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On Tuesday, February 18, Katherine Spielmann will speak on two fascinating topics:
Is Agave an Artifact?
With support from the Bureau of Land Management, ASU’s Legacies on the Landscape Project has been collaborating with Desert Botanical Garden botanist Wendy Hodgson in agave research on Perry Mesa since 2005, and with DBG geneticist Andrew Salywon since last year. In 2005 it was assumed that the agave on Perry Mesa were primarily local, wild species that might have been hybridized by prehistoric Perry Mesa farmers. More recent information from our spring 2013 field seminar and genetic analyses suggest otherwise…
Making Culture on Perry Mesa
The fact that several thousand people migrated to Perry Mesa in the late 1200s and early 1300s has been known for quite some time. What went unrecognized until the Alliance and Landscape project that David Abbott and I led over the past several years was that the process of ethnogenesis, or culture-making, occurred over the course of that occupation. I’ll be discussing this development in the context of the new ritual systems (Katsina Cult and Southwestern Cult) that were being developed at the same time to the north, east, and south of Perry Mesa.
Archaeology Café begins at 6 p.m. in the Aztec Room of Macayo’s Central, 4001 N. Central Ave. Seating is open and unreserved, but limited. It is best to arrive half an hour before the presentation begins. We encourage guests to share tables and make new friends at this free event.
Please support our hosts at Macayo’s Central (near the Indian School light rail stop) by purchasing refreshments from the menu—at happy hour prices!