Dear Friends,
On Saturday, August 23, thousands of people gathered in downtown Tucson to celebrate Tucson’s 250th anniversary. The air was hot and the mood was festive. Vendors and exhibitors in and around the Presidio San Agustín del Tucsón showcased the myriad cultures, religions, nationalities, and events that have been important in and throughout Tucson’s history. (See a write-up from the Tucson Sentinel linked in today’s edition below.)
And Archaeology Southwest was there in force, as you might expect!
Director of Outreach Sara Anderson and Preservation Archaeologist Allen Denoyer shared their knowledge of ancient technology and lifeways while engaging with passersby. It was a joy to watch, and I was especially moved by an interaction Sara had with a young teenage boy. He’d always been interested in history and was trying to plan out his future pursuits. His eyes lit up every time she brought up a new aspect of our work, from working with collections to collaborating with Tribal nations. I could see his world widening before him as she spoke.
Another neighbor asked us what research questions archaeologists are pursuing today, then hit us with a real whammy: “How is generative artificial intelligence going to affect your work?” It’s a difficult question to answer, and we couldn’t answer it right there and then. But I’m glad she asked it—it’s a force we all have to grapple with these days.
The entire evening was quintessential Tucson: an inclusive community event attended by inquisitive, interesting people, all of whom were doing their own thing, collectively.
As I rode my bike home, I couldn’t stop thinking about the juxtaposition of the sustainable ancient technologies that Allen so deftly makes and uses on the one hand and the equally real but still impenetrable (at least to me) contributions made by artificial intelligence on the other. We live in interesting times.
We’re back to our regular weekly release schedule, so please make sure to send us any news, events, etc., you want to share with this community of friends. You can reply to any newsletter, and we also have a submission portal here.
Until next week,
Steve Nash
President & CEO, Archaeology Southwest
Continuing Coverage: National Parks Are Struggling
More than 90 national parks reported problems between April and the end of July stemming from departures, cuts and a hiring freeze, according to internal Interior Department data. Routine tasks like cleaning and stocking the bathrooms have gone undone. Fewer rangers have given tours and lectures. Visitor centers have reduced hours. And parks have lost millions of dollars because they are unable to staff entrances and collect visitor fees. Eileen Sullivan and Erin Schaff in the New York Times | Read more »
From layoffs to billion-dollar budget cuts and ideological battles over history itself, the National Park Service is facing one of the most turbulent moments in its 109-year history. … Meanwhile in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, reporter Najib Aminy attends a Civil War reenactment. He meets hobbyists and historians grappling with a new executive order from the Trump administration that directs the National Park Service to strip away what it calls “partisan ideology” from monuments and signage. This week on Reveal: what’s really at stake in the battle over America’s parks. Host Al Letson with reporters Heath Druzin, Clark Corbin, Nadia Hamdan, and Najib Aminy for Reveal (Center for Investigative Reporting) | Listen now (transcript available) »
The Great Mayan Reserve Takes Shape
In a historic move for the planet’s biodiversity, Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize have officially joined forces to create the Biocultural Corridor of the Great Maya Jungle—14 million acres (5.7 million hectares) of rainforest reserve. “We should be proud to be able to say to the world: we join our will to preserve and restore the legacy of this extraordinary biological and cultural wealth. Today’s agreement is historic, it is beautiful,” said the President of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, in a press release. Dr. Etelka Chung for IFL Science | Read more »
Continuing Coverage: Smithsonian Museums Targeted
The seven museums that have so far been flagged for review include the National Museum of American History, the upcoming National Museum of the American Latino, the National Museum of Natural History, the National Museum of African Art, the National Portrait Gallery, the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Museum of Asian Art.
