2021 Meetings:

Due to Covid, we will not be having our regular monthly chapter meetings this fall.  Our meeting place at Payson Senior Center is still closed and not planning on opening anytime soon.

Fun Things to do During the Pandemic:

A group of geologists, archaeologists, and AAS members created the below guide for people who would like to enjoy the outdoors on Agua Fria  National Monument during this pandemic.  It's a 12 page, illustrated guide to a nice area with a river at the end.

Geology, Archaeology, and History Guide to Badger Springs Trail

More on Agua Fria National Monument

Ruins to Work at:

Goat Camp Ruin

Archaeological Sites to Visit (hours may vary due to Covid):

Shoofly Ruin  Tonto National Monument (big file)  Agua Fria National Monument  Sears-Kay Ruin   Besh ba Gowah Ruin  

Verde Valley Sites

Archaeology TV by the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA):

https://www.youtube.com/user/ArchaeologyTV

Archaeology Zoom Presentations:

Lectures by AIA chapters from all over the world

Introduction:

The Rim Country Chapter of AAS is located in Payson, AZ, at the base of

the Mogollon Rim.  Meetings generally include a guest speaker presenting

Meeting Time and Place:

Membership:

2021 Speakers:

2021 Chapter Officers:

Past Activities:

January 16, 2021:  Rim Country Chapter joined with San Tan Chapter for a field trip to Hieroglyphic Canyon.

December 19, 2020:  Rim had a field trip to Dixie Mine near Fountain Hills.  Besides the mine, there were numerous petroglyphs in the area and some remains of former ranching operations.  A second Field Trip was held to accommodate more members who wanted to go.

November 21, 2020:  The Rim Country Chapter and San Tan Chapter jointly sponsored a field trip to Tuzigoot National Monument with National Park Service Archaeologist Matt Gruebard as Guide and Speaker.  The Field Trip continued with a visit to the Verde Valley Archaeology Center Museum in Camp Verde.  Here are additional photos and a text summary of the outing.

October 17, 2020:  Field trip held at Montezuma Castle National Monument led by Matt Guebard, National Park Service Archeologist.  Matt Guebard gave a presentation and short walking tour highlighting recent research at Montezuma Castle National Monument. This included the discovery of colored wall decorations indicating rooms with special community functions as well as the use of cutting edge scientific techniques to evaluate the age of rooms at Montezuma Castle and the nearby Castle A site.

Two papers by Matt Guebard:

Two to Four Inches of Lime Dirt:  Public Archaeology and the Development of Old and New Interpretations at the Castle Site, Montezuma Castle National Monument

During the Migration Time:  Oral History, Violence, and Identity in the Prehistoric Verde Valley

On March 7, 2020, Janine Hernbrode presented  Patterns in Petroglyphs: Hints of the Hohokam Cosmology on the Landscape. Fifteen years of rock art recording on four major petroglyph sites in Southern Arizona has enabled the assembly of motif details, drawings and photographs of more than 16,000 glyphs located in landscapes with similar characteristics. This collection of images records the belief systems of its creators. There were no scenes of everyday life, of grinding corn, or plans for constructing pit houses. The images recording their belief system are interwoven into lines and circles and more complex images carefully placed on the landscape. By applying the scientific method to the patterns observed, by working with ethnographic accounts and linguistic analysis by others, and by consulting with indigenous people, we have gained some understanding of, and identified threads of continuity between, Native American belief systems and rock art motifs.

The Rim Chapter's February 1, 2020 speaker was Ralph Burrillo.  His presentation was titled, The Anthropology of Paleontology: A Quick Look at Native American Depictions of the North American Fossil Record.  The study of how Indigenous people articulate with the fossil record can offer researchers a tremendous wealth of insights about those cultures and their relationships with the land, as well as offer opportunities for further scientific and cross-cultural collaboration.  Yet this topic remains woefully overlooked by anthropologists.  A quick look at the archaeology of Native American depictions and interpretations of the North American fossil record reveals just how intricate, exciting, and sophisticated Indigenous paleontology can be. 

The Rim Chapter's January 4, 2020 speaker was Jim Krehbiel, Chair and Professor of Fine Arts at Ohio Wesleyan University.  His presentation, Site Lines and Sight Lines, Recent Discoveries in Southeast Utah, was about astronomical research at Ancestral Pueblo sites in southeast Utah.  It was a lesson in astronomy and a tour of remarkable sites in the Bears Ears Cedar Mesa area.  Photos of structures including intact kiva roofs were amazing.  When we see a ruin around here, well, it is a ruin.  Jim described a different approach to Archaeology, looking out rather than looking in, looking at the landscape instead of at the mortar, looking at the horizon instead of at the petroglyph.  Much Archaeoastronomy is indirect, looking at where sunlight slivers or shadows fall on rocks, glyphs, and niches.  Direct Archaeoastronomy involves viewing from such markers outward to the celestial bodies themselves.  Jim Krehbiel illustrated this approach with photos of horizons viewed from isolated structures, kivas, and petroglyph panels towards peaks, notches, prominent boulders, and cliff faces on the horizon.  Then he overlaid sight lines showing the points of rising and setting sun, moon, and certain stars and constellations at the times of various astronomical events such as solstices, equinoxes, cross quarters, lunistices, and major & minor lunar standstills.  Especially impressive were time lapse photo sequences of sunsets on these points at the times of solstices, leaving no doubt that the viewing point was chosen for this reason.