Obtaining materials from distant landscapes is a hallmark of the Chacoan world. For great houses in Chaco Canyon such as Pueblo Bonito and Chetro Ketl, flaked stone, ceramics, and other raw materials were unavailable locally. The movement of materials into Chacon Canyon, and around the Chacoan sphere, has fascinated archaeologists for decades. Large construction timbers, […]
Drawing of a decorative plaque from the 1905 Chattanooga Coffin Company catalog. An identical plaque was found on a recently excavated coffin in the Court Street Cemetery. The village of Tucson’s council closed the National Cemetery (also called the Alameda-Stone Cemetery) in 1875 and opened a new graveyard at the southwest corner of N. Stone […]
NAGPRA provides a process for museum and federal agencies to return certain Native American cultural items. Nancy Odegaard has been involved with the repatriation process at the Arizona State Museum since the law was enacted. She was also entrusted with the remains known as the Kennewick Man, the remains known as Lucy, and was influential […]
Popular notions of the Piro pueblos tend to be limited to the historical fact that several hundred Piros (as well as Tiwas and members of other Pueblo groups) ended up in the El Paso area during the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. It is often claimed that the reason for this relocation was pro-Spanish affinity on […]
A group of U.S. and Mexican scientists specializing in archaeology, geology, botany, and paleoecology has been exploring prehistoric shell middens along the northern Gulf of California coast near the modern community of Puerto Peñasco, Sonora, Mexico. We have documented over 60 midden sites through reconnaissance survey near Puerto Peñasco since 1997. More recently, we have […]
The Barry M. Goldwater Range (BMGR), located in southwestern Arizona, is the nation’s second largest tactical aviation range and has functioned as one of the premier aviation training facilities for the U.S. Air Force (USAF) and the air arm of other military branches for more than 75 years. In 1854, the United States acquired the […]
The storms dump monsoon rains on the Sierra Madres, water percolates down into the aquifer, draining along the rivers of Northwestern Mexico. One of the rivers, Río Sonora, has been used to irrigate cropland for millennia. Precise historical details remain unclear, but around the time of the Entrada (circa 1530’s), Cabeza de Vaca reported an […]
Don Antonio de Mendoza and his forebears had been backing the Columbian Project for generations. It is little wonder, then—even if it is a surprise to the twenty-first century—that Mendoza’s goal for the Coronado expedition was to finally reach Asia by traveling westward from Spain. This talk discusses why most Europeans of the day were sure that […]
Depictions of archaeology in popular culture are full of dubious tales of ancient extraterrestrials, lost civilizations, giants, and widespread scientific conspiracy. In this talk, I will explore such fantastic claims focusing in particular on a few popular claims here in our own backyard in Arizona. My goal is not to simply “debunk” these claims (though I will do that too) but to further […]
The Patayan cultural tradition is one of the least understood archaeological constructs in the Greater Southwest. While recognized nearly 90 years ago as a distinct assemblage of material culture traits centered on the lower Colorado River, research has always been hampered by poor chronological control. Few Patayan archaeological sites have been excavated, and of those […]