The administration argues exhibits at these museums focus excessively on oppression rather than American achievements. At the National Museum of American History, the document flagged the ¡Presente! Latino history exhibition for allegedly promoting an “anti-American agenda” by examining colonization effects and depicting the US as stealing territory from Mexico in 1848. Joseph Gedeon for the Guardian | Read more »
The White House published a list of Smithsonian exhibits, programming and artwork it considered objectionable on Thursday, one week after announcing that eight of the institution’s museums must submit their current wall text and future exhibition plans for a comprehensive review. The list borrows heavily from a recent article in The Federalist that objected to portrayals at several museums. …
“This is an unprecedented pressure campaign and the granularity here is shocking,” said Samuel J. Redman, a history professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst who has written extensively on the Smithsonian’s history. “This list, even from a cursory look, is cherry-picking various examples from an enormous and diverse museum.” Zachary Small for the New York Times | Read more »
Bears Ears Education Center Hosts 100 Years of Silence Exhibition
The Bears Ears Education Center is honored to display the exhibit from the 100 Years of Silence Project, which commemorates the hundred-year-plus anniversary of the forcible removal of Ute people from the Bears Ears area. Join us as we explore through history and virtual media this powerful, untold chapter of American history—one that forces us to rethink what we know about the so-called “last Indian War” and the resilience of a people who refused to disappear. This exhibit will be on display through October 6, and open to the public during the BEEC’s hours (Thursday-Monday 9am-4pm). Bears Ears Education Center (Bears Ears Partnership) | Learn more »
Picuris Pueblo Museum Reopens
… The Picuris Pueblo Museum and Interpretive Center reopened after roughly $1 million in renovations. The reopening coincides with the return of thousands of artifacts excavated in the 1960s that were on loan to Southern Methodist University Taos.
“We just started bringing things back this summer, so there was a pottery collection that we brought back in its entirety,” said John Galuska, museum director. “There’s thousands of other artifacts that are still there that we’re in the process of bringing back. The interns were helping process some of those materials that we brought back.” Olivia Lewis for Taos News | Read more »
Belongings Return to Big Valley Band of Pomo Indians
California State Parks has repatriated cultural items to the Big Valley Band of Pomo Indians that have now returned home. Big Valley and State Parks met to complete the repatriation of 21 baskets, regalia and other cultural items from the State Indian Museum State Historic Park on July 23. …
“It is an honor to be able to bring home items that our ancestors have touched and held and put sweat and their life into creating,” said Chairman McCloud. “It is a real blessing to be able to do that because we never got to know these ancestors in person. Through our oral history we know who they are, when they were in our community, what they did, whether it is for our ceremonies or just in our families. It is an honor to be able to have these things come home, however long it took, whatever work was needed.” Lake County News Reports | Read more »
2025 Discover Archaeology Activity Booklet Now Available
The SAA’s 2025 Discover Archaeology Activity Booklet is online! Activities use coloring, artifact illustration, crossword puzzles, and more! Kids (and adults) can earn an embroidered patch for completing an activity. Society for American Archaeology | Download now »
Essay: Archaeological Fiction and a Scientist’s Dilemma
An archaeologist reflects on the role of fiction, such as The Clan of the Cave Bear, to imagine the deep past—and inspire future generations of archaeologists. Emily Lena Jones in SAPIENS | Read more »
The Path to Bipedalism
“Man alone has become a biped,” Darwin wrote. Bipedalism, he declared, was one of humanity’s “most conspicuous characters.”
Scientists have now discovered some of the crucial molecular steps that led to that conspicuous character millions of years ago. A study published in the journal Nature on Wednesday suggests that our early ancestors became bipeds, as old genes started doing new things. Some genes became active in novel places in the human embryo, while others turned on and off at different times. Carl Zimmer for the New York Times | Read more »
Tucson’s Big Block Party Was a Big Success
Hundreds of people attended the “All Things S-cuk Ṣon” party Downtown on Saturday evening, hosted by the Presidio San Agustín del Tucson and Tucson Museum of Art and Historic Block.
