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.

Mesoamerican Diet, Excavations on Utah Potter's Kiln

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

- Domestication Of Chile Pepper Provides Insights Into Crop Origin And Evolution:
Chile peppers have long played an important role in the diets of Mesoamerican people. Capsicum annuum is one of five domesticated species of chiles and is one of the primary components of these diets. However, little is known regarding the original location of domestication of C. annuum and the genetic diversity in wild relatives. Researchers have now found a large amount of diversity in individuals from the Yucatan Peninsula, making this a center of diversity for chiles.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090619152137.htm

- Excavations on Kiln Site Used By Pioneer-Era Master Potter: Thomas Davenport fired up a kiln in southern Utah's first pioneer settlement and started making pottery and crockery that slowly spread through the West along with his reputation as a craftsman. The old site in Parowan, where Davenpoprt manufactured the clay pieces, is being excavated now by a team from Michigan Technological University led by a associate professor who has been studying Davenport and his work for the past 10 years.
http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_12651916

- Tribe from New Mexico Now One Step Closer to Formal Federal Recognition: This is a story of numbers and the quest of one Native American tribe. The Piro-Manso-Tiwa Indian Tribe, Pueblo of San Juan de Guadalupe of Las Cruses, N.M., has been seeking federal recognition from the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs for almost 40 years, but with the help of Lee Ann Allen, a UNT anthropology student, the American Indian tribe is one step closer to receiving recognition. One of the requirements of Bureau of Indian Affairs requires is for the tribe to have complete records. In order to accomplish this, Allen lived with the tribe's cacique Edward Roybal Sr. and his wife, and spent eight to nine hours a day, sometimes six days a week, organizing the tribal archives.
http://www.cdarc.org/page/zvd - North Texas Daily

- Jornada Mogollon artifacts found at White Sands: Artifacts have been found near White Sands Missile Range of the Jornada Mogollon, who lived mostly in the Tularosa Basin more than 650 years ago. The archeological find was discovered last year during preliminary site preparation for construction of facilities for the 2nd Engineer Battalion, which was activated at White Sands in October. Archaeologists consider the artifacts "a significant discovery" because they suggest that the Jornada Mogollon temporarily occupied the site two separate times, first around A.D. 1150 and the second from about A.D. 1250 to 1350.
http://www.elpasotimes.com/education/ci_12614579

- Phoenix Museum of History to Close: The museum that holds prized artifacts from Phoenix's early days will close on June 30 because it doesn't have enough money to operate. The Phoenix Museum of History would like to merge with another organization so that the museum can reopen later, officials say. It's unclear, however, if or when that would happen. "We are hoping to come back stronger, but right now, the money is not there," said Frank Barrios president of the museum's board of trustees.
http://www.cdarc.org/page/8eqs - Arizona Republic

- US Government Seeks Dismissal of Geronimo Repatriation Lawsuit: US officials are seeking the dismissal of a lawsuit brought against the government by descendants of Apache leader Geronimo to recover his remains. The descendants want to rebury Geronimo, who was buried in Oklahoma in 1909, in his native land in New Mexico. They are also seeking the return of body parts they say were stolen in 1918 or 1919 by a secret society at Yale University known as Skull and Bones. But justice officials say the law cited by the plaintiffs is not applicable.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8112051.stm

- 11th Annual Meeting of National Association of Tribal Historic Preservation Officers to be Held in Durant Ok, August 10-17: The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma will host our annual meeting, as well as related events and training sessions. The Tribe's Choctaw Casino-Resort-Hotel in Durant, Oklahoma, will be the main meeting location, and they have graciously offered a discounted room rate for NATHPO participants. This year's meeting theme is, "Tribal Historic Preservation and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA)."
http://www.nathpo.org/meetings/11meeting.htm

- Second Man Linked to Artifacts Investigation Found Dead: A second defendant indicted following an investigation into the theft and illegal trafficking of American Indian artifacts from the Four Corners area has been found dead in an apparent suicide, the FBI said Friday.
http://www.cdarc.org/page/ds7q - Santa Fe New Mexican
http://www.sltrib.com/News/ci_12651408

- Maya Intensively Cultivated Manioc 1,400 Years Ago:A University of Colorado at Boulder team has uncovered an ancient and previously unknown Maya agricultural system -- a large manioc field intensively cultivated as a staple crop that was buried and exquisitely preserved under a blanket of ash by a volcanic eruption in present-day El Salvador 1,400 years ago.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090616133940.htm

- Earlier Dates for Peopling of the Americas: Many, if not most, Native people insist that their ancestors have lived on this continent since time immemorial, and some mainstream scientists are beginning to weigh in on their side.
http://www.indiancountrytoday.com/archive/47924372.html

- (Reminder) Today is the Last Chance to Register for the Friends of Arizona Archives Annual Meeting: The meeting will take place on Thursday, June 25, starting at 11:00 a.m. in the Arizona Capitol Museum. The theme of the meeting is "Arizona Archives and Authors." The keynote speaker at the meeting will be Heidi Osselaer, author of the recently published book "Winning Their Place: Arizona Women in Politics, 1883-1950." People that register by June 22 and attend the meeting will receive a free book and a free lunch, courtesy of FAzA
http://faza.org/

- Conference Posits a New Vision of our Relationship with Water and Earth:
Elders and artists from Hopi, Navajo and the West, scientists and researchers from across the country and across cultures, and conference attendees shared their teachings, worldviews and wisdom at the Braiding Through Water conference presented by Black Mesa Trust. Water is a living, sentient substance that flows through and connects all life, explained Hopi Tobacco/Rabbit Clan at Hotevilla Keeper of the Pipe Jerry Honawa.
http://www.indiancountrytoday.com/national/southwest/48613282.html

Tubac Resident Wins Arziona GAAC Public Archaeology Award:Tubac property owner Linda Ellinor has received the Governor’s Advisory Commission Award in Public Archaeology in the category of private developer/landowner. Linda purchased three adjacent properties in the heart of Tubac, just diagonally across the street from the Tubac Presidio State Historic Park, to establish a new business, the Floating Stone Inn and Spa. These three properties include the Charles D. Poston Territorial House, an adjoining building that Poston used as the office of the Sonoran Exploring and Mining Company, and the Ysidro Otero House. Plans called for an extensive remodeling of the land involved, but realizing its historic importance, Linda sought out the Tubac/Santa Cruz County Chapter of the Arizona Archaeological Society for assistance. Linda’s appeal to that group elicited the support of its members and its former chapter advisor, professional archaeologist Deni J. Seymour. A dig on the property was planned and conducted, the results of which are currently being written up for a published report and the artifacts from which are currently being prepared for curation at the Arizona State Museum. Linda provided financial support for the effort and even instructed her architects to modify their design to preserve evidence of a foundation wall perhaps dating to the Spanish Colonial period. She did this despite being under deadline pressure to begin the building process and knowing that, under particular circumstances, the results of the excavation might create delays to that project. In nominating Linda for the GAAC award, chapter president Alan Sorkowitz said, “Linda has placed documenting and preserving a part of Arizona’s history above her own economic interest as a property owner—done the right thing rather than simply the most expedient.” This prestigious award recognizes Linda for her support of Arizona’s archaeology and history.

Thanks to Gerald Kelso, Adrianne Rankin and Alan Sorkowitz for contributions to today's newsletter.