More Research on Clovis Era Comet Impact Hypothesis

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

Vance Haynes and a Team of Arizona Archaeologists Determine Evidence for Clovis Era Comet Impact Flawed

A team of researchers from the University of Arizona has revisited evidence pointing to a cataclysmic event thought by many scientists to have wiped out the North American megafauna – such as mammoths, saber tooth cats, giant ground sloths and Dire wolves – along with the Clovis hunter-gatherer culture some 13,000 years ago. The team obtained their findings following an unusual, multidisciplinary approach and published them in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS).
http://uanews.org/node/31096


Younger Dryas Comet Impact Hypothesis - Astronomer Proposes Multiple Impacts from Portions of a Known Comet

A British astronomer has published new evidence that North America was strafed by thousands of fragments from a massive comet about 12,900 years ago, a theory he says is the best explanation yet for why the planet was plunged into a 1,000-year cooling period and dozens of Ice Age mammals went extinct at that time.
http://tinyurl.com/yahx5j3 - Canada.Com


Why Does the Younger Dryas Matter?
What caused the last great stab of cold 13,000 years ago? Almost overnight, it seems, something drove the gradually warming Northern Hemisphere back into the ice age for 1,000 years or more until warming resumed. People researching the behavior of ancient climate have been ruminating over this question for 20 years now, ever since they detected unexpectedly sharp changes in temperatures in a variety of sources -- ice cores, ocean sediments, pollen layers in old dirt.
http://news.discovery.com/earth/why-the-younger-dryas-matters.html


Dawn of the Anthropocene Epoch? Earth Has Entered New Age of Geological Time, Experts Say

Geologists from the University of Leicester are among four scientists- including a Nobel prize-winner -- who suggest that Earth has entered a new age of geological time. The Age of Aquarius? Not quite -- It's the Anthropocene Epoch, say the scientists writing in the journal Environmental Science & Technology. And they add that the dawning of this new epoch may include the sixth largest mass extinction in Earth's history.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/03/100326101117.htm


Is Enforcement of Section 106 a "Government Taking?"

In the lawsuit, filed in Federal District Court in Providence in August, Downing claimed the measures the state had taken to prevent it from developing the subdivision had amounted to a “de facto” taking of the property. The state is seeking to create a public archaeology park out of private land that Downing had already started to develop, not only violating the developer’s private property rights but also causing it considerable financial harm, the lawsuit states.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/07/realestate/commercial/07indian.html


Native America, Archaeology, and Development

Legally, Native Americans have a growing role in shaping the cultural preservation process. They have an unofficial role too: giving voice to our ambivalence about "progress."
http://crosscut.com/2010/04/05/mossback/19726/


Traces of Early Native Americans -- In Sunflower Genes

ScienceDaily (Apr. 3, 2010) — New information about early Native Americans' horticultural practices comes not from hieroglyphs or other artifacts, but from a suite of four gene duplicates found in wild and domesticated sunflowers.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100402110131.htm


Shelby Tisdale Nominated to NAGPRA Review Committee:

The director of the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture and the Laboratory of Anthropology in Santa Fe has been chosen to serve as a member of the Smithsonian Institution's Native American Repatriation Review Committee. Shelby Tisdale was nominated by the board of the Society for Applied Anthropology.
http://www.kob.com/article/stories/s1494099.shtml?cat=504


Monthly Presentations Help Preserve Navajo Culture

The staff at the Navajo Nation Museum is on a mission to preserve Navajo language and culture. Part of the effort includes monthly cultural presentations that have now been going on for more than a year. For many of the participants, the information from the presentations is something they had once known. “It’s good. It’s something that comes back to you,” said Nellie Beno of Tselani-Cottonwood. “When you’re small, you don’t think about it.”
http://www.indiancountrytoday.com/living/89269417.html


"Finding" Folsom

I first heard of Folsom Man more than 50 years ago when, as an undergraduate at the University of Texas, I took a beginning course in archaeology. To this day, I remain fascinated by his story.
http://www.santafenewmexican.com/Local%20News/Folsom-s-early-fossil-hunters


Legal Brief Details the Dispute over a Reversion Clause Within a Conservation Easement

The Case of The Archaeological Conservancy V. Wilson Land And Cattle Company.
http://www.leagle.com/unsecure/page.htm?shortname=intxco20100330455


