Southwest Archaeology Today for July 26, 2005

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

– Prof digs up urban treasures: Below the heat of the sun in a Salt Lake City backyard, urban archaeologist Timothy Scarlett stands on 1885, digging up the pioneer past. The Michigan Technological University professor’s face is moist with sweat and caked with dirt. It’s hard enough to dig a hole the size of a small pool without caring what’s in the ground. For Scarlett, shaving is not important. A shower can wait.
http://www.sltrib.com/ci_2886593?rss

– Archaeologists Bring Pioneer Pottery to Light: Two archaeologists from Michigan are bringing to light a fascinating period of Salt Lake City’s history.
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,600150340,00.html

– Uncovering the Past: Students learn Hands-on Style: Shawntina Thompson, 12, flinched and buried her face in her hands as a cloud of dust, created by a classmate with a shovel in hand, swirled around her.
http://tinyurl.com/cwk9p (Daily Times)

– Mexican Archeologists Find Rare Sacrifice (AP via Yahoo! News):Archeologists digging through an Aztec temple say they’ve found a rare child sacrifice to the war god, a deity normally honored with the hearts or skulls of adult warriors.
http://tinyurl.com/97kyt (Yahoo News)

– Nebraska Students produce Code Talker Documentary: So what was a sixth-grade teacher from Nebraska doing in Gallup Wednesday singing the praises of the Navajo Code Talkers?
http://tinyurl.com/8sot9 (Gallup Independent)

– Poaching Becoming Rampant on Federal Land (AP via Yahoo! News): Barbara Beasley was the first person called to investigate when three suspicious men were stopped on federal land in remote northwest Nebraska. It didn’t take the U.S. Forest Service official long to find what they had been doing: digging an 18-by-10-foot hole more than 2 feet deep that left the fossilized bones of a prehistoric rhinoceros called a brontothere exposed. Plaster used to take casts
http://tinyurl.com/boj84 (Yahoo News)

– Stone-cold ashes, stone-cold case: CHEVELON PUEBLO – Talk about a cold case. The ashes of 100 suspected arson fires in this river valley just east of Winslow cooled more than 600 years ago. Archaeologists and fire investigators have
http://www.dailystar.com/dailystar/allheadlines/85571.php

– The School of American Research has promoted James F. Brooks, director of the SAR Press since 2002, to president and chief executive officer of the 98-yearold center for the study of archaeology and ethnology.
http://www.freenewmexican.com/news/30461.html

– Of the approximately 2,000 wrecks that dot Texas waters, the City of Waco was the deadliest. A large Labrador retriever, which was discovered wandering the area days after the disaster, was thought the ship’s only survivor.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/3278671

– Dance of the Ancients: CHIMNEY ROCK – Wearing a six-foot-tall headdress and shells that rattled as he walked, Carlos Castaneda commanded attention as he led his Aztec dance group into a 1,000-year-old kiva. There he held an audience of 70 captivated through a series of frenetic Aztec dances.
http://tinyurl.com/837c4 (Durango Herald)

– Lookin’ back: Apache culture revealed by ‘rich kid’ from N.Y.: There is a certain breed of individual whose members scoff at the idea that one must have “credentials” – academic certification – to be taken seriously as a researcher.
http://tinyurl.com/cvn6q (Tucson Citizen)

– Rare Dinosaur Unearthed in Montana: After 35 years digging dinosaur bones, Malta paleontologist Nate Murphy still breaks out in goose bumps when he pulls a rare fossil from the Montana landscape.
http://tinyurl.com/dhs35

Wildfires in the Four Corners Region:

– July 21 – Fire Threatening Archaeological Sites 40% Contained: A 193-acre fire in Montezuma County that is threatening archeological sites in the Ute Mountain Tribal Park, located south of Mesa Verde National Park, was approximately 40 percent contained as of Wednesday
http://tinyurl.com/d5wuz (Grand Junction Daily Sentinel)

– July 22 – Wildfire Threatens Archaeological Sites: A small but fast-growing wildfire threatened “world-class” archaeological sites on tribal land Tuesday in southwestern Colorado.
http://tinyurl.com/8uj27 (Casper Star Tribune)

– July 23 – Ancient Sites Spared from Fire: To witness what happened to ancient sites in Ute Mountain Tribal Park when lightning sparked Monday’s Dwelling Fire is to stand in awe of ancestral Puebloans.
http://tinyurl.com/7jqom (Durango Herald)

– July 23 – Blackened Trees Stand Sentinel at Ute Park: Ute Mountain Tribal Park guide Rick Hayes, walking stick in hand, forged well ahead of his group on Friday, eager to see inside Lion Canyon for the first time since the Dwelling fire blackened 200 acres around the awe-inspiring cliff houses of ancient Puebloans. “It’s sad to see it this way,” Hayes said.
http://www.denverpost.com/ci_2883767?rss

– July 23 – Park Survives Fire: The Dwelling Fire here is fully contained. Left in its wake is a darkened moonscape scattered with the skeletons of scorched pinyons, junipers, Douglas firs, ponderosa pine and rocks cracked and split by the fire’s heat.
http://tinyurl.com/bbqwz (Cortez Journal)

– July 23 – Wildfire Blackens Tribal Park but Spares its Ancient Sites: Ancestral Puebloans, also called Anasazi, lived in the Four Corners area until about 1300, according to Ute Mountain Tribal Park.
http://tinyurl.com/b85km (Rocky Mountain News)

– July 23 – Air Tankers, Helicopters help Crews Contain Wildfires: As the recent Trail East Fire burned off the corners of Mesa Verde, the U.S. Forest Service required the assistance of air support to help contain the blaze. The fire was declared 100 percent contained as of Friday morning, burned 2,381 acres and cost $1.9 million.
http://tinyurl.com/7g5cq (Cortez Journal)

Job Announcments (New Mexico and Texas)

http://www.swanet.org/jobs.html

http://www.swanet.org/zarchives/jobs/jobs2005/lgg072605.pdf
http://www.swanet.org/zarchives/jobs/jobs2005/lgg072505.pdf
http://www.swanet.org/zarchives/jobs/jobs2005/oca072505.pdf