University of Arizona Press Honored for Historic Preservation

University of Arizona Press Honored for Historic Preservation
A nonprofit publisher of scholarly and regional books, the UA Press focuses on scholarship that reflects and preserves Southwestern cultural heritage. The University of Arizona Press has been named the recipient of the Historic Preservation Award, given annually by the Tucson-Pima County Historical Commission. http://uanews.org/node/47313

New Mexico Office of Archaeological Studies Honored with Second SAA Award for Public Excellence
We are pleased to announce that under Chuck Hannaford’s wise and enthusiastic leadership, the OAS Education Outreach Program has received the Society for American Archaeology’s Award for Excellence in Public Education for 2012—the only institution to have won that honor twice. Since first winning the award in 2005, the program has continued to reach audiences in every county in the state despite funding cutbacks. Eric Blinman accepted the award at the 77th annual meeting of the SAA, in Memphis, Tennessee. http://nmarchaeology.org/education-outreach.html

Crow Canyon to be Featured on the PBS Program Time Team America
Crow Canyon will play a starring role in an upcoming episode of Time Team America, a popular science-archaeology series from PBS. Using the latest technology and their own expertise, Time Team travels across the nation to excavate ancient and historic sites. Time Team’s accomplished archaeologists are given 72 hours to uncover secrets of their assigned digs. http://www.crowcanyon.org/about/time_team_america.asp

Yucca Valley Coalition Seeks to Study Petroglyphs as the Renewable Energy vs. Cultural Heritage Debate Continues 
A local advocacy group is working to keep wind turbines out of what it says is a culturally and biologically significant area.  Save Our Desert, a coalition aiming to stop Element Power’s efforts to put industrial-scale wind turbines in the undeveloped Black Lava and Flat Top Mesa buttes of Pipes Canyon and Pioneertown, is raising money to identify petroglyphs in the areas currently being tested for wind levels. http://www.hidesertstar.com/news/article_b0cd0334-a486-11e1-a7d9-0019bb2963f4.html

Salt River Pima Maricopa Artists Working on Murals for Casa Grande National Monument Visitor’s Center
Two Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community (SRPMIC) artists have contributed mural designs to the visitor center at Casa Grande Ruins National Monument. On April 29, Community members Jacob Butler and Ron Carlos finished two five foot by five foot murals that they had hand-drawn for a new room that has been added to the visitor center.  http://www.srpmic-nsn.gov/community/auauthm/news/news-04.htm

Verde Valley Archaeology Center Seeks to Raise $250,000 for New Curation Facility
From its inception, the Verde Valley Archaeology Center’s primary focus was to keep the archaeological treasures unearthed in the Verde Valley, in the Verde Valley. To that end they have been marginally successful — but marginal only because they haven’t had a facility large enough and built to the standards necessary to house many prehistoric artifacts.  http://verdenews.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=1&ArticleID=48193

Lecture Opportunity – Dolores, CO
As part of the Four Corners Lecture Series, the Hisatsinom Chapter of the Colorado Archaeological Society and the Bureau of Land Management, are pleased to present Dr. Donna Glowacki on Sunday, June 3 at 1:00 PM at the Anasazi Heritage Center to discuss Mesa Verde, Religion, and Change. Dr. Glowacki explores how religious change, inferred from architectural and other cultural material evidence, may have played a central role in prompting the Mesa Verde emigrations. Contact Bob Bernhart @ 970-739-6772 with questions about this, or any other program.

Lecture Opportunity – Cortez, CO
The Hisatsinom Chapter of the Colorado Archaeological Society is pleased to present Jonathan Till on Tuesday, June 5 at 7:00 PM at the Cortez Cultural Center to discuss An Archaeology of the 99 Percent: Excavations at Denison Mines’ White Mesa Mill, San Juan County, Utah. Getting away from the great houses and great kivas, we’ll see how, working with trowel and bulldozer, this humble archaeological landscape harbored more than 25 workaday sites, dating from Basketmaker III through late Pueblo III, on just 60 acres. Ultimately, his discussion will focus on the excavation of a household that dates to the middle A.D. 1000’s. Jonathan is the Abajo Archaeology Project Director on this excavation. He lives in Bluff. Contact Bob Bernhart @ 970-739-6772 with questions about this, or any other program.

Lecture Opportunity – Santa Fe, NM
On June 4th at 6 pm, Dr. Margaret C. Nelson will present Mimbres (Mogollon) Culture: Continuity and Change. Presented by Southwest Seminars at Hotel Santa Fe: $12 at the door. Part of the Voices of the Past Lecture Series to honor the work of the New Mexico Museum of History.

Children’s Archaeology Program Hosted by Old Pueblo Archaeology – Tucson
On Saturday June 16, 2012, OPAC will present “What is an Archaeologist?” – A free children’s presentation by Old Pueblo Archaeology Center’s Sherry Eisler at the Pima County Public Library’s Dusenberry-River Branch, 5605 E. River Road #105, Tucson. 11 a.m. to noon. This presentation is designed to give children an idea of what archaeologists do, how they do it, and how they learn about people through their work. It includes examples of the tools archaeologists work with, real and replica artifacts, and activities to help children experience how archaeologists interpret the past. Contact Children’s Librarian Meg Beer at 594-5345 or meg.beer@pima,gov for more information.

News from the Archaeology Channel
The latest installment of the Video News from TAC features the following stories on the new Maya exhibit at the Penn Museum, the recently concluded Macedonia exhibit at the Louvre Museum, and the construction of the last traditional canoe on a Pacific island.  See these stories in the May 2012 edition of this monthly half-hour show, available now on our nonprofit streaming-media Web site, The Archaeology Channel (http://www.archaeologychannel.org) as well as on cable TV in cities across the US.

Thanks to Brian Kreimendahl for contributions to this week’s newsletter.