Southwest Archaeology Today for April 19, 2007

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

– Casas Grandes Exhibit Opens at BYU: The Museum of People and Cultures will host a party to celebrate both the opening of a new exhibit and Utah’s Prehistory Week. The exhibit features pottery that offers insight to the traditions of the Casas Grandes culture. The contemporary and ancient pieces are well known for their colorful nature. They boast bold colors and maze-like patterns.
http://nn.byu.edu/story.cfm/64128

– Lecture on Casas Grandes (Santa Fe): Dr. Christine VanPool will present “the Shamans of the Casas Grandes” as part of the Southwest Seminars Lecture Series, benefiting the Archaeological Conservancy. April 23, 2007 at 6 pm. The talk will be held at the Hotel Santa Fe, 1501 Paseo de Peralta, Santa Fe, NM 87501
http://www.southwestseminars.org/SouthwestSeminars.org/Ancient%20Sites%20II.html

– Ethnobotany Conference to be Held in Flagstaff: On April 27 and 28, the Arizona Ethnobotanical Research Association (AERA), the Black Mesa Water Coalition and Native Movement will host an event that will allow community based groups in the Southwest to present their latest efforts and achievements.
http://www.cdarc.org/page/dk3 – Navaho Hopi Observer

– Encountering Human Remains in your Backyard (Tucson): The old trees that dominate Dunbar/Spring neighborhood once shaded rows of graves. Now, the trees break sidewalks with their sinuous roots and shade the houses of the living–and all too often, when the living residents dig through the roots and hard clay, they see dead people.
http://www.tucsonweekly.com/gbase/Currents/Content?oid=95075

– Short Course in Ground Penetrating Radar offered by the University of California, Santa Barbara’s Extended Learning Program: This August 6 – 10 we are offering the short-course ‘Ground Penetrating Radar – Theory and Applications’, with the emphasis on use of GPR technology as a geophysical tool for archaeologists. The short-course is a joint project between UCSB’s Department of Anthopology and UCSB Extended Learning Services. The second, third and fourth days of the short course will be field days on Santa Cruz Island, some 20 miles off the coast, in the Santa Barbara Channel.
http://www.unex.ucsb.edu/courses/gpr/

Touring Palatki (Prescott): Archaeologists believe the Palatki Heritage Site to have been most recently occupied by people of the Sinagua culture, a name derived from the Spanish “sin” (without) “aqua” (water). The people who lived here were members of the southern branch of this culture, also occupying other sites such as Honanki, Montezuma Castle, Tuzigoot, and Clear Creek. They lived in this region between A.D. 1100 and 1300, building above-ground masonry pueblos.
http://www.readitnews.com/content/view/299/32/

New Proposal for Tucson Museum That Would Merge the Arizona State Museum Exhibit Space with a Science Center: Tucson City Manager Mike Hein’s letter issuing a “qualified yes” to a scaled-back University of Arizona science center at Tucson Origins also discussed a new downtown arena and university housing in forthright terms. Tuesday, Hein sent a letter to UA President Robert Shelton giving initial acceptance to the university’s idea to build a combined science center and Arizona State Museum for $130 million.
http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/ss/local/48692.php

– Three Men Plead Guilty to Archaeological Crime in New Mexico: Three men from Hancock, Md., pleaded guilty in an illegal relic hunt last May in the C&O Canal National Historical Park that included digging up the Civil War-era grave of Mary Blackwell Ohr in a small historic cemetery, according to Leigh Zahm, district ranger supervisor. The grave desecration was reported last June.
http://www.lcsun-news.com/latest/ci_5695033?