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RECOMMENDED BOOKS TO READ: 

The Mind In The Cave by David Lewis Williams

"Emerging from the narrow underground passages into the chambers of caves such as Lascaux, Chauvet, and Altamira, visitors are confronted with symbols, patterns, and depictions of bison, woolly mammoths, ibexes, and other animals.

Since its discovery, cave art has provoked great curiosity about why it appeared when and where it did, how it was made, and what it meant to the communities that created it. David Lewis-Williams proposes that the explanation for this lies in the evolution of the human mind. Cro-Magnons, unlike the Neanderthals, possessed a more advanced neurological makeup that enabled them to experience shamanistic trances and vivid mental imagery. It became important for people to "fix," or paint, these images on cave walls, which they perceived as the membrane between their world and the spirit world from which the visions came. Over time, new social distinctions developed as individuals exploited their hallucinations for personal advancement, and the first truly modern society emerged.

Illuminating glimpses into the ancient mind are skillfully interwoven here with the still-evolving story of modern-day cave discoveries and research. The Mind in the Cave is a superb piece of detective work, casting light on the darkest mysteries of our earliest ancestors while strengthening our wonder at their aesthetic achievements."

---copied from goodreads.com

Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond

" ... Jared Diamond convincingly argues that geographical and environmental factors shaped the modern world. Societies that had a head start in food production advanced beyond the hunter-gatherer stage, and then developed writing, technology, government, and organized religion—as well as nasty germs and potent weapons of war—and adventured on sea and land to conquer and decimate preliterate cultures. A major advance in our understanding of human societies, Guns, Germs, and Steel chronicles the way that the modern world came to be and stunningly dismantles racially based theories of human history."

--- copied from goodreads.com

Images of the Past by T. Douglas Price & Gary M. Feinman

" ...site-by-site survey of prehistory captures the popular interest, excitement, and visual splendor of archaeology as it provides insight into the research, interpretations, and theoretical themes in the field. "

--- copied from goodreads.com

Digging into History by Paul S. Martin  Published by: Chicago Natural History Museum 

"Digging into History is a popular account of the excavations of Martin and associates in the Pine Lawn Valley, New Mexico, and neighboring areas.  It is this and more.  A very good account for the layman, it also offers a distillation of Martin's reflections on the social implications of the archaeological data gathered through fifteen years of digging.  It is a thoughtful postscript to a long series of reports.

The contents fall easily into two general parts.  The first contains background information;  the hows and whys of archaeology, and the time and space framework of Southwest Archaeology.  Martin's prologue presents the background for the American Indian cultures.  Migration of Asiatics to America if followed by Southwestern and Mexican occurrences of the Paleo-Indian big game hunters.  The Desert Culture basis of the Cochise sequence, and the importance of its gathering economy in the transition to the agriculture of the Cochise-derived Mogollon Culture are porttrayed."

--- copied from The University of Chicago Press Journals

Archaeology from Space: How the Future Shapes of Past

"In Archaeology from Space, Sarah Parcak shows the evolution, major discoveries, and future potential of the young field of satellite archaeology. From surprise advancements after the declassification of spy photography, to a new map of the mythical Egyptian city of Tanis, she shares her field’s biggest discoveries, revealing why space archaeology is not only exciting, but urgently essential to the preservation of the world’s ancient treasures.

Parcak has worked in twelve countries and four continents, using multispectral and high-resolution satellite imagery to identify thousands of previously unknown settlements, roads, fortresses, palaces, tombs, and even potential pyramids. From there, her stories take us back in time and across borders, into the day-to-day lives of ancient humans whose traits and genes we share. And she shows us that if we heed the lessons of the past, we can shape a vibrant future."

--- copied from goodreads.com

I AM THE GRAND CANYON

"I Am the Grand Canyon is the story of the Havasupai people. From their origins among the first group of Indians to arrive in North America some 20,000 years ago to their epic struggle to regain traditional lands taken from them in the nineteenth century, the Havasupai have a long and colorful history. The story of this tiny tribe once confined to a toosmall reservation depicts a people with deep cultural ties to the land, both on their former reservation below the rim of the Grand Canyon and on the surrounding plateaus.

In the spring of 1971, the federal government proposed incorporating still more Havasupai land into Grand Canyon National Park. At hearings that spring, Havasupai Tribal Chairman Lee Marshall rose to speak. “I heard all you people talking about the Grand Canyon,” he said. “Well, you’re looking at it. I am the Grand Canyon!” Marshall made it clear that Havasu Canyon and the surrounding plateau were critical to the survival of his people; his speech laid the foundation for the return of thousands of acres of Havasupai land in 1975.

I Am the Grand Canyon is the story of a heroic people who refused to back down when facing overwhelming odds. They won, and today the Havasupai way of life quietly continues in the Grand Canyon and on the surrounding plateaus."

--- copied from goodreads.com

The Mind In The Cave by David Lewis Williams

"Emerging from the narrow underground passages into the chambers of caves such as Lascaux, Chauvet, and Altamira, visitors are confronted with symbols, patterns, and depictions of bison, woolly mammoths, ibexes, and other animals.

Since its discovery, cave art has provoked great curiosity about why it appeared when and where it did, how it was made, and what it meant to the communities that created it. David Lewis-Williams proposes that the explanation for this lies in the evolution of the human mind. Cro-Magnons, unlike the Neanderthals, possessed a more advanced neurological makeup that enabled them to experience shamanistic trances and vivid mental imagery. It became important for people to "fix," or paint, these images on cave walls, which they perceived as the membrane between their world and the spirit world from which the visions came. Over time, new social distinctions developed as individuals exploited their hallucinations for personal advancement, and the first truly modern society emerged.

Illuminating glimpses into the ancient mind are skillfully interwoven here with the still-evolving story of modern-day cave discoveries and research. The Mind in the Cave is a superb piece of detective work, casting light on the darkest mysteries of our earliest ancestors while strengthening our wonder at their aesthetic achievements."

