Southwest Archaeology Today for May 29, 2007

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

– Craig Child’s Essay on the Hohokam and Phoenix (Part 3): The Hohokams lasted 1,500 years. Phoenix did not get its true, populous foothold until after the 1960s, when air-conditioning became widely available. We have about 1,450 years to go. Charlie Ester doesn’t see the water supply, or Western civilization for that matter, lasting nearly so long. Ester is a hydrologist working for the Salt River Project, one of two suppliers of water to the city. He and his colleagues watch the high-country snowpack and make their calculations, deciding when Phoenix will turn from one reservoir to the next, turning on groundwater pumps to augment the surface supply, then turning them off to conserve aquifers.
http://www.cdarc.org/page/cn3h – Arizona Republic

– The Future of the Colorado River Explored in Water Workshop: A dizzying spectrum of viewpoints on the Colorado River were shared this week at the 32nd Colorado Water Workshop at Western State College. For three days, 25 speakers discussed future challenges faced in the basin.
http://www.chieftain.com/metro/1180177201/2

– Touring the Palatki Heritage Site (Sedona): Rock paintings from centuries past decorate small alcoves deep in the red-rock country northwest of here. A short stroll from the prehistoric galleries are cliff dwellings – occupied from about A.D. 1100 to 1350 by Indians known today as the Sinagua People. These traces of ancient life, on lands managed by the Forest Service, are preserved as the Palatki Heritage Site.
http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/accent/184582.php

– Arizona SHPO Needs AZ Archaeology Month Posters: The Arizona State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) is seeking any extra copies of the poster for the 2007 celebration of Arizona Archaeology and Heritage Preservation Month (AAHAM). This poster features Adriel Heisey’s aerial photograph of the “Fisherman” intaglio in the western AZ desert and has the theme “Reconnect with Places of the Past” on it. This poster has been very popular and we are essentially out of them! We would appreciate receiving any extra copies by mail to the address below; if mailing cost is a concern, SHPO staff/interns can make arrangements for picking them up. Thank you for your help in this endeavor, and for your continued support of Arizona’s public archaeology education! Sincerely, Ann Howard, SHPO

– New Issue of Crow Canyon E-News Now Online:
http://www.imninc.com/crowcanyon1/

– Utah Elementary School Students to Help Excavate Archaic Site in Utah: Ten Utah elementary students will begin working as archaeologists a week from today, braving heat, bugs and dust near Point of the Mountain to unearth a site dating back at least 3,000 years. They are volunteers who signed up for the annual Archaeological Field School for Kids, sponsored by the Utah Division of State History. All openings are filled this year, but interested students should keep in mind that the field school probably will be operating next year, too.
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,660224592,00.html

– A Call for Assistance on the Wikipedia Pages for the Pecos Conference: Each August, archaeologists gather under open skies somewhere in the southwestern United States or northern Mexico. They set up a large tent for shade, and then spend three or more days together discussing recent research and the problems of the field and challenges of the profession. In recent years, Native Americans, avocational archaeologists, the general public and media organizations have come to speak with the archaeologists. These individuals & groups play an increasingly important role, as participants and as audience, helping professional archaeologists celebrate archaeological research and to mark cultural continuity. Brian Kenny notes that: “This article (or section) may need to be wikified to meet Wikipedia’s quality standards. Please help improve this article, especially its section layout, and relevant internal links.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pecos_conference

– Virtual Heritage Exhibits Reaching Larger Audiences: Archaeologists and historians agree. Museums, educators and others are increasingly using video, animation, graphics and other technology to depict historical sites beyond what text, maps and drawings offer. On a virtual tour of an 18th-century American Indian village in North Dakota, visitors can enter an earthen lodge and hear sound effects as the animated figure of a woman scrapes a deer hide. The Archaeology Technologies Laboratory at North Dakota State University used 3-D computer visualizations to re-create the On-A-Slant village of the Mandan, a tribe that inhabited the Plains area.
http://www.cdarc.org/page/1fdo – Yahoo News

– Tour Opportunity (Old Pueblo Archaeology): 74th Annual Hopi Festival of Arts and Culture at the Museum of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff, Saturday June 30 – Sunday July 1, 2007.
http://www.cdarc.org/opac_hopi_festival.doc – MS Word Format