Continuing Coverage of the Arizona State Parks Archaeology Debacle

Continuing Coverage of the Arizona State Parks Archaeology Debacle
Four Native American state lawmakers have called for criminal investigations of state Parks after The Arizona Republic reported this week that the agency may have bulldozed archaeological sites in a rush to develop state parkland. http://bit.ly/2PhwJn5 – Arizona Republic

Another former Arizona State Parks & Trails archaeologist has accused the agency of allowing development on parklands without examining and safeguarding sites and artifacts, as required by law. Paula Pflepsen, the agency’s cultural-resource manager from 2014 to February 2017, said Wednesday that Parks Director Sue Black allowed development projects in at least three state parks without first conducting the required archaeological surveys. http://bit.ly/2Pdn3d3 – Arizona Republic

Gov. Doug Ducey suspended Parks Director Sue Black and her top deputy on Thursday, as the state Attorney General’s Office opened a criminal investigation of the agency she oversees. The moves follow an Arizona Republic investigation that highlighted allegations Arizona State Parks & Trails repeatedly developed state land without regard for laws protecting Native American and other archaeological sites. http://bit.ly/2Pbm7Gd – Arizona Republic

Job Opportunity, Tucson AZ
Archaeology Southwest seeks a creative individual with the skillsets and commitment to help develop, and ultimately manage and utilize cyberSW. cyberSW is a large research database and analytical toolkit. It includes various classes of archaeological information from the U.S. Southwest/Mexican Northwest as well as applications to analyze those data. Applicants must either have: 1) an advanced degree in Archaeology/Anthropology and strong computer skills/experience (see below), or 2) a Computer Science-related degree and job experience with strong humanities or social science interests. Applicants should also have the knowledge and personal skills to be able to participate in collaborative efforts in regional archaeological synthesis in the U.S. Southwest and Mexican Northwest and demonstrate at least a 5-year commitment to this position. Finally, key elements of the cyberSW database will be available to the general public, so this position requires a willingness to communicate with both public and professional users. http://bit.ly/2RfMYgL – Archaeology Southwest

Video: SAA Oral History with Jeffrey S. Dean
Jeff Dean is Emeritus Professor of Dendrochronology in the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research (LTRR) at the University of Arizona specializing in all aspects of dendroarchaeology (chronometry, human behavior, and environmental reconstruction) and the archaeology of the Southwestern United States. https://youtu.be/zT6wcTKr54Y – Society for American Archaeology (opens at YouTube)

Video: Blood Flowed Like Water (Archaeology Café, Tucson)
In this Archaeology Café, Dr. James T. Watson presented Blood Flowed Like Water: Violence among the Sonoran Desert’s Earliest Irrigation Communities. The earliest evidence for violence in the Desert West is found in early irrigation communities strewn across the Sonoran Desert (circa 2,000-4,000 years ago) and takes a variety of forms. Blunt-force and projectile trauma from clubs and darts, broken and callused bones, and irreverent interments are evident in people’s remains.  Dr. Watson will consider the causes of this violence, which apparently ceased as this volatile period drew to a close some 2,000 years ago. NOTICE: This video includes images and discussions of human remains, which may be disturbing to some viewers. https://youtu.be/oNC4L95V-VQ – Archaeology Southwest (opens at YouTube)

New Mexico Communities Oppose December Lease Sales
Community groups and advocates hand-delivered more than 10,000 citizen protest comments to the Bureau of Land Management’s New Mexico state office in snowy Santa Fe Wednesday in opposition to an oil and gas lease sale scheduled for December that would auction off close to 100,000 acres of public lands in New Mexico for industrialized fracking. The New Mexico BLM plans to sell more than 84,000 acres of the Land of Enchantment to the oil and gas industry in a Dec. 6 online auction. This includes more than 43,000 acres in the Greater Chaco region of northwest New Mexico and 41,000 acres in southeast New Mexico’s Greater Carlsbad Caverns region. http://bit.ly/2D2LuTr – Los Alamos Daily Post

