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.

If you have news, announcements, or events, let us know.

Banner image: Paul Vanderveen

For the latest news in your inbox, sign up for email updates below.

The Significance of Cooperative Land Management

Dear Friends, I’m back in Tucson after a week in the Poconos. Lots of good family time, and even a few birds I’m not used to seeing around Tucson—Eastern Bluebirds, Savannah Sparrows, and Yellow Warblers. Flying on airplanes used to be a wonderful time to settle into a window seat and ma...

Ninth Circuit Denies Apache Claim to Oak Flat

Dear Friends, Usually at this time of year I am scheduling a trip to Cliff, New Mexico, for the closing day of our field school on July 4th. Not this year. Because I now have grandkids with birthdays on the summer solstice and July 4th, I also have competing priorities at this time of year. An...

Tribes, BLM Sign Historic Agreement for Managing Bears Ears National Monument

Dear Friends, The lengthy timeline of emotional events related to Bears Ears National Monument settled into a very positive place this past Saturday. An even better future is on that horizon. The five Tribes of the Bears Ears Commission signed an Inter-Governmental Cooperative Agreement with t...

Ceremonial Items Returned to Yaqui Community

Dear Friends, I am blessed to work with an incredible staff at Archaeology Southwest. They are super-smart, they are very good at what they do, and I learn a great deal from interacting with and just listening to them. This week a number of us have been kicking around a tough problem. Stewing,...

Register Now for the 2022 Pecos Conference

Dear Friends, The Cooper’s Hawk—whose silent but powerful blow to the back of my head I described here last week—has not gotten much friendlier. Being a “friend of birds” at heart, I have become aggressively defensive. I enclose a photo of my protective gear: a hard hat—with enhanc...

The Lands Between

Dear Friends, Sometimes a blow is external—other times, internal. I got one of each over the holiday weekend. Apropos of our yearlong focus on “Avian Archaeology,” a Cooper’s Hawk that inhabits the Eucalyptus tree next to my house hit me on the back of the head at full speed, ...

13,000-Year-Old Ocher Mine in Wyoming

Dear Friends, I may soon be overwhelmed by positivity. It started at the Summit hosted by the Conservation Lands Foundation last week. That was one of the best professional gatherings I have ever attended. And today, I get to meet our 2022 field school students. We spend two days...

Glen Canyon Sites Re-emerge

Dear Friends, I am in Albuquerque this week, attending the Conservation Lands Foundation’s 2022 Summit. Skylar Begay, Ashleigh Thompson, and I drove up from Tucson on Monday, had a couple of meetings in Albuquerque on Tuesday, and enjoyed the conference opening last night. This is a signific...

80,000 Strong for Greater Chaco

Dear Friends, Thank you for stepping up these past months to show your support for the Greater Chaco landscape. Our top story today reports that some 80,000 responses were submitted to the Bureau of Land Management. That’s progress—and an important step in a long process. We’ll need you ...

Chaco and Naco

Dear Friends, Today let’s start with two short words that rhyme and two consecutive numbers. Chaco and Naco. 10 and 11. Chaco—actually the Greater Chaco Cultural Landscape—is threatened by oil and gas extraction. I sincerely hope that you will take two actions as soon as possible. First,...

Tunnel Fire Swept through Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument

Dear Friends, I’m in the field this morning, doing some filming in the few hours before the temperatures in the Great Bend of the Gila reach triple digits, so I have to keep this short. In this week following Earth Day, when so much of the news is about war and climate change impacts, I am g...

Blue Corn, Melons, and the Climate Crisis

Dear Friends, When a mentor of the highest order passes, it prompts deep reflection. Last Thursday, R. Gwinn Vivian (1935–2022) passed peacefully. I consider Gwinn my highest-order mentor. And I am merely one among many who feel similar gratitude and loss. If it weren’t for Gwinn, I wou...

Show More