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.

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Banner image: Paul Vanderveen

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Short Documentary on Chaco 10-Mile Zone Wins Emmy

Dear Friends, When I hired Paul Reed in 2001, little did I know that I was hiring a future Emmy-winning producer! And when we began working with filmmaker and photojournalist David Wallace in 2022, I knew he had a Pulitzer Prize, but now he’s added a tenth—TENTH—Emmy. Here’s the story:...

The Fate of Belongings Taken from Wounded Knee

Dear Friends, Today opens National Native American Heritage Month. In acknowledgment, Archaeology Southwest will be highlighting new and archival material throughout the month, as will the Save History project and the Respect Great Bend campaign. In the “new to you” category is next Tuesda...

Maxwell Exhibition Marks 50th Anniversary of “Seven Families in Pueblo Pottery”

Dear Friends, Remember the slow-moving rattlesnake I helped safely cross my street last week? We met again on Saturday. The two terraces of the green zone in front of our house comprise a desert level and an oasis level. The desert area supports an ancient palo verde tree that gets watered ...

American Museum of Natural History Changes Policy on Human Remains

Dear Friends, The view from my kitchen window impacts my life in an outsized way. It’s not a particularly large window, but it does give me invaluable perspective. In my specific case, the mere 25 feet to the terraced slope in which my wife and I invest lots of energy—horse manure and mulc...

Respect Indigenous Traditions about Eclipses

Dear Friends, It’s a Field Day! When you open this email, I will be out on the land in one of my very favorite places—the San Pedro Valley. I never need an excuse to go to the San Pedro. It’s always the right time. Today, I’m part of the team giving an archaeological overview to Ale...

cyberSW and SKOPE Now Work Together

Dear Friends, This note is divided into two parts: an important Part 1 and a self-indulgent Part 2. Part 1. Last night, Archaeology Southwest initiated season 16 of its Archaeology Café series. My thanks to Director of Outreach, Sara Anderson, who took over hosting the Café, which allowed me...

Continuing Coverage: Tribal Co-Management of Public Lands

Dear Friends, As I looked out my kitchen window on Sunday, I saw the first Black-throated Sparrow since sometime in May. And for the last several weeks, I have had to replenish my hummingbird feeder every morning. The nectar-feeding bats that take on the night shift consume a lot more than the da...

Continuing Coverage: Pueblo Leaders Defend Chaco Protection Zone in DC

Dear Friends, I have long been interested in changes in population—demography—in my archaeological studies and as a global phenomenon. With colleagues, I have suggested that population numbers may have dropped by as much as 75 percent in the southern Southwest over the century from 1350 to 14...

All Pueblo Council of Governors in DC to Advocate for Chaco Protection Zone

Dear Friends, Today’s note comes with my thanks to Linda Vossler, Archaeology Southwest’s Amazing Office Manager. Linda sent our staff a reminder email that our monthly staff lunch this Friday—which we are so fortunate and grateful she organizes—will be catered by the San Xavier Co-op: �...

Proclamation on National Wilderness Month

Dear Friends, Reading books. Not reading books. Re-reading books. Since I was very young, reading has been a passion. But, for a long dry spell during my early and middle professional career, there simply wasn’t time to read books. Then, in the early portion of my “late professional car...

Evidence that People Bred Macaws at Mimbres Site

Dear Friends, Over the past 10 days I spent several days in Traverse City, Michigan, four days in San Diego, California, and a half-day on Mount Lemmon, a peak just outside of Tucson that rises over 9,100 feet. These places have an important thing in common—they are MUCH cooler than Tucson. ...

An Audio Postcard from Mesa Verde National Park

Dear Friends, Good morning! And I say that because it’s 6:30 a.m. here in San Diego as I begin to write this. I’ll confess. I forgot about you. I take that as a good sign. It suggests that I really can occasionally step away from work and relax. Last evening—at the time I am normally ...

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