Colwell Recognized by American Anthropological Association
The Wenner-Gren Foundation is excited to announce that Chip Colwell, SAPIENS editor-in-chief, has been selected as the 2018 recipient of the American Anthropological Association’s Executive Director’s Award! http://bit.ly/2D6c8uw – Wenner-Grenn Foundation

UNM Libraries Put Zuni Language Resources Online
According to Spring 2018 enrollment numbers, more than five percent of UNM students are Native American, and many come from Zuni Pueblo, the largest of the 19 pueblos in New Mexico. To support those students, UNM Libraries recently digitized books and posters published by Zuni pueblo’s bilingual education department. http://bit.ly/2D7IQLX – University of New Mexico

The National Trails System at 50
October, 2018, marks the 50th anniversary of two remarkable federal laws: the National Trails System and Wild and Scenic Rivers Acts. Both laws set up ways that the federal government can assist in protecting and operating “long, skinny corridors” for recreation and heritage resource preservation. http://bit.ly/2D8cTU4 – Living Landscape Observer

Audio: Archaeology Southwest’s Bill Doelle Reviews Public Lands Issues on the Buckmaster Show
KVOI AM 1030, October 31, 2018. http://www.buckmastershow.com/shows/2018/10-31-18.mp3 (Bill Doelle’s segment begins at 30:30)

Hands-On Archaeology Class: How Did People Make and Use Stone Tools?
Experience the ancient art of flintknapping. Join Allen Denoyer for his Hands-On Archaeology class, “How Did People Make and Use Stone Tools?” from 9:00 a.m. to noon on December 22. In this beginner class, you will use ancient techniques and replica tools to create a stone projectile point. You will also learn more about how people made and used such points, and that points were just one component of a complete hunting technology. Please note that this workshop is for individuals 18 years of age and older. $40 fee. 300 N. Ash Alley, Tucson. https://www.archaeologysouthwest.org/event/how-did-people-make-and-use-stone-tools-5/

Publication Announcement: Climate Change Stimulated Agricultural Innovation and Exchange across Asia
With our global climate again changing—for the warmer this time—this is a lesson that we all might need to remember in the coming decades. So suggests new research by Kyle Bocinsky, Ph.D., and co-author Jade d’Alpoim Guedes, Ph.D., published this month in the journal Science Advances. Their paper describes a computer model they developed that shows when and where in Asia staple crops would have thrived or fared poorly during that last climate change between 5,000 and 1,000 years ago. http://www.crowcanyon.org/index.php/new-paper-shows-what-happened-last-time-climate-changed – Crow Canyon, and http://bit.ly/2PeHRkF – Science Advances

Announcement: 2019 Rock Art Academy, El Paso TX
The 2019 Rock Art Academy is a two-day Texas Archeology Academy that explores regional rock art archeological sites, Mogollon archeological sites, and how investigators use this information to interpret the human and natural histories of an area. Classroom sessions for the Academy will be held at the El Paso Museum of Archaeology with field sessions at Hueco Tanks State Park on February 16-17, 2019. http://bit.ly/2DaKIDE – El Paso Museum of Archaeology (and partners)

Internship Opportunities, Los Alamos National Laboratories, Los Alamos NM
The Los Alamos National Laboratory Cultural Resources (LANL-CR) Program is soliciting applications for at least two, paid, 10-week student internship positions for summer 2019 focused on environmental science and management. These positions are funded through the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Minority Serving Institutions Partnership Program (MSIPP). This program promotes education and development of STEM disciplines throughout the DOE Office of Environmental Management complex. LANL-CR is seeking undergraduate (BA/BS) or graduate (MA/MS or PhD) students for internship positions in two areas – the Homestead Project Historic Preservation Internship and the Cultural Application of Spatial Data Internship. https://www.zintellect.com/Opportunity/Details/DOE-MSIPP19-07-LANL and https://www.zintellect.com/Opportunity/Details/DOE-MSIPP19-08-LANL