--- copied from goodreads.com

Primitive Technology: A Book of Earth Skills edited by David Wescott

"Have You Ever Longed To Return To A Past Where Humanity's Greatest Concern Was Survival, When Our Hands Created Life's Necessities, When The Land's Raw Provisions Were The Materials With Which We Created Warmth, Shelter, Food, and Tools--A Time Before We Lost Our Bond With The Wilderness? Primitive Technology Helps Build A Bridge Between The Ancient Past and Our Modern Lives, Putting Us In Touch Again With Nature and Ourselves. This Volume--A Selection of Articles Within The Bulletin of Primitive Technology--Portrays The History, Philosophise, and Personal Journeys of Authorities On Primitive Technology, Imparting Skills That Built The Success of Mankind. From Views On Primitive Technology and "New" Archaeology To Making Fire and Tools of Bone, This Book Is Informative and Enlightening"                                         --- copied from goodreads.com

House of Rain - Tracking a Vanished Civilization Across The American Southwest by Craig Childs

"KIRKUS REVIEW

Naturalist and NPR commentator Childs (Soul of Nowhere, 2002, etc.) chronicles his research trips following in the footsteps of a native population that flourished, then mysteriously disappeared, in pre-Columbian America.

His subject: the Anasazi, ancestors of today’s Hopi. These Southwestern hunters and farmers lived in some of North America’s most unforgiving terrain, blisteringly hot and dauntingly arid, yet they developed a rich culture that survived hundreds of years and multiple migrations. The author travels along those migratory routes, pursuing the Anasazi over a period of years with many different companions, including his wife, infant son and stepfather, as well as various archaeologists and a few modern-day desert-rats. He battles fire, infernal summer temperatures, brutal winter cold and wind. Water tends to be either absent or overabundant; at one point, he allows a flash flood to transport him, sans clothes, downstream to his destination. He begins at Chaco Canyon in northwest New Mexico and meanders through Colorado, Utah, Arizona and northwest Mexico, where his quest ends in a recently plowed field choked with potsherds hundreds of years old. The author has interviewed (and frequently traveled with) numerous authorities on the pottery, geology, architecture and agriculture of these enigmatic people. His text is rich in geographical and archaeological detail about raising corn, breeding macaws, beheading turkeys and more. Childs considers conventional thinking, then weighs in with his own theories, earned the old-fashioned way, by walking tough terrain to sites untouched for centuries. Evoking these places where people ground corn, procreated, celebrated and slaughtered one another, he displays surpassing curiosity and profound reverence.  "

Hidden Scholars:Women Anthropologists and the Native American Southwest by Dr. Nancy Parezo

Women scholars, writers, curators, and philanthropists have played important roles in the study of Native American cultures of the Southwest. For much of the twentieth century, however, their work has been overlooked. The essays in this book, which grew out of the landmark conference known as Daughters of the Desert, help to rectify the appropriation, erasure, disparagement, and invisibility that many women anthropologists have suffered.
A number of essays are biographical or intellectual histories, such as Parezo on Matilda Coxe Stevenson, Hieb on Elsie Clews Parsons, Babcock on Ruth Benedict, Lamphere on Gladys Reichard, and Lange on Esther Goldfrank. Others provide an overview of women archaeologists (Cordell), philanthropists (McGreevy), and popular writers (Tisdale). Still others assess the contributions of women to a particular subfield, such as Sand on the Yaquis and Hinton on women linguists. This volume goes beyond celebration, however, to provide a critical contribution to anthropological history.                                                                                           --- copied from amazon.com

The Lost World of the Old Ones by  David Roberts

"For more than 5,000 years the Ancestral Puebloans—Native Americans who flourished long before the first contact with Europeans—occupied the Four Corners region of the southwestern United States. Just before AD 1300, they abandoned their homeland in a migration that remains one of prehistory's greatest puzzles. Northern and southern neighbors of the Ancestral Puebloans, the Fremont and Mogollon likewise flourished for millennia before migrating or disappearing. Fortunately, the Old Ones, as some of their present-day descendants call them, left behind awe-inspiring ruins, dazzling rock art, and sophisticated artifacts ranging from painted pots to woven baskets. Some of their sites and relics had been seen by no one during the 700 years before David Roberts and his companions rediscovered them.

In The Lost World of the Old Ones, Roberts continues the hunt for answers begun in his classic book, In Search of the Old Ones. His new findings paint a different, fuller portrait of these enigmatic ancients—thanks to the breakthroughs of recent archaeologists. Roberts also recounts his last twenty years of far-flung exploits in the backcountry with the verve of a seasoned travel writer. His adventures range across Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and southwestern Colorado, illuminating the mysteries of the Old Ones as well as of the more recent Navajo and Comanche.

Roberts calls on his climbing and exploratory expertise to reach remote sanctuaries of the ancients hidden within nearly vertical cliffs, many of which are unknown to archaeologists and park rangers. This ongoing quest combines the shock of new discovery with a deeply felt connection to the landscape, and it will change the way readers experience, and imagine, the American Southwest.  "         --- copied from goodreads.com

Wolfkiller: Wisdom from a Nineteenth-Century Navajo Shepherd

recorded by Louisa Wade Wetherill / compiled by Harvey Leake

"Fascinating history and compelling storytelling make Wolfkiller, the memoir of a Navajo shepherd man who lived in the Monument Valley region of the Southwest, a page-turning epic. In these stories compiled by Harvey Leake, Wolfkiller shares the ancient wisdom of the Navajo elders that was passed to him while a boy growing up near the Utah/Arizona border. Wolfkiller's story was recorded and translated by pioneer trader Louisa Wade Wetherill, an unlikely pairing that came together when she moved to this remote area of southern Utah in 1906. Wetherill recognized that Wolfkiller was a man of exceptional character, with lessons and wisdom of the Navajo that deserved to be recorded and preserved for the benefit of future generations.

Over the course of many years, Wolfkiller told his stories to Wetherill who translated them into English. When the manuscript was completed in 1932, modern society was simply not ready for it. Rejected by publishers, the document languished in the family archives until today, long after Wolfkiller and Mrs. Wetherill were gone, it can now be recognized as a unique and profound book that speaks to modern culture's compulsive rush away from nature.

Included are photographs of Wolfkiller and the Wetherills, all taken from about 1906 to 1926. More than forty other historical photographs are also included.

