Southwest Archaeology Today for June 9, 2006

Archaeology Making the News – A Service of the Center for Desert Archaeology

– Santa Fe Days This Weekend in Carrollton TX: The Old Downtown Carrollton Association is able to expand its Santa Fe Days on the Square for the second year. The event has doubled in size since its inaugural year three years ago. Santa Fe Days began with just 30 vendors and will feature more than 70 vendors on Saturday and Sunday. “This is something new to the area, there is a large Indian population and this is an opportunity to introduce the cultural diversity of the Native American community to the rest of the community,” said Bob Entrican, chairman of organizing events.
http://tinyurl.com/zv436 – Carrollton Leader Star

– Construction on Tucson Heritage Park Could Begin in 2007: Tucson Origins Heritage Park – the heart and soul of the downtown Rio Nuevo revitalization – could start coming out of the ground by the end of next year. That could bring Tucsonans a rebuilt Mission San Agustin and Convento – the start of Europeanized Tucson – in 2009-10. The Mission Gardens may be ready for the public in 2008, said Marty McCune, the city’s historic preservation officer.
http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/local/15055.php

– Interesting History of Albuqueque and the 1908 Irrigation congress:In 1908, Albuquerque hosted the Irrigation Congress, and it was a big deal for this little town. With a $30,000 appropriation from the government, the city created the “Sixteenth National Irrigation Congress and the Inter-State Industrial Exposition.” Quite a moniker, but Albuquerque lived up to it. It started Sept. 29 and ran for two weeks. Planning may have been more elaborate than reality, as some promised delectables weren’t mentioned during the event – or I missed then because microfilm is so hard to read.
http://tinyurl.com/kpjeg – Albuquerque Tribune

– Utah BLM to Celebrate 100th Anniversary of the Antiquities Act: The Antiquities Act, created to protect the nation’s ancient ruins, artifacts and other cultural and paleoecological resources, turns 100 this year. And the Utah office of the Bureau of Land Management is celebrating the centennial. State BLM officials plan to commemorate the 1906 act with a daylong series of events at the Edge of the Cedars Museum in Blanding. “The Antiquities Act is really the foundation we have for cultural resources management,” BLM spokeswoman Adrienne Babbitt said Tuesday. “Many think it is simply the mechanism that gives the president the authority to create new national monuments. But what it really does is protect the past on Utah’s public lands.”
http://www.sltrib.com/ci_3912416?source=rss

– – American Anthropological Association Also Celebrating Anniversary of the Antiquities Act: A century ago, the American Anthropological Association joined Congress, the Archaeological Institute of America and other concerned groups in a dialogue about preserving America’s history and prehistory. In 1905, Edgar Lee Hewett, who would later become secretary of AAA, produced a revised draft of an antiquities bill circulating in Congress. The draft reconciled conflicting interests that had plagued the legislation for several years and delayed protection for American antiquities.
http://www.aaanet.org/Antiquities_Act/

– Lecture on Ground Stone Technology the Topic of This Month’s Third Thursday Lecture at Old Pueblo Archaeology Center: Set in Stone but Not in Meaning: Advances in Ground Stone Research” Is that ancient grinding stone really a mano used for grinding corn? For Old Pueblo Archaeology Center’s June 15 “Third Thursdays” lecture program, archaeologist Dr. Jenny L. Adams will discuss and illustrate why archaeological artifacts made of ground stone are not always what they might first appear to be. “Third Thursdays” lecture programs are held on the third Thursday of each month starting at 7:30 p.m in the Old Pueblo auditorium, 5100 W. Ina Road Bldg. 8, in the Marana Town Limits, Arizona. Each program is free with no advance reservations required. Contact Old Pueblo at 520-798-1201 or info@oldpueblo.org for more information

– Arizona Governor Names Ten Historic Preservation Honor Awards: The recipients of the 24th Annual Governor’s Heritage Preservation Honor Awards have been announced by Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano. The awards recognize individuals, organizations, and projects that represent outstanding achievement in preserving Arizona’s prehistoric and historic resources.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060607/law113.html?.v=38

– Texas Archaeological Society Field School Starts June 10: Get ready to touch the past at the Texas Archaeological Society Field School starting this weekend. The dig takes place June 10-17 at Gene and Ruth Ann Stallings’ Hike-A-Way Ranch near Paris. The site is full of artifacts from the Fourche Maline tribe, a predecessor to the Caddo tribe. This means the artifacts are from between 1,000 B.C. and 800 A.D., avocational archaeologist Dr. Richard Proctor said.
http://www.theparisnews.com/story.lasso?wcd=27113

Media Frenzy over “Supernova Petroglyph” Disputed by Astronomer :”Having looked at the White Tanks rock art panel, I am appalled,” says Edwin C. Krupp, Director of the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles and author of Archaeoastronomy and the Roots of Science. “Panels like this are not rare. There is no reason to link it to any supernova event. There is nothing persuasive about the imagery to support the extraordinarily detailed claim. The authors say nothing about all of the other imagery on the boulder and select two details for their discussion. These two details are in themselves dubiously interpreted.”
http://skyandtelescope.com/news/article_1737_1.asp