Jr Ranger Day at Gila River Cliff Dwellings

Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument will celebrate Junior Ranger Day on Saturday, April 24th with an entire day of free family-friendly activities. Learn about the Ancient Peoples who once inhabited this region, and attend a variety of presentations on the wildlife of the Monument.
http://www.cdarc.org/sat/gcd_jr_r.doc


Lecture Opportunity (Sedona)

Dr. Riley will present these findings from his latest book, "Becoming Aztlan," at the Distinguished Speaker Series hosted by the Verde Valley Chapter of the Arizona Archaeological Society on April 22 at 7:00 pm at the Sedona Creative Life Center, 333 Schnebly Hill Road, Sedona, AZ. This free lecture presentation is open to the public as part of the Society's mission to increase public understanding of the richness of Arizona's archaeological heritage. Aided by extensive illustrations, Dr. Riley will argue that although the Southwest remained "southwestern" in its basic economy, there were drastic changes beginning around AD 1200 that transformed societies and religious life throughout the region. For more information call the Verde Valley Chapter at 928-284-4764.

Lecture Opportunity (Irvine)

The Pacific Coast Archaeological Society's April 8th meeting will feature Dr. Nancy Anastasia Wiley speaking on “Bolsa Chica Archaeology: A Tribute to Hal Eberhart - Part One: The Sites.” Meeting information: Thursday, April 8, 2010, 7:30 pm at the Irvine Ranch Water District, 15600 Sand Canyon Ave., Irvine, CA. Meeting is free and open to the public.
http://www.pcas.org


Connections between the Ancient Mediterranean and Sub Saharan Africa is the Latest Feature on the Archaeology Channel

For millennia a link between the Mediterranean world and sub-Saharan Africa, Mauritania today is one of the poorest and least known countries in the world. We like to bring attention to such places, so we offer you Eyes in the Eyes, the latest video feature on our nonprofit streaming-media Web site, The Archaeology Channel.
http://www.archaeologychannel.org


Employment Opportunity - Archaeological Field Supervisor (Southern Arizona)

The Center for Desert Archaeology has an opening for an archaeologist to serve as Field Supervisor on a Site Relocation and Assessment project in portions of Arizona and possibly southwest New Mexico. The position entails the planning and organization of field site visits, supervision of an archaeological field technician, field data collection and management, and subsequent report preparation. The posting is for a full-time temporary, 10 week position beginning in mid-May to early June. The position pay is $18/hour.
http://www.cdarc.org/2010/04/07/employment-001/


Employment Opportunity – Archaeological Field Technician (Southern Arizona)

The Center for Desert Archaeology has an opening for an Archaeological Field Technician to assist in a Site Relocation and Assessment project in portions of Arizona and possibly southwest New Mexico. The position will be supervised by a Field Supervisor and will require familiarity with site recordation, and use of global positioning systems, (Trimble proficiency preferred). The posting is for a full-time temporary, 8 week position beginning in mid-May to early June. The position pay is $9/hour.
http://www.cdarc.org/2010/04/07/employment-002/


Employment Opportunity - Project Director (US Southwest)
Harris Environmental Group, Inc. is seeking an archaeological Project Director (PD) to direct compliance projects for state, federal, and commercial clients. Archaeological experience in the Southwestern United States is required. The position will assist with project development, direction, coordination and quality control for cultural resource management projects while expanding our archaeological and historical consulting team. Responsibilities will include project direction (including some fieldwork and possibly travel), training of staff, oversight of field directors, and producing quality reports, managing multiple projects, and budgets. Candidates must have an M.A. or Ph.D. in Anthropology or Archaeology and a minimum of five years of work experience and two to three years experience as a PD. Compensation package will be commensurate with experience. To apply, please email resume and letter of interest to Lisa Harris, Ph.D. President, at lharris@heg-inc.com

Thanks to Adrianne Rankin for contributions to today's newsletter

Las Capas Listed in Archaeology Magazine's Top Ten Discoveries for 2009

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

- Archaeology Magazine Names Excavations at Las Capas to List of Top Ten Discoveries in 2009: For years, archaeologists in the American Southwest have wrestled with a frustrating puzzle: How did ancient farmers grow corn in the cactus-studded Sonoran Desert as early as 2000 B.C.? Some form of irrigation was clearly necessary, but until 2009 no one had ever seen evidence for one of these primeval watering systems. Now at the site of Las Capas outside Tucson, archaeologist James Vint of Desert Archaeology Inc. and his colleagues have excavated an enormous network of canals and fields stretching over as many as 100 acres and dating to 1200 B.C. It is the oldest documented irrigation system in North America.
http://www.archaeology.org/1001/topten/arizona.html