"If Mrs. Wetherill could be persuaded to write on the mythology of the Navajos, and also on their present-day psychology-by which somewhat magniloquent term I mean their present ways and habits of thought-she would render an invaluable service. She not only knows their language; she knows their minds. . . ." Theodore Roosevelt, after visiting the Wetherill trading post in 1913 " --- copied from Amazon.com

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KNOWLEDGE BITES:

Native American Inventions

https://www.thoughtco.com/native-american-inventions-1991632

Projectile Point Analysis of American Southwest

http://arizonaarchaeologicalcouncil.org/resources/Documents/JAZA/JAzArch%204_2/JAzArchV4N2_2017_Full%20Issue.pdf

g%20techniques.pdf 

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WHAT'S OLD IS NEWS: ( source; various )

Archaeologist discovers Copper Arrowhead in the Yukon Territory

https://archaeologynewsnetwork.blogspot.com/2018/01/lucky-find-gives-archaeologists-glimpse.html

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Speakers:

           The San Tan Chapter meetings are held at the San Tan Historical Society Museum at 20425 S Old Ellsworth Rd in Queen Creek                               

******************************************************************************************************

Recordings:

February:  12, 2025   Dr. William E. Doolittle is the Professor Emeritus- Erich W. Zimmermann Regents Professor in Geography and the Chairman of the Department of Geography at The University of Texas at Austin. He received his  PhD 1979 University of Oklahoma, Geography and Archaeology. Dissertation research in Sonora, México. Four books and dozens of articles and chapters.

Topic:  “A Biography of the Safford Valley Grids Project.”

https://us06web.zoom.us/rec/share/2eK2wDyKdHOCFGXmhZ2SFMBIvH5whx8E9X_sXNi_M3f419c25Oc7OGIa2YYUZRY_.wkxZHlA1mH9XjI6K?startTime=1739409596000

Passcode: dgMDq8c=

March:  12, 2025   Kathleen Springer and Jeff Pigait Research Geologist U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center

Topic:  Ancient Human Footprints

https://us06web.zoom.us/rec/play/KPK2cpBgAk5x49rfESsrGxD8wdNw6tYD4czdxI9zn7gNWXQQGwG-ZBIVUpYWe8IiYLGWjLEd7LzujtA.X3VQyslFaRyEU4SI?accessLevel=meeting&canPlayFromShare=true&from=share_recording_detail&continueMode=true&componentName=rec-play&originRequestUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fus06web.zoom.us%2Frec%2Fshare%2FfiQGcBo5iYRc-fkJFEnI2oZlax46MHPV_qY0W0whA7HzeviCU7aqAPrGzkX-9pc2.SviWaeD2JQ6jCRnI

Passcode: *jkc5KK4

March:  12, 2025   Kathleen Springer and Jeff Pigait Research Geologist U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center

Topic:  Ancient Human Footprints

https://us06web.zoom.us/rec/play/fPno-TU0QluR2pPEqzG7IB-WxSFo7gzt1WzRIZctw3sSGPanhYYp26Yvsx-C7N2QNqHBVpwmP2hdNCkd.Ytz3Wd0GpRN5yt4A?accessLevel=meeting&canPlayFromShare=true&from=share_recording_detail&continueMode=true&componentName=rec-play&originRequestUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fus06web.zoom.us%2Frec%2Fshare%2FukLcaPQZCTLOIwN9RXeRZlCVr_kfGjMvDhN3AE6r4wPqZ2wAteD49Iwm5C9ME80q.Y_Vn_2XipfD8nO6Q

Passcode: a&1%n+x#

May: 14, 2025   Dr. Aaron Wright Preservation Anthropologist, Archaeology Southwest

Topic:  The Great Bend

https://us06web.zoom.us/rec/share/A1Sl8I6Nd6bKT2msM-JgQWN_i0pKr3ucKnkm0lD0ZiH-MsGnFxN-uXsPMwoi5-M.HEsP2t-xkyj1lGN1

Passcode: ?Fv1bnk@

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Schedule:  January - May, September - December  2025

***********************************************************************************

September 10, 2025  Dr. G. Richard Scott, Foundation Professor of Anthropology, U. Nevada Reno

Topic:  Dental Anthropology  ---ZOOM PRESENTATION BROAD CASTING FROM THE MUSEUM

G. Richard Scott focuses on the dental anthropological analysis of Medieval European populations, with special emphasis on analysis of nonmetric crown and root traits, dental pathology, stress and cultural behavior. He continues research on the bioarchaeology of Alaskan Inuit populations and Greenlandic Norse.

October 8, 2025  Caitlin Stewart, M.A., RPA Co-Owner & Director Cornerstone Environmental Consulting, LLC

Topic:  Wilderness First Aid Basics

In this presentation we will discuss the basics of wilderness first aid preparedness as it is related to the activities we perform in both recreation and archaeological investigations. Additionally, we will go over the basics of a wilderness first aid kit and how to use each item within the kit. Feel free to bring your own kits with you!

Caitlin is currently the owner and Director of a woman-owned cultural resources management firm in Flagstaff, Arizona. She received a B.A. in Anthropology from Western Kentucky University and a M.A. from University of Mississippi. During her graduate career she focused on methodological approaches to determining minimum number of individuals in complex bioarchaeological contexts. Throughout her eighteen-year career, she has conducted archaeological survey, testing, and data recovery efforts primarily in the Southwest including Arizona, New Mexico, California, and Utah. Archaeological experience outside of the Southwest include a variety of locales including portions of the Southeast, Marshall Islands, Belize, Guatemala, and Scotland. Areas of technical experience include bioarchaeology, faunal analysis, mortuary practices of the southwest, groundstone analysis, project management, and reporting.

November 12, 2025  Douglass R. Newton has been an Arizona Site Steward for 32 years. He started in 1992 and had one site, the Eagletail petroglyph site which requires a hike of 4 miles to get to the site and is in a BLM wilderness area. Doug obtained a master’s degree in plant biology at Arizona State University. His thesis was to gather a flora of the plant species growing in the Eagletail mountain area. As an Arizona Regional Site Steward, he has responsibility for two regions, the Tonopah region and the Central region.