Lecture Opportunity, Santa Fe NM
Southwest Seminars Presents Karl Laumbach, Archaeologist and Associate Director of Research & Public Education, Human Systems Research, Inc. and Author, Hembrillo, An Apache Battlefield of the Victorio War: The Archaeology and History of the Hembrillo Battlefield Research, who will give a lecture The Elk Ridge Mimbres Pueblo Story on November 12 at 6pm at Hotel Santa Fe as part of the annual Mother Earth Father Sky Lecture Series held annually to honor The New Mexico Environmental Law Center. Admission is by subscription or $15 at the door. No reservations are necessary. Refreshments are served. Seating is limited. Contact Connie Eichstaedt at tel: 505 466-2775; email: southwestseminar@aol.com; website: southwestseminars.org

Lecture Opportunity, Cortez, CO
The Hisatsinom Chapter of the Colorado Archaeology Society is pleased to present Samantha Fladd on Tuesday, November 13, 2018 at 7:00 PM at the Methodist Church, 515 Park Street, Cortez, CO to discuss Identity Accumulation at Homol’ovi. Samantha addresses how group identities were expressed through relationships with architecture and how groups utilized, interacted with, and related to new architectural forms at the Homol’ovi Settlement Cluster, a group of ancestral Hopi villages located in northeastern Arizona. Contact Kari Schleher at 505-269-4475 with questions.

Lecture Opportunity, Phoenix AZ
The Phoenix Chapter of the Arizona Archaeological Society invites you to join us in the Pueblo Grande Museum on Tuesday, Nov. 13, at 7 pm for our November meeting. The guest speaker will be Paul Creasman, PhD, UA, who will talk about Ancient Egypt’s 25th Dynasty and The Pyramid Field/Royal Cemetery at Nuri, Sudan. Although construction of dams along the Nile and rising groundwater has submerged many of its tombs, at least four kings’ burial chambers remain unexcavated. This lecture tells the tale of the pharaohs of ancient Egypt’s 25th Dynasty, and the current effort by the U of Arizona to better understand them via underwater archaeological excavations in the pyramid field of Nuri.

Lecture Opportunity, Albuquerque NM
New Evidence for Mimbres Integration into Jornada Villages along the San Andres Mountains of South-Central New Mexico by Alexander Kurota, Thatcher Rogers and Evan Sternberg. Time: 7:30 pm, Tuesday November 13, 2018. Place: Albuquerque Museum, 2000 Mountain Rd NW. https://abqarchaeology.com/2016/05/20/next-lecture/

Lecture Opportunity, Tucson AZ
NAGPRA provides a process for museum and federal agencies to return certain Native American cultural items.  Nancy Odegaard has been involved with the repatriation process at the Arizona State Museum since the law was enacted.  She was also entrusted with the remains known as the Kennewick Man, the remains known as Lucy, and was influential in changing the requirements of NAGPRA to insure that collecting institutions report on the pesticide history of the collection upon return to lineal descendants and culturally affiliated Indian tribes and native Hawaiians. On November 19, at 7:30p.m., Dr. Odegaard will share her observations as well as the comments and questions she is often asked when making presentations on these sensitive topics. DuVal Auditorium, Banner-University Medical Center, 1501 N Campbell Ave. http://www.az-arch-and-hist.org/event/nancy-n-odegaard-our-human-heritage-a-conservators-participation-with-kennewick-poisons-and-repatriation/

Editors’ note: We are sad to note the deaths of two dear colleagues, linguistic anthropologist Jane H. Hill (Professor Emeritus, University of Arizona) and archaeologist Saul Hedquist (PhD, University of Arizona). We will share information as it becomes available.

Please submit news, book announcements, and events at this link for consideration: https://www.archaeologysouthwest.org/submit-to-sat/

Questions? sat-editor@archaeologysouthwest.org