Energy Policy Threatens the Archaeology of the Southwest, Pecos Booksigning

Archaeology Making The News - A Service of the Center for Desert Archaeology

- Energy Policy Threatens the Archaeology of the Southwest: The dusty documentation of the Anasazi Indians a thousand years ago, from their pit houses and kivas to the observatories from which they charted the heavens, lies thick in the ground near here at Canyons of the Ancients National Monument. Or so archaeologists believe. Less than a fifth of the park has been surveyed for artifacts because of limited federal money.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/02/us/02artifacts.html

- New Book on Post Chacoan Life on the Middle San Juan to be Unveiled at Pecos Conference: At 7pm, Thursday, Aug. 7 at the opening Pecos reception, Paul Reed will sign copies of his new edited volume: Chaco’s Northern Prodigies: Salmon, Aztec, and the Ascendancy of the Middle San Juan Region after AD 1100, just published by the University of Utah Press. Expanding on re-invigorated Chacoan studies of the last decade, Chaco’s Northern Prodigies highlights new research by a diverse group of institutions and individuals over the last decade. Authors explore the dual status of the Salmon and Aztec pueblos, and other communities, as 11th- and 12th-century Chacoan Outliers and central places in the 1200s landscape of the Middle San Juan region. The book’s contributors elucidate aspects of Middle San Juan archaeology with previously unexplored methods, and for the first time, highlight the unique, local configuration of ancient Middle San Juan history and culture. Reed is a Center for Desert Archaeology Preservation Archaeologist, working at Salmon Ruins Museum, New Mexico.

- 2008 Leupp Kiln Conference Scheduled: Don Montoya (dgmontoya@yahoo.com) is hosting the 2008 Leupp Kiln Conference at the Anasazi State Park in Boulder, Utah (not Boulder, Colorado) August 30 - 31, 2008. Guest lectures are planned for Saturday afternoon or Sunday morning. For those able to arrive early there will be a Saturday morning trip to collect nearby clay sources. Various firings will be done on Saturday and the big Black-on-white conflagration is scheduled for Saturday evening with opening sometime Sunday. Contact Don for schedules, registration fees, campground and hotel accommodations and other questions. Everyone is welcome. We look forward to seeing you there!

- Corrected Link for Detailed Journal of Archaeological Reconnaissance along Utah's Green River.
http://www.sunad.com/index.php?tier=1&article_id=13667

- Tucson Prepares to Celebrate Birthday #233: Tucson's birthday isn't until Aug. 20, but a host of city groups and businesses want the party to last all month. More than 100 events were tagged to Tucson's big day last year, according to tucsonsbirthday.org, and it certainly seems as if we're on par to at least match that number for the Old Pueblo's 233rd. The official kickoff was Friday morning, with proclamation readings, flag presentations, etc.
http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/frontpage/92496.php

- Tucson Presidio Trust Prepares Lecture Series: Recapturing the Spanish colonial period. The Tucson Presidio Trust will be presenting a 3-lecture series, this Fall, starting in September. Sept. 14: Reconstruction of Presidio San Agustin del Tucson. Speaker: Gayle Hartmann, anthropologist and former president of the Tucson Presidio Trust for Historic Preservation. Oct. 19: The Apache Pacification Policy/Pacification by Dependency: Apaches Mansos (Tame or Peaceful Apaches). Speaker: Julia Arriola, museum curator, Arizona Historical Society. Nov. 16: A Day in the Life of the Presidio. Speaker: Jim Turner, historian, Arizona Historical Society. The talks will be held at 3 p.m. on Sunday afternoons at the presidio, 133 W. Washington. Street parking is free on weekends. Lectures are free of charge. Save the dates and join us for entertaining and educational afternoons. Refreshments will be served. For more information, contact Gayle Hartmann, Tel. 520-325-6974.

Thanks to Tom Garrison and William Lucius for contributions to today's newsletter