“In the past, this type of event would focus on the fact that, on this day in history, this flag was stuck in the ground,” Presidio Museum director Amy Hartmann-Gordon said, noting that organizers said during the planning, “‘Let’s really make it about what people have done and contributed, and the cultures that have contributed, and not get so caught up on the timeline.’” Mia Kortright for the Tucson Sentinel | Read more »
Photo Essay: How to Use Lac, the Amazing, Mystical Mastic
Earlier this year, I shared information about how to ethically harvest lac. Prior to that, conservator Marilen Pool wrote about lac use in the ancient Southwest. In this [essay], I want to show you some of the projects I’ve been doing involving lac. People did almost all of these things in the ancient and more recent past, and lac is still being used today. Allen Denoyer for the Preservation Archaeology blog (Archaeology Southwest) | Read more »
September In-Person Lectures (Santa Fe NM)
Sept. 8, Catherine M. Cameron, Landscapes of Predation: Violent Times in Small-Scale Societies; Sept. 15, David E. Stuart, Ancient Woman Gardeners: Prelude to Chaco Canyon; Sept. 22, Alan Osborne, After Coronado & Before Oñate: The ‘Rediscovery’ of New Mexico; Sept. 29, Wayne Ranney, A Virtual River Trip in Grand Canyon. $20 at the door. Southwest Seminars | Learn more »
Sept. 4 Online Event: The BIA NAGPRA Assistance Program: Unique Paths Forward
With Amy Gillaspie. In Summer 2024, Archaeology Southwest (ASW), a Tucson-based nonprofit located on the homelands of the Tohono O’odham and Pascua Yaqui Tribe, entered into a Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU) Agreement with the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) to support the agency’s work under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). Building on over eight years of successful collaboration on ARPA-related investigations, this new agreement establishes a focused program to help the BIA gain clarity on collections held across the U.S. and assess their progress through the NAGPRA process. This presentation will introduce the NAGPRA agreement and the goals of the program, share accomplishments to date, and outline plans for the next four years. Crow Canyon Archaeological Center | Learn more and register (free) »
Sept. 11 In-Person (Irvine CA) and Online Event: Maize Domestication and Dispersal in the Americas
With Douglas J. Kennett. Research during the last four decades has transformed our understanding of maize domestication and dispersal in the Americas. In this talk Dr. Kennett will synthesize current genetic, paleoecological, and archaeological data regarding the development of this globally important crop. Pacific Coast Archaeological Society | Send email to membership@pcas.org to request Zoom registration link or for more information »
Sept. 11 Online Event: Taking Our Water for the City: The Archaeology of New York City’s Watershed Communities
With April M. Beisaw. New York City relies on a system of 19 human made reservoirs and controlled lakes to provide water to 9 million residents. Creating and maintaining the system, which spans a distance of up to 125 miles from the center of Manhattan, has forced thousands of people from their homes, demolished communities, and displaced the dead from cemeteries. Archaeological survey of city-owned lands throughout the watersheds reveals what has been lost. Through collaborations with libraries, museums, historical societies, and individual residents, archaeology has become a tool for community dialogue and action. Crow Canyon Archaeological Center | Learn more and register (free) »
Sept. 15 Online Event: Decline of Hohokam Culture Based on Soil Degradation
With Gary Huckleberry. Today there is global interest in understanding how humans impact the soil and the implications of these impacts for environmental health and food production. Thousands of years of canal-irrigation farming in southern Arizona altered natural desert soils, leading to long-term effects, some of which were deleterious to crop production. Did ancient irrigation’s negative impacts on soil fertility contribute to the eventual decline of the 450–1450 CE Hohokam archaeological culture? In this presentation Dr. Huckleberry will discuss ancient irrigation’s positive and negative effects on soil quality, review documented cases of Hohokam canal-irrigated agricultural soils in the Phoenix Basin, and assess whether soil degradation caused by Hohokam irrigation led some areas to be agriculturally abandoned. Arizona Archaeological and Historical Society | Learn more and register (free) »
Sept. 17 In-Person Event (Tucson AZ): Whiskey is for Drinking, Water is for Fighting Over
With Michael M. Brescia. Drawing from his scholarly research and professional experiences as an expert witness, ASM ethnohistorian Michael Brescia will share a few vignettes as a way to understand the living legacies of old Spanish colonial property law and water rights in the American West. Whiskey del Bac, 2106 N Forbes Blvd #103, 6:00–8:00 p.m. Arizona State Museum | Learn more »
Sept. 27 Guided Tour (Benson AZ): Historic Sites in the Dragoon Mountains
With Deni Seymour and Bill Mapoles. Dragoon Springs was an 1850s-1860s Butterfield Mail stage station where company workers and Civil War soldiers were killed. At the Cochise-Howard site Brigadier General Oliver Howard met with Apache leader Cochise in 1872 to negotiate surrender of Cochise’s band. Meet at 9:00 a.m. at I-10 exit 2312 east of Benson. Reservations and donations apply. Old Pueblo Archaeology Center | Learn more »
Save the Dates: Oct. 25 & 26 2025 Annual Meeting of the Arizona Archaeological Society
WELCOME everyone to the 2025 AAS State Meeting hosted by the Verde Valley Chapter. This year’s meeting will be open to the public. In addition, a few of our Grant Program recipients and several members of ASU, NAU, and Archaeology Southwest will attend. This AAS State Meeting is in part a means to help support the Dr. David R. Wilcox Grant Program. From the monies raised we are able to help with funding for undergrads and grads in the fields of Anthropology, Archaeology, and any component field of such. Please consider making a donation to support this worthwhile program. Arizona Archaeological Society | Learn more »
Repeating our exhortation from above: Please send us notice of upcoming events and webinars, tours and workshops, and anything else you’d like to share with this PAT community. Thanks!