- Arizona State University's First Native American Archaeologist Honored at Commencement Ceremony: In the United States, most of the archaeology is about Native American cultures. Yet nationwide, there are only about 15 Native American doctorate-level archaeologists involved in the interpretation of their archaeological past. Today, William "Rex" Weeks joins their ranks as the first Native American to receive a doctoral degree with a specialization in archaeology from Arizona State University's highly competitive anthropology program. His inspiring success story was shared during the commencement ceremony.
http://asunews.asu.edu/20091217_rexweeks

- Southwest Symposium Seeks Venue for 2012 Conference: Responsibilities include retaining a conference facility and hotel, setting the program theme, identifying major paper and poster sessions and their coordinators, creating a program, and organizing a reception for participants. The conference organizers will also edit the conference proceedings volume. The Southwest Symposium currently has a publication arrangement with the University of Colorado to publish contingent on peer review.
http://www.cdarc.org/sat/sw_sympoisum_call_for_venue.doc

- Coso Petroglyphs are a Little Known Californian Treasure: Everywhere you look, for a mile or so down what is known as Little Petroglyph Canyon, there are images pecked or scratched into the rock faces: stylized human figures in a variety of headgear, stick figures with bows and arrows, dogs or coyotes, bear paws with extra digits, all manner of abstract geometric patterns, zigzags and circles and dots, and hundreds upon hundreds of what looked like bighorn sheep, some small, some larger than life size.
http://tinyurl.com/yces2h8 - New York Times

- Gila Cliff Dwellings Announce Winter and Holiday Hours: The Cliff Dwellings are open year-round. During the winter, visitors may hike to the dwellings between 9:00 am and 4:00 pm, and while the gate to the dwellings closes at 4:00 pm, visitors have another hour in which to complete their hike. A guided tour of the Cliff Dwellings is offered daily at 12:00 p.m. The Monument is open year-round, including Christmas Eve (December 24), Christmas Day (December 25) and New Years Day (January 1). The Gila Visitor Center, however, will be closing at 12:30 p.m. on December 24th, and will be closed all day on December 25th and January 1st.

- Holiday Hours Announced for Anasazi Heritage Center: The Bureau of Land Management’s Anasazi Heritage Center will be closing at noon on Thursday, Dec. 24 and will remain closed on Christmas Day. The Center will reopen on Dec. 26 from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. The Heritage Center will also be closed Jan. 1, 2010, and resume its seven
day a week 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. schedule through February.

- Ancient Ceramic found in Cave in the Manti-LaSal National Forest: A pot discovered under a rock in one of the canyons in the forest in early December may be between 800-1000 years old. "We will be doing a lot of study on this, but it appears to be Anasazi or Fremont in origin," said Charmaine Thompson, the archaeologist for the Manti-La Sal National Forest.
http://www.ecprogress.com/index.php?tier=1&article_id=8561

- UCLA Honored for Research at Historic Cemetery: UCLA's Cotsen Institute of Archaeology and a research associate have won the Governor's Historic Preservation Award for high-tech mapping efforts at the Marquez Family Cemetery in Santa Monica Canyon.
http://tinyurl.com/yfx8s4q - LA Times

- Autry Center Plans to Close Southwest Muesem: Last Saturday, 12/12/2009, the docents had their annual holiday gathering at the museum. John Gray made a surprise appearance, and announced to our group that the Southwest Museum site at Mt. Washington would be closing to the general public. The reason he gave was that they needed space for artifact restoration and conservation. He said that after 12/31/2009, the bookstore area will be closed and used to do work on the bead-work portion of the collection. Any public events now taking place at the museum will cease.
http://tinyurl.com/ycprmwr - Griffithparkwayist@blogspot.