Topic: The Origin of The Yavapai People

December 10, 2025  

Topic:  TBD

Dr. Chris Loendorf Senior Project Manager GRIC (Gila River Indian Community). He is responsible for directing survey, excavation, and laboratory crews. Position duties include planning and implementing all stages of large-scale CRM projects, including multi-year excavations at extensive Hohokam sites. He interacts with various Native American offices, and has extensive consultation experience working with tribal groups. I also supervise the lithic analysis and X-Ray Florescence Laboratory.

Abstract:

===============================================================================

Jan. 14, 2026    Dr. Lisa Young from the The University of Michigan, Department of Anthropology  ---ZOOM PRESENTATION BROAD CASTING FROM THE MUSEUM

Topic:  TBD

Feb. 11, 2026     Richard C. Lange received his undergraduate degree from the University of Illinois-Urbana in 1974 and his M.A. from the University of Arizona in 1977, and he went on to become the Associate Director of the Arizona State Museum (ASM) Homol’ovi Research Program (HRP) from its inception in 1983-1984 until full retirement in 2018.  Rich led ASM’s archaeological survey of the Homolovi State Park area from 1985-1989 (published in Volume 189 of the ASM Archaeological Series) and participated in the HRP excavations thereafter. He also conducted survey in the Rock Art Ranch area, and directed ASM’s excavations at the Multi-Kiva site south of the Rock Art Ranch.  Rich completed Down along Paayu: The History of Homol’ovi II Pueblo (in Volume 43 of The Arizona Archaeologist series, Arizona Archaeological Society. ....from Old Pueblo Archaeology Center

Topic:  Sierra Ancha Cliff Dwellings

Mar. 11, 2026 John Murray  PhD Candidate Institute of Human Origins School of Human Evolution and Social Change

Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ

Topic:   "Was it a stone tool or just a rock? An archaeologist explains how scientists can tell the difference"

Apr. 8, 2026    Douglass R. Newton has been an Arizona Site Steward for 32 years. He started in 1992 and had one site, the Eagletail petroglyph site which requires a hike of 4 miles to get to the site and is in a BLM wilderness area. Doug obtained a master’s degree in plant biology at Arizona State University. His thesis was to gather a flora of the plant species growing in the Eagletail mountain area. As an Arizona Regional Site Steward, he has responsibility for two regions, the Tonopah region and the Central region.

Topic:  Corn in the Eagletail mountains and the relationship between the yavapai and the goodings willow. on April 8, 2026.  They show how the Yavapai used these plants in the desert of western Arizona

May 13, 2026

Topic:  TBD

===========================================================

January:  8, 2025  Douglass R. Newton has been an Arizona Site Steward for 32 years. He started in 1992 and had one site, the Eagletail petroglyph site which requires a hike of 4 miles to get to the site and is in a BLM wilderness area.  Doug obtained a master’s degree in plant biology at Arizona State University.   His thesis was to gather a flora of the plant species growing in the Eagletail mountain area.  As an Arizona Regional Site Steward, he has responsibility for two regions, the Tonopah region and the Central region.

Topic: Prehistory of the Eagletail Mountains 

"The Eagletail Mountains Wilderness is located 75 miles west of Phoenix just south of Interstate 10. It covers portions of Maricopa, La Paz, and Yuma counties.  Fifteen miles of the Eagletail Mountains' rough ridgeline runs right through the northern section of this Wilderness, including 3,300-foot Eagletail Peak which rises from a low point of 1,100 feet within the Wilderness boundaries. Cemetery Ridge lies along the southern border. Geology buffs can examine several distinct rock strata throughout these mountains, and everyone can marvel at such geologic wonders as natural arches, high spires and monoliths, jagged sawtooth ridges, and numerous washes between six and eight miles long. Courthouse Rock, a huge granite monolith, stands over 1,000 feet above the desert floor near the northern border and attracts technical rock climbers. Between the two main ridges stretches a vast desert plain of ocotillo, cholla, creosote, ironwood, saguaro cactus, barrel cactus, Mormon tea, mesquite, and sand. Summer temperatures rage and send up thermals upon which raptors ride as they scan the landscape for a desert rodent snack. The great horned owl and the coyote live here, but they keep themselves well hidden from backpackers, campers, and horseback riders. Temperatures can be as low as 30° Fahrenheit from December through January and can reach above 115° Fahrenheit from June to September. Precipitation generally ranges from 2 to 4 inches per year. Rainfall, which can occur at any time of the year, is often preceded by strong and sudden windstorms. Watch for cloud build up and be aware of possible flash flooding in washes and drainages."  from wilderness.net

February:  12, 2025   Dr. William E. Doolittle is the Professor Emeritus- Erich W. Zimmermann Regents Professor in Geography and the Chairman of the Department of Geography at The University of Texas at Austin. He received his  PhD 1979 University of Oklahoma, Geography and Archaeology. Dissertation research in Sonora, México. Four books and dozens of articles and chapters.

Topic:  “A Biography of the Safford Valley Grids Project.”

Based on the book The Safford Valley Grids: Prehistoric Cultivation in the Southern Arizona Desert Volume 70 written by James A. Neely and William E. Doolittle.

--VIDEO CONFERENCE PRESENTATION

Abstract: A project born of happenstance, prevarication, perfect timing, and little cost, the story of the Safford Grids Project is one of humor, friendship, collaboration, and productivity. The results are known, but the back story isn’t. This talk is a personal account of how several factors came together resulting in a book that answered a question that mystified archaeologists for a century.

"Crisscrossing Pleistocene terrace tops and overlooking the Gila River in southeastern Arizona are acres and acres of rock alignments that have perplexed archaeologists for a century. Well known but poorly understood, these features have long been considered agricultural, but exactly what was cultivated, how, and why remained a mystery. Now we know. Drawing on the talents of a team of scholars representing various disciplines, including geology, soil science, remote sensing, geographical information sciences (GISc), hydrology, botany, palynology, and archaeology, the editors of this volume explain when and why the grids were built. Between A.D. 750 and 1385, people gathered rocks from the tops of the terraces and rearranged them in grids of varying size and shape, averaging about 4 meters to 5 meters square. The grids captured rainfall and water accumulated under the rocks forming the grids. Agave was planted among the rocks, providing a dietary supplement to the maize and beans that were irrigated on the nearby bottom land, a survival crop when the staple crops failed, and possibly a trade commodity when yields were high. Stunning photographs by Adriel Heisey convey the vastness of the grids across the landscape".**** from bookshop.org

March:  12, 2025   Kathleen Springer and Jeff Pigait Research Geologist U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center

Topic:  Ancient Human Footprints

--VIDEO CONFERENCE PRESENTATION

April:  9, 2025   Dr. Tom Connolly University of Oregon Museum of Natural History &  State Museum of Anthropology

Topic: "When did humans start wearing shoes?"  "The oldest known sandals are from Oregon, but there may be older shoes out there."

