Events
Reprise – Casa Grande Ruins Backcountry Tour
Casa Grande National Monument 1100 W Ruins Drive, Coolidge, AZ, United StatesTRIP FULL - WAITING LIST ONLY Due to the tremendous demand for the November 2018 field trip to visit the iconic Casa Grande Ruins National Monument, the nation’s first archaeological preserve, AAHS has arranged with Dr. Douglas Craig and the Monument to repeat the tour in March. Participants on the first tour raved about the […]
Scott Thompson – “Historical-Period Ranching on the Barry M. Goldwater Range, Arizona”
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 […]
Mission Gardens and Tumamoc Hill
Mission Gardens Tucson 946 W Mission Lane, Tucson, AZ, United StatesJoin us for an in-depth visit at the Tucson MIssion Gardens, where we journey back in time to see what this area along the Santa Cruz looked like over the past 4,000 years, using information from archaeological excavations. We will learn how produce was used differently in the past, particularly the need to preserve much […]
Elizabeth Eklund – “Living with the canals: Water, Ecology, and Cultural Memory in the Sierra Madre Foothills”
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 […]
Richard and Shirley Flint – “Mendoza’s Aim: To Complete the Columbian Project”
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 […]
Archaeological Fakes and Frauds in Arizona and Beyond by Dr. Matt Peeples
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 […]
Field Trips are on Summer Hiatus
The AAHS field trip season has ended for this year but our 2019-20 field trip committee (Pamela Pelletier, Katherine Cerino, Chris Sugnet, Paul Minnis and Ric Storrock) is busy planning next year’s adventures. A fall highlight is a planned 4 day trip to Chihuahua led by Casas Grandes scholar Paul Minnis which will include visits […]
Aaron Wright – A Renewed Study of a Patayan Walk-In Well on the Ranegras Plain in Far-Western Arizona
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 […]
Pecos Conference – No Lecture
Cloudcroft, New MexicoThe first Pecos Conference was inspired and organized by A.V. Kidder in 1927 at Pecos Pueblo. Many leaders in the field of archaeology were in attendance. At this first meeting, collaborations led to the first widely-accepted cultural classification system for the Southwest. This classification system and the conference have continued until today. Open to all, […]