Southwest Archaeology Today for June 8, 2010

Archaeology Making the News, a Service of the Center for Desert Archaeology

Utah Family Helps to Excavate Ancestral Home
On Saturday, many descendants of the Benjamin F Johnson and Joel H. Johnson families gathered to assist the Uinta National Forest Archaeologist, Charmaine Thompson, and the local residents of Spring Lake with the excavation of the foundation of the B. F. Johnson home. Because The home was so large and made of adobe’s, it was dubbed the “Mud Castle,” and is located between Payson and Santaquin, Utah, on the East side of highway 6.
http://tinyurl.com/2f4tswm – Daily Herald

NBC News Covers Arizona State Parks Crisis
“It would make it very easy for illegal collectors to come in here and dig up the sites and do irreperable damage.” – Karen Berggren, former Homolovi Ruins State Park Manager.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032619/ns/nightly_news#37541223

BLM’s El Malpais National Conservation Area Presents the Next Chapter of “Walking with the Ancestors” Hikes
Celebrate Summer Solstice and beat the heat with a sunrise hike to possible solstice-marking petroglyphs and the mesa top site, Citadel. Discover El Malpais secret cool weather and the active time for its wildlife. The hike will be held on Saturday, June 19th.
http://www.cdarc.org/sat/el_malpais_solstice.doc

New Issue of Preserve America Newsletter Available.
This issue focuses upon the selection of Wayne Donaldson as the new chairman of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, and the termination of Preserve America Funding.
http://www.preserveamerica.gov/newsletter/june10/june10.htm

Avocational Archaeologist Rex Owens Donates Research Materials to Thatcher Museum
The personal notes and books of amateur archaeologist Rex Owens of Eden are at the Graham County Historical Society Museum in Thatcher. Though not on display yet, the donated items are being cataloged by museum volunteers and will soon be a welcome addition to reference and research materials housed in the museum, said Hal Herbert, museum historian.
http://www.eacourier.com/articles/2010/06/04/news/doc4c059c7a02d5a394961150.txt

X-Rays Fail to Find Clovis Tool Remnants in Controversial Ancient Bison Remains
Architect (sic) Steve Kenady examined the bones of an ancient, extinct giant bison by x-ray today at Orcas Family Health Center, unarguably the clinic’s oldest “patient”. Kenady was checking for remnants of stone tools that could have been used to slaughter the animal, but the scans revealed nothing but bison bone. The discovery roughly three years ago piqued curiosity in the global scientific community, inspiring new theories of human migration to the Pacific coast because some of the bones bear the marks of human butchery using stone tools. Earlier theories had maintained that the Clovis people were the earliest inhabitants of the region, but the bones, estimated by radiocarbon dating in an Irvine lab to be roughly 14,000 years old, pre-date the Clovis era by 800 years.
http://www.pnwlocalnews.com/sanjuans/isj/news/95810309.html