--VIDEO CONFERENCE PRESENTATION

Dr. Connolly has been director of archaeological research at the UOMNCH since 1986. He has done fieldwork on the northern US prairie/plains (Minnesota/North Dakota), in Scotland, and primarily in the Pacific Northwest. Connolly’s Northwest research spans varied geographies, including the Pacific coast, the western interior valleys, the Columbia Plateau, and the Great Basin high desert. Topical research interests include hunter-gatherer-fisher societies and incipient agriculture, lithic studies, geoarchaeology, cultural resource management, fiber artifacts and basketry, and historical archaeology. Connolly has worked extensively with archaeological museum collections, particularly ancient basketry and sandals from Oregon caves and rockshelters. Connolly’s publications include books and book-length monographs, book chapters, and journal articles in American Antiquity, Quaternary Research, Radiocarbon, Historical Archaeology, the Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology, the Journal of Archaeological Science, the Journal of Anthropological Research, the Journal of Northwest Anthropology, the University of Utah Anthropological Papers, and the University of Oregon Anthropological Papers series.

"Scientists have discovered many ancient shoes around the world, including 5,500-year-old leather shoes in Armenia, 6,200-year-old grass sandals in Spain, and footwear as old as 8,300 years old in Missouri.

But when did humans actually invent shoes? That's tricky to answer because the animal skins, plant fibers and other materials used to make shoes tend to break down over time. The oldest known shoes are more than 10,000 years old, but our ancestors may have worn them much earlier than that, fossilized footprints suggest.

The oldest shoes that researchers have directly dated are a pair of 10,400-year-old sandals recovered from Fort Rock Cave in central Oregon, according to Thomas Connolly, archaeological research director at the University of Oregon's Museum of Natural and Cultural History. "                    Live Science 7.2.24

May: 14, 2025   Dr. Aaron Wright Preservation Anthropologist, Archaeology Southwest

Topic:  The Great Bend

Aaron Wright is a Preservation Anthropologist with Archaeology Southwest, a Tucson-based non-profit organization dedicated to studying, protecting, and respecting the Southwest’s rich archaeological landscape.  Aaron’s research is currently focused on the Hohokam and Patayan traditions across southwestern Arizona. He is specifically interested in the cultural landscape of the lower Gila River, which is renowned for a unique mixture of Patayan and Hohokam settlements, dense galleries of world-class rock art, and numerous enigmatic geoglyphs. Aaron is the lead researcher on Archaeology Southwest’s long-term goal of establishing a Great Bend of the Gila National Monument. In that effort, Aaron has collaborated on a cultural resource study of the area’s significance, as well as a cultural affiliation study outlining the ethnohistory and contemporary tribal connections to this remarkable landscape. *source Archaeology Southwest

"The Great Bend is an extraordinary nexus of natural, cultural, geological, and historical significance that has shaped much of the Southwest’s history and heritage.

As a national monument, the public lands of the Great Bend of the Gila would be protected in a way that recognizes their importance to Tribes, their cultural and historical values, and the role of these lands in species survival, combating climate change, and redressing water scarcity. A monument designation also opens the door for co-stewardship of the land between federal agencies and Tribes.

The stretch of river valley and surrounding desert between the cities of Phoenix and Yuma, Arizona, constitutes a fragile landscape that also serves as a backcountry recreation area for tourists and nearby residents. Protecting the Great Bend of the Gila also means protecting the recreation and economic opportunities for the region.

The Great Bend of the Gila will play a pivotal role in the future of the region in several interrelated ways. Preserving open space will sustain natural vistas and the scenic quality of the West Valley while also protecting the habitat and habitat connectivity that desert-dwelling animals such as bighorn sheep, Sonoran desert tortoise, mule deer, and javelina require for survival.

It’s time to permanently protect this inimitable, enduring, yet surprisingly sensitive landscape as a national monument. Although there are laws protecting cultural heritage on federal lands, permanent protection will help better enforce these laws. Given their historical and ongoing ties to the land, Tribes should have a strong voice in how this land and their legacies on it are managed in perpetuity." * 

source respectgreatbend.org

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Schedule:  January - May, September - December  2024

January:  10, 2024  John D. Speth is Arthur F. Thurnau Professor (Emeritus) of Anthropology in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Michigan.

Topic : " Imagine you are invited to a dinner which turns out to consist of absolutely rotten meat, crawling with maggots."                                                           ---ZOOM PRESENTATION BROAD CASTING FROM THE MUSEUM

"Ye shall not eat of any thing that dieth of itself: thou shalt give it unto the stranger that is in thy gates, that he may eat it; or thou mayest sell it unto an alien: for thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God." (Deuteronomy 14:21)

John D. Speth

University of Michigan

Abstract

Imagine you are invited to a dinner which turns out to consist of absolutely rotten meat, crawling with maggots. Already a hundred yards before you reach the dining place you are overwhelmed by the horrific stench. You are disgusted, your hold your nose and your face becomes distorted, and you turn your head away from the offensive odor. You can barely stand the smell, and just the thought makes your stomach start to churn. The moment you enter, you see the disgusting seething mess, turn instantly, and flee as fast as you can, hoping not to wretch on your way out.

