that the latest issue of Archaeology Southwest Magazine—focused on Mesa Verde—has just rolled off the delivery trucks! It’s called “Continuity and Connections: The Living Landscapes of Mesa Verde” and is a ...

Concern Mounts as Review of National Monuments Continues Behind Closed Doors

Dear Friends, What’s happening these days? A lot, it turns out. Tonight, a “Blood Worm Moon,” caused by a total lunar eclipse, will occur after midnight. The name refers to back to Farmer’s Almanac-style insights on increased earthworm and perhaps insect activity as the northern hemisp...

In Honor of Leigh J. Kuwanwisiwma (1950–2025)

Dear Friends, On Wednesday, March 5, Archaeology Southwest’s new Director of Development Dani Phelps and I made one of my favorite drives across the American Southwest—the scenic route from Tucson to Santa Fe. We headed east on Interstate 10 and crossed the San Pedro Valley in the early morni...

What the General Public Needs to Know about NSF Grants

Dear Friends, I write to you from Louis Armstrong International Airport in New Orleans, Louisiana, on my way back from the 10th Annual Repatriation Conference hosted by the American Association of Indian Affairs. Over the course of an intense three days, repatriation specialists from across the n...

Potential Impacts of Freezes and Firings at NPS

Dear Friends, In my note here on November 7, 2024, I quoted the following passage from Rabbi Abraham Heschel: How strange we are in the world and how presumptuous our doings. Only one response can maintain us: Gratefulness for witnessing the wonder; for the gift to our unearned right to live, t...

Oil & Gas Advocate Named as Director of the Bureau of Land Management

Dear Friends, These are difficult times. Our world is changing, and changing rapidly. The new presidential administration is attacking the people, programs, policies, places, and values at the very core of Archaeology Southwest’s work. The body blows are coming fast and furious, and th...

Our Public Lands Are Once Again in Jeopardy

Dear Friends, As I said last week, one of the joys of working at Archaeology Southwest is that no one day is like another. We work on a wide range of mission-driven projects that have different timelines and cadences. We can’t control external events that have an impact on what we do, we simply...

What Will Happen to Our Public Lands?

Dear Friends, One of the joys of working at Archaeology Southwest is the daily surprise. One day, Allen Denoyer will come in showing off a beautiful Acheulean hand axe he just made. The next, we’ll be learning new facts at the fourth installment of our fantastic Archaeology Café series on d...

AZ Gov. Pledges $7M to Aid ASM NAGPRA Compliance

Dear Friends, Archaeology Southwest currently has two dozen full-time employees working on everything from original scientific research to Tribal collaboration, from site and landscape preservation to outreach activities, and from raising money to running the business of a complex nonprofit. W...

NEH Awards Support Preservation Archaeology Projects

Dear Friends, As do many archaeologists, I love hiking. It’s great to be out in nature, observing the landscape, thinking about what life was like in the past, and looking for evidence of those lives. It’s calming. It’s good for us. It is what we bipedal apes evolved to do—walk with our h...

Meet the Newest National Monuments

Dear Friends, Just over four years ago, I published a Curiosities column at SAPIENS.org on fascinating archaeological tree-ring research that reconstructed ancient Indigenous fire management systems in northern New Mexico. (See also Archaeology Southwest Magazine Vol. 30, No. 4, “Fire Adds Rich...

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