- US Army Continues to Threaten Sacred Native Site: The Comanche Nation and the U.S. Army have been battling over a proposed training/service center for the Fort Sill complex that was to be built on Medicine Bluff, a sacred site of not just the Comanche, but also the Kiowas, the Wichitas and the Apaches. Last year, the Army changed locations after a federal Judge blocked construction and ruled that all four bluffs had to be visible for the spiritual well-being of the Comanche people. The Army can still appeal the ruling, and the Comanche administration believes they will appeal in an attempt to drag out the litigation until the tribe runs out of money.
http://www.indiancountrytoday.com/national/79064507.html

- North American Megafauna May Have Survived Longer than Currently Believed: Extinct woolly mammoths and ancient American horses may have been grazing the North American steppe for several thousand years longer than previously thought. After plucking ancient DNA from frozen soil in central Alaska, a team of researchers used cutting-edge techniques to uncover "genetic fossils" of both species locked in permafrost samples dated to between 7,600 and 10,500 calendar years.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091214151946.htm

- Mayans Working to Save Cultural Heritage Featured on the Archaeology Channel: An association of Tz’utujil Maya people from Santiago Atitlán, Guatemala, struggle to establish a cultural center and archaeological site museum at the nearby lakeside site of Chuitinamit, once home to the Pre-Hispanic Maya King Tepepul and now badly looted. Including a tour of the museum, this film documents their accomplishments thus far and current endeavors in the face of artifact looting and natural catastrophe in the form of Hurricane Stan, which struck in 2005.
http://www.archaeologychannel.org/

Thanks to Terry Colvin, Michael Mauer and Adrianne Rankin for contributing to today's newsletter.

NSF's Answer to Indiana Jones, Tony Horwitz to Speak in Tucson

- From Reel to Real - National Science Foundation Responds to Indian Jones with a Detailed Website: As audiences around the world eagerly await the opening of the fourth installment in the Indiana Jones film saga on May 22, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has launched a special report on its Web site that illustrates where the real world of archaeology diverges from the "reel" world, as well as where they infrequently intersect.. NSF-supported archeologists do discover "lost cities." They try to figure out what happened to "vanished civilizations" and whether what caused their collapse may have relevance to contemporary problems. They seek rare and precious artifacts that tell important stories about the past, even if those artifacts are minute snails and the scrapings of ancient teeth and not golden idols. They "deal with Native peoples," though with respect, as partners in the process of learning about the past, rather than with weapons. And certainly, as is jokingly noted in the latest Indian Jones adventure, teaching is an important part of what they do.
http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/archaeology/index.jsp.

- (Related Story) Center for Desert Archaeology's Research Highlighted by National Science Foundation: While the problems Jones faces may not be inconsequential, the structure of good storytelling tends to point the hero toward the light at the end of the tunnel. And even if the tunnel is filled with Nazis and other villains who need to be overcome, the goal, usually a single relic or artifact, almost always is in sight, which is a big help to the audience that has to follow the tale. For real-life archaeologist Jeffery Clark, one of his biggest professional challenges was approached from the opposite direction. To Clark, an NSF-funded researcher at the Center for Desert Archaeology in Tucson, Ariz., the "what" was obvious: sometime between 1300 and 1450—long before Europeans and accompanying diseases arrived—at least 50,000 people "disappeared" from the desert Southwest of the United States.
http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/archaeology/sw_disappearance.jsp

- A Dissuasion of Coronado and Colonial History Offered In Tucson: The Center for Desert Archaeology is pleased to invite you to a special evening with historian Richard Flint and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Tony Horwitz. Richard and Tony will discuss and sign their new books on European exploration of North America at the Tucson Botanical Gardens on Saturday, May 31st, 2008.
http://www.cdarc.org/pages/articles.php?req=read&article_id=644

- Historic Preservationists Honored In Nevada: Supporters of the Springs Preserve in Las Vegas and the old St. Charles Hotel in Carson City were among those honored for their contributions to the state's historic preservation efforts. State officials presented awards to groups and individuals at weekend ceremonies in Overton and Virginia City. "We are all grateful for what they have done to maintain our quality of life through preservation of Nevada's heritage," said Ron James, the state's historic preservation officer.
http://www.cdarc.org/page/87zm - Las Vegas Sun

- Slate of Indiana Jones Related Stories Continues:

-- He's no Harrison Ford, but 'Utah Jones' holds his own in archaeology:
http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_9335309?source=rss

-- Archaeology professors and students get inspiration and a few chuckles from the "Indiana Jones" movies:
http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/19138844.html

-- Can you dig it? - Professor: Glamor of screen role overstated:
http://www.johnsoncitypress.com/Detail.php?Cat=LOCALNEWS&ID=63090

-- Just because she is an archeologist does not mean she carries a whip and fights Nazis like Indiana Jones:
http://www.theheraldbulletin.com/peopleandplaces/local_story_142181255.html

-- Modern day Indiana Joneses dig in:
http://www.contracostatimes.com/ci_9315208?source=rss

-- Indiana Jones and the Real-Life Archaeologist:
http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=193760&src=109