Now compare that scenario with the following observation made by Henry Landor in the early 1900s in the lowland Congo Basin: "My men, for instance, who were simply bursting with lavish good food all the time, saw that day a big rodent, a nduta, about as big as a cat in its normal condition, but in this case, owing to its decomposed state, swollen to the size of a small pig. They immediately swerved the canoe towards it. When the floating animal came alongside the stench was such that it made me quite ill. I was nearly choked. Unable to speak or breathe, I was trying to signal to my men not to touch it and to get away, but in a moment the putrid beast was hauled on board and, in less time than it takes to write about it, it was eaten. The odour when they dug their knives into it was enough to kill the strongest of men. When I recovered, my admiration for the digestive powers of these people was intense. They were smacking their lips and they said the nduta had provided most excellent eating" (Landor 1907:80–81).

Before you jump to the wrong conclusion, eating totally rotten meat, often raw and maggoty, and considering it delightfully smelling and absolutely delicious, was nearly universal everywhere except in Europe and in the major Westernized colonial centers like Cairo, Cape Town, Delhi, and so forth. In fact, rotten meat and fish remained sought after foods in many parts of the world right up to WWI and even beyond, when Westernization more or less eliminated the practice as "primitive" and unsanitary. More striking yet, over the last 3,000 years or so, the aversion to rotten meat is found largely within the Judeo–Christian tradition.

What then about all that modern science that tells us we will die of botulism if we eat rotten meat? Consider the quote given above from Deuteronomy. Obviously, in Old Testament times not eating carrion was to keep one pure and holy in the eyes of God, not a matter of health or food safety. Western science has conflated biology with the power of culture. What began thousands of years ago as a quest to achieve purity in the eyes of God, today has morphed into an endless "war against germs." In the process, we have so altered our gut flora that we no longer have any immunity to pathogens like botulism.

 John D. Speth is Arthur F. Thurnau Professor (Emeritus) of Anthropology in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Michigan. He completed his BA in Geology at the University of New Mexico (1965) and his PhD in Anthropology at Michigan (1971). Dr. Speth studies prehistoric hunter–gatherer and small-scale farmer diets and foodways, the way these societies coped with food shortages, and their settlement and mobility strategies. Largely through the study of animal bones, he also explores the nutritional basis of Plains–Pueblo interaction in the Southwest, and Neanderthal hunting strategies in the Near East. Dr. Speth's books include: Living and Dying on the Periphery: The Archaeology and Human Remains from Two 13th–15th Century AD Villages in Southeastern New Mexico (with Jamie L. Clark, 2022, Utah); Zooarchaeology and Modern Human Origins: Human Hunting Behavior During the Later Pleistocene (with Jamie L. Clark, 2013, Springer); The Paleoanthropology and Archaeology of Big-Game Hunting: Protein, Fat, or Politics? (2010, Springer); Human Paleoecology in the Levantine Corridor (with Naama Goren-Inbar, 2004, Oxbow); and Bison Kills and Bone Counts: Decision Making by Ancient Hunters (1983, Chicago). A few of his recent papers include: "When Did Humans Learn to Boil?" (PaleoAnthropology, 2015); "Paleoindian Bison Hunting on the North American Great Plains—Two Critical Nutritional Constraints" (PaleoAnthropology2020); "Putrid Meat in the Tropics: It Wasn't Just for Inuit" (with Eugène Morin, PaleoAnthropology, 2022).

February 14, 2024  M. Kyle Woodson, Ph.D.     Director of the Gila River Indian Community’s Cultural Resource Management Program in Sacaton, Arizona.

  

Topic : "This Native American Tribe Is Taking Back Its Water"

Kyle Woodson has served the past eight years as the Director of the Gila River Indian Community’s Cultural Resource Management Program in Sacaton, Arizona. Kyle received his Ph.D. in Anthropology at Arizona State University in 2010. His research focuses on southern Arizona and includes Hohokam canal irrigation agriculture, community organization, and ceramic production and technology, as well as Ancestral Puebloan migrations and other topics. Kyle has authored or co-authored a number of recent publications including: an article on granary pedestals in Classic Period Hohokam platform mound sites (with Brian Medchill and Chris Loendorf) in the Journal of Arizona Archaeology (2019); an article on the sourcing of hematite paints oh Hohokam red-on-buff ceramics (with Sunday Eiselt, John Dudgeon, Andy Darling, E.N. Paucar, and Michael Glascock) in Archaeometry (2019); an article on an experimental study of projectile point reworking (with Chris Loendorf, Thatcher Rogers, Theodore J. Oliver, Brian R. Huttick, and Allen Denoyer) in American Antiquity (2019); an article on Blackwater Village at the Turn of the Twentieth Century (with Chris Loendorf, Craig Fertelmes, David H. DeJong, and Barnaby V. Lewis) in Kiva (2018); an article on the development of prehistoric irrigation studies in Arizona under the National Historic Preservation Act (with Jerry Howard) in the Journal of Arizona Archaeology (2018); an article on reconstructing ancient Hohokam irrigation systems in the Middle Gila River Valley (with Tian Zhu and Maurits Ertsen) in Human Ecology: An Interdisciplinary Journal (2018); a book chapter titled “Preclassic Hohokam” (with Doug Craig) in The Oxford Handbook of Southwest Archaeology (2017); a book entitled The Social Organization of Hohokam Irrigation in the Middle Gila River Valley, Arizona (2016) published as part of the Gila River Indian Community Anthropological Papers series; an article on the formation of irrigated soils in Hohokam canal irrigated fields (with Jon Sandor, Colleen Strawhacker, and Wesley Miles) in Geoarchaeology: An International Journal (2015); a book chapter titled “The Impact of Flooding on Hohokam Canal Irrigation Agriculture” in Traditional Arid Lands Agriculture: Understanding the Past for the Future (edited by Scott Ingram and Robert Hunt, 2015); an article on ritual drinks in the pre-hispanic US Southwest and Mexican Northwest (with Patricia Crow, Jiyan Gu, W. Jeffrey Hurst, Timothy J. Ward, Ardith D. Bravenec, Syed Ali, Laura Kebert, Marlaina Berch, Erin Redman, Patrick D. Lyons, Jamie Merewether, David A. Phillips, and Lori S. Reed) in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (2015); and an article on flaked-stone point design for warfare and big game hunting (with Chris Loendorf, Lynn Simon, Daniel Dybowski, R. Scott Plumlee, Shari Tiedens, and Michael Withrow) in Antiquity (2015).

