Preservation Archaeology Today

Preservation Archaeology Today (PAT) is a free, weekly e-mail news digest. In addition to sharing regional archaeology news, events, opportunities, and publications, PAT connects readers with news and commentary on U.S. public lands policy, global heritage protection and preservation, and the peopling of the North and South American continents. Review our submission guidelines here.

If you have news, announcements, or events, let us know.

Banner image: Paul Vanderveen

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Archaeology Is Everywhere

Dear Friends, Vice President of Preservation and Collaboration John Welch and I just completed a 10-day work journey from Denver to Tucson, with stops in Colorado Springs, Albuquerque, Alamogordo, Las Cruces, and the Mimbres Valley, among many other places in between. I have to say, archaeology i...

Commentary: “What Does Time Immemorial Really Mean?”

Dear Friends, Beginning January 8, I attended the Archaeological Institute of America’s (AIA) annual meeting in San Francisco. That was my first AIA meeting, ever. I have long been familiar with AIA, and many of you might be, too. AIA organizes International Archaeology Day, sharing in-perso...

The Smithsonian in Crisis

Happy New Year, Friends! I hope your holiday season was all you hoped it would be—full of laughs with family and friends, (too much) good food, safe and easy travels, and some psychological rejuvenation with rest and resets, however you might achieve those Rs. Here at Archaeology Southwest, ...

Indigenous Voices Bring Mesa Verde to Life

Hi Everyone, Sorry for the delay on this week’s newsletter—it has been a WEEK! If you’re also scrambling before the holidays, I hope some R&R is right around the corner, and if you’re not, I envy you! We have two new offerings in our year-end campaign series on Pathways. First, Amy...

IMLS Grants Restored

Hi Friends, Shameless plug for the cause follows. Need holiday gifts for the other Preservation Archaeology nerds enthusiasts in your life? We have you covered! For the first time ever, we’re offering t-shirts as part of a limited-time campaign. They feature (with permission) our friend and ...

International Visitors Will Face Much Higher NPS Entry Fees

Hi Everyone, Kate here. Please indulge me for a few words about Archaeology Southwest’s year-end campaign on this Giving Tuesday. Your gifts wholly fund this weekly newsletter and so many other aspects of our work not funded by grants and contracts. We’re thinking a lot these days about tr...

Continuing Coverage: Protecting the Chaco Protection Zone

Dear Friends, A short edition today. First, some sad news. We have learned that legendary ethnobotanist and archaeologist Suzanne K. “Suzy” Fish passed away last week. We have no other information at present. Here is an oral history interview with Suzy produced by the Arizona Archaeologica...

Human Ancestors Created Tools Continuously for 300,000 Years

Goodness gracious, Friends, do I love the science of tree-ring dating! My dissertation research, which I published in 1997 as Time, Trees, and Prehistory, explored the 15-year-long effort, from 1914 to 1929, in which Andrew Ellicott Douglass, an astronomer at the University of Arizona (UA) here i...

Protecting the Chaco Protection Zone

Hi Friends, As promised, here’s the video/audio (opens at YouTube) of Paul Reed’s recent interview with Four Corners KSJE host Scott Michlin, in which my friend and colleague fiercely defends the 10-mile protection zone around Chaco Culture National Historical Park. The zone was created throu...

Chaco Zone in Jeopardy, Again

Hi Folks, Paul Reed here, filling in for Steve this week. One of our most beloved places—Chaco Culture National Historical Park—is once again threatened. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is moving quickly revoke the mineral withdrawal in the 10-mile zone of protection around Chaco Park....

Precontact Yup’ik Place Badly Impacted by Typhoon Halong

Dear Friends, I write to you aboard a flight to my beloved hometown, Chicago. I’m headed back to the Field Museum, where I worked from 1997 to 2006, to engage in discussions with their new curator of North American archaeology about collaborating on a field- and collections-based project foc...

BREAKING: Interior Plans to Cut More Than 2,000 Jobs

Dear Friends, With heavy hearts and our thoughts going out to our many friends and colleagues in service at Interior, we are saddened and frustrated to bring you today’s headline article on looming cuts at the department. The news broke yesterday, and this is a developing story, still in the co...

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