( photo from Smithsonian Magazine                         Tomas Karmelo Amaya  )

March 13, 2024  Dr. Shelby J. Tisdale 

Topic: No Place For A Lady: The Life Story of Marjorie F. Lambert

Brief Overview of “No Place for a Lady: The Life Story of Archaeologist Marjorie F. Lambert”

In the first half of the twentieth century, the canyons and mesas of the Southwest beckoned and the burgeoning field of archaeology thrived. Among those who heeded the call, Marjorie Ferguson Lambert became one of only a handful of women who not only left their imprint on the study of southwestern archaeology and anthropology but flourished.

Award-winning author, Dr. Shelby Tisdale’s new book No Place for a Lady: The Life Story of Marjorie F. Lambert provides a glimpse into a time when there were few women establishing full-time careers in anthropology, archaeology, or museums. Dr. Tisdale takes you on a thought-provoking journey into how Lambert created a successful and satisfying professional career and personal life in a place she loved (the American Southwest) while doing what she loved. Later in life she shared this love of the Southwest with her husband, Jack, a well-known cowboy in the Santa Fe, New Mexico area.

Through Lambert’s life story we gain new insight into the intricacies and politics involved in the development of archaeology and museums in New Mexico and the greater Southwest. We also learn about the obstacles that young women had to maneuver around in the early years of the development of southwest archaeology as a profession. Tisdale brings into focus one of the long-neglected voices of women in the intellectual history of anthropology and archaeology and highlights how gender roles played out in the past in determining the career paths of young women. She also highlights what has changed and what has not in the twenty-first century.

Women’s voices have long been absent throughout history, and Marjorie Lambert’s story adds to the growing literature on feminist archaeology.

Shelby J. Tisdale, Ph.D.

Retired Director, Center of Southwest Studies, Fort Lewis College

Research Associate, School of Anthropology, University of Arizona

Dr. Shelby Tisdale, retired Director of the Center of Southwest Studies at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado and a Research Associate in the School of Anthropology at the University of Arizona, has over forty years of combined experience in museum administration; anthropological, tribal museum and cultural resource management consulting; and university teaching. She is the former Director of the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture/Laboratory of Anthropology in Santa Fe, New Mexico and the Millicent Rogers Museum in Taos. She also served as the Vice President of Curatorial and Exhibitions at the Autry Museum of the American West in Los Angeles. Dr. Tisdale received her Ph.D. in cultural anthropology from the University of Arizona in 1997. Her B.A. is from the University of Colorado-Boulder where she studied anthropology and southwestern archaeology, and her M.A. is from the University of Washington where she majored in social anthropology and museum studies.

She has curated numerous exhibitions on Native American and Hispano arts, culture and history. Dr. Tisdale has published forty-five articles and book chapters relating to American Indian art and culture, repatriation, and women in the West. She contributed to and directed the publication of the Oklahoma Book Award winning Woven Worlds: Basketry from the Clark Field Collection, for the Philbrook Museum of Art in Tulsa, Oklahoma (2001). Her book, Fine Indian Jewelry of the Southwest: The Millicent Rogers Museum Collection (Museum of New Mexico Press, 2006) received the Ralph Emerson Twitchell Book Award from the Historical Society of New Mexico and the Southwest Book Award from the Border Regional Library Association.  She edited Spider Woman’s Gift: Nineteenth Century Diné Textiles (Museum of New Mexico Press, 2011). Her book, Pablita Velarde: In Her Own Words (Little Standing Spruce Publishing, 2012), is a full-length biography of this famous American Indian painter. She recently edited Federico: One Man’s Remarkable Journey from Tututepec to L.A. by Federico Jimenez Caballero (University of Arizona Press, 2021), which received Honorable Mention for Non-Fiction Biography in English from the International Latino Book Awards in 2021. Her most recent book, No Place for a Lady: The Life Story of Marjorie F. Lambert, was published by the University of Arizona Press in 2023.

April 10, 2024    Dr. Gary Huckleberry -Adjunct Research Associate and Lecturer at the University of Arizona

Topic: Ancient Water Management In The Arizona Desert

Arizona has a long history of people managing water for agriculture and human consumption. Evidence for ancient water management is found across the state and includes canals, reservoirs, and wells. The earliest irrigation canals and reservoirs thus far identified are in the Tucson area and date to around 1500 and 500 BC, respectively. Through time, canal systems expanded in size, culminating in the impressive network of channels built by the Hohokam (AD 450–1450) along the lower Salt and middle Gila rivers. The Hohokam also constructed canals and reservoirs in areas of seasonal surface water, such as in the Queen Creek area. I will review the diversity of evidence, focusing on archaeological discoveries made in the Sonoran Desert region of central and southern Arizona, and discuss what lessons we might gain by studying these ancient features with respect to our current water challenges.

Gary Huckleberry is an independent consultant and adjunct researcher at the University of Arizona who specializes in soils, landforms, and archaeology. He was born and raised in Phoenix and received his Ph.D. in Geosciences from the University of Arizona. He was a professor in the Department of Anthropology at Washington State University in the late 90’s and early 00’s and served as the co-editor of the journal Geoarchaeology from 2008 to 2017. He has conducted research on geoarchaeology and environmental change in the deserts of western North America, northern Mexico, Peru, and Chile.

May 8, 2024       Dr. Amber VanDerwarke - U.C. Santa Barbara  Integrative Subsistence Laboratory Director

                                                 ---ZOOM PRESENTATION BROAD CASTING FROM THE MUSEUM

 Topic:  A New Locus for Avocado Domestication in Mesoamerica: Evidence for 8,000 years of human selection and tree management at El Gigante, Honduras

Recent research demonstrates that ancient Mesoamericans engaged in forest management long before they domesticated maize. Our research from El Gigante provides additional evidence for the antiquity of tree management practices in several different economically useful species. This presentation focuses on the avocado assemblage, represented by desiccated pits, pit fragments, and rind fragments, the latter numbering in the thousands. Using metric analysis of these materials, we demonstrate in situ domestication over an 8,000-year period, during which time pits got larger and rinds thicker as people selected for larger fruits. These findings establish southeastern Honduras as a new center of avocado domestication.

Amber M. VanDerwarker (Ph.D. 2003, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill) is a Professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She has been involved in archaeological field and laboratory work in Mexico, eastern North America, and Peru. Her research encompasses a variety of methods, regions, and themes that revolve around the relationship between humans and food in the New World, especially in the periods bracketing the shift to agriculture.

September 11 , 2024   Dr. Christopher Schwartz Archaeology Group Manager at Terracon Consultants

Topic:  "Scarlet Macaws in Southern Arizona - Like the Other Macaws but Different"

" Christopher W. Schwartz, Steven Plog, and Patricia A. Gilman’s long-term study of scarlet macaws (Ara macao) and other parrots in the southwestern United States and Mexican northwest revealed surprising results. Scarlet macaws recovered from Chaco Canyon and the Mimbres region are very closely related genetically, they all ate mostly corn, and were raised in the areas where they were recovered, i.e., at Chaco or Mimbres. Chris will discuss new DNA, isotope, and radiocarbon data from southern and central Arizona, along with isotopic data from Wupatki. The data compiled to date are consistent with the conclusion that the macaws through time and across space in the Southwest were genetically closely related, ate corn, and were locally raised.  Even so, past people used and interacted with the macaws differently in various parts of the Southwest, and very differently from people living hundreds of miles away in the scarlet macaw’s distant homeland of eastern and southern Mexico. The discussion provides implications of this new research and how it fits with what was learned previously about scarlet macaws. "

October 9, 2024     Dr. Sarah A Lacy has recently joined the anthropology faculty at the University of Delaware. Her research is on oral and respiratory health in Neanderthals and early modern humans, and ultimately tries to address questions about how these two hominin groups competed and survived in their changing environments and with each other. Her recent work with her collaborator, Dr. Cara Ocobock of the University of Notre Dame, explores the lack of evidence for gendered/sexed roles for most of human history and how female anatomy and physiology supports reconstructions for their active participation in big game hunting activities.

Topic:   "Woman the hunter: On gender roles and physiology in human evolution"

--VIDEO CONFERENCE PRESENTATION

"The Paleo-fantasy of a deep history to a sexual division of labor, often described as “Man the Hunter and Woman the Gatherer,” continues to dominate the literature. We see it used as the default hypothesis in anatomical and physiological reconstructions of the past as well as studies of modern people evoking evolutionary explanations. However, the idea of a strict sexual labor division in the Paleolithic is an assumption with little supporting evidence, which reflects a failure to question how modern gender roles color our reconstructions of the past. Here we present examples to support women's roles as hunters in the past as well as challenge oft-cited interpretations of the material culture. Such evidence includes stone tool function, diet, art, anatomy and paleopathology, and burials. By pulling together the current state of the archaeological evidence along with the modern human physiology presented in the accompanying paper (Ocobock and Lacy, this issue), we argue that not only are women well-suited to endurance activities like hunting, but there is little evidence to support that they were not hunting in the Paleolithic. Going forward, paleoanthropology should embrace the idea that all sexes contributed equally to life in the past, including via hunting activities.  "

https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/aman.13914

November 13, 2024      Matthew Harwood is a recent Graduate of the University of Arizona with degrees in Archaeological Studies and Arabic. Matthew hopes to attend graduate school next year. Matthew's research interests include marginalized groups in the 20th century and conflict archaeology of the 20th century among others.   He is a recent Cordell/Powers Prize winner.   The Cordell and Powers Prizes are awarded for the best two talks given at the Pecos Conference by archaeologists age 35 and under.

Topic: Zooarchaeological Investigations at El Dumpe; a Mid-Twentieth Century Dump.

El Dumpé is an archaeological site located between Grant Road and Speedway Boulevard in Tucson, Arizona, now covered by the Interstate-10. El Dumpé was both a city dump and a community dumping area and received trash on-site as well as from the nearby St. Mary’s Road incinerator. The site was active between the 1920’s and 1950’s. Overall, El Dumpé gives a general overview of the diet of Tucsonians during the time period it was active. While the archaeology of El Dumpé is interesting, the significance of the site is in the information it provides about the daily lives of local Hispanic and Native American communities. El Dumpé is an example of how historical archaeology in the southwest is important for recognizing those communities that are often left out of the historical record.

Dec.11, 2024                        Dr. Chris Loendorf Senior Project Manager Gila River Indian Community (GRIC)

Topic:     Collaborative Archaeology

How Native American Knowledge Enhances our Collective Understanding of the Past

Abstract:

Within the last several decades, native communities in the United States have increasingly taken on the management of their own cultural resources, including the establishment of Tribal Historic Preservation Offices. Furthermore, Federal agencies now require archaeologists to consult with Native Americans, and legislation has also altered how research institutions interact with tribal communities. These developments have increased connections among cultural resource managers and native people, which in turn has led to greater incorporation of traditional knowledge into narratives regarding the past. At the same time, a dichotomy remains between prehistory and history, with some archaeologists still maintaining that certain prehistoric cultures such as the “Hohokam” no longer existed after prehistory. Not only are separate terms still applied to prehistoric and historic societies, largely different researchers investigate them, with archaeologists considering the former and historians the latter. Bridging the remaining gaps in our understanding requires continued integration of archaeological, historical, and traditional native knowledge. This symposium presents recent contributions to this process, including research by a tribal cultural resource management department, as well as positive outcomes of the Native American consultation process.

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Chapter Meetings

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Chapter Meetings

The San Tan Chapter meetings are held at the San Tan Historical Society Museum at 20435 S Old Ellsworth Rd in Queen Creek on the corners of Queen Creek Rd and Ellsworth Loop Rd. Use the access road just south of the Queen Creek Rd (it goes east) then turn north on to Old Ellsworth Road.  Monthly meetings are held the second Wednesday of each month from September to May.  We meet at 6:00 pm and the presentation begins at 6:30 PM.  For more information on our chapter, contact Marie Britton at  mbrit@cox.net  . 

Parking is behind the museum; enter via the front door. The road into the museum has been redesigned, leaving only 3 spaces in front to park.  Monthly meetings are free and open to the public.

Please Note: ONLY Members of AAS can participate in Workshops and Field Trips. Field Trip participants will be required to sign an AAS Liability Release Form.

Memberships run on the calendar year.

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