The Archaeological Conservancy

05/29/2026

SAN JUAN RIVER TOUR, DAY 3: The group launched onto the San Juan River with Wild Expeditions, beginning the next phase of the tour by raft. Over the next several days, participants will travel through canyon country, stopping along the way to visit archaeological sites, view petroglyphs, learn about the region’s geology and ecology. After two days exploring by land, the river now becomes both the route and the classroom.

05/29/2026

This isn’t sightseeing. This is archaeology brought to life.

Travel with experts. Explore extraordinary sites. Gain insights you won’t get anywhere else.

If this is on your bucket list, now is the time.

Secure your spot today: thearchcons.org/archaeological-tours

05/28/2026

SAN JUAN RIVER TOUR, DAY 2: The group spent the day exploring two remarkable places in the Four Corners landscape: Hovenweep and Sand Island Petroglyphs.

At Hovenweep, participants visited ancestral Puebloan towers, roomblocks, and canyon-edge architecture that speak to the complexity of life in this region more than 700 years ago. Later, at Sand Island, the group viewed a dense panel of petroglyphs pecked into the sandstone from generations of people who moved through the landscape. The day also included a picnic pizza lunch from Cedar Shack Cafe before the river portion of the journey began.

05/28/2026

SAN JUAN RIVER TOUR, DAY ONE: The Archaeological Conservancy’s San Juan River tour began yesterday with a morning talk by archaeologist Greg Woodall before the group set out to explore the deep cultural history of southeastern Utah.

Stops included Bluff Great House, Edge of the Cedars Pueblo and Museum, and one of the Conservancy’s newest preserves, Montezuma Village, where participants learned more about Chacoan and Mesa Verdean connections across the region. Along the way, the group had a behind-the-scenes look at collections, architecture, artifacts, and the landscapes that help tell the story of ancestral Puebloan life in the Four Corners.

05/27/2026

SITE SPOTLIGHT: MANIS MASTODON PRESERVE—A new short film, Unearthing the Ancient: The Manis Mastodon Story, shares the history and significance of The Archaeological Conservancy’s Manis Mastodon Preserve in Sequim, Washington. Created in memory of Emanuel “Manny” Manis and produced for educational purposes, the 10-minute film helps tell the story of this unique and important archaeological site. We are grateful to Clare Manis-Hatler for her continued preservation and education efforts and to filmmaker John Gussman for making the film freely available to the public and nonprofits for educational use.

Watch here: https://vimeo.com/1152386250

Emanuel “Manny” Nicholas Manis (1926-2000) was excavating a dry peat bog on his property in Sequim, WA. with a backhoe when he found two tusks of an American mastodon on August 8, 1977. An archaeological excavation led by Dr. Carl Eugene Gustafson of Washington State University found a rib bone ...

05/27/2026

LOWER PECOS CANYONLANDS, TEXAS — Texas Tech University is sharing a rare look at Rattlesnake Canyon, home to one of the most significant Pecos River style panels in the world. Donated to Texas Tech in 1980, the remote Val Verde County site contains a roughly 4,000-year-old mural stretching about 100 feet across a limestone shelter, with red, black, yellow, and white figures woven into a dense visual narrative. The story also underscores the fragility of these ancient painted landscapes, where flooding, erosion, and time continue to threaten irreplaceable Indigenous heritage.

Read more: https://stories.ttu.edu/rattlesnake-canyon

05/26/2026

SITE SPOTLIGHT: CORNSILK PUEBLO PRESERVE—The Archaeological Conservancy has acquired a new 20-acre preserve in northern New Mexico, protecting an intact portion of an ancestral Tewa winter village occupied between about A.D. 1325 and 1600. The preserve includes house mound remains, cobble foundations, dense midden deposits, and ceremonial features, as well as early 18th-century acequia segments tied to northern New Mexico’s historic Hispanic agricultural landscape.

After a long-time Conservancy member and site steward alerted us that the property was for sale and at risk of development, TAC moved quickly to secure the land for permanent protection. Future stewardship will be carried out in close collaboration with descendant communities and local archaeologists, emphasizing noninvasive research, Tribal consultation, and long-term preservation.

Read more about the site in our upcoming summer issue of American Archaeology magazine.

05/26/2026

HAIDA GWAII, BRITISH COLUMBIA — After hurricane-force winds tore through SG̱ang Gwaay Llnagaay in 2018, the Haida Nation brought archaeology into the work of restoring and caring for the ancestral village. The storm uprooted more than 140 mature trees, but the village’s cedar mortuary and memorial poles largely remained standing, and excavations around one fallen tree revealed an intimate record of life inside the People Wish to Be There House—from trade beads, pigments, and stone-working tools to objects tied to fashion, ceremony, and daily life. The project shows how ecological restoration, archaeology, and Haida cultural knowledge can work together to protect a living cultural landscape.

Read more: https://archaeology.org/issues/may-june-2026/off-the-grid/sgang-gwaay-british-columbia-canada/

Saving an ancestral Haida village after a devastating storm

05/26/2026

SAN JUAN RIVER TOUR, KICKOFF DINNER—Our San Juan River tour is officially underway! Guests gathered last night in picturesque Bluff, Utah, for a welcome dinner and orientation before beginning a week of exploring archaeology, geology, and desert landscapes across southeastern Utah.

Over the next several days, the group will visit Bluff Great House, Edge of the Cedars, Hovenweep, Sand Island Petroglyphs, and Montezuma Village before launching on a four-day San Juan River journey.

We’ll be sharing daily updates from the trip, so follow along!

05/25/2026

ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO — The Maxwell Museum of Anthropology will open Coiling Kin: The Life of Pueblo Pottery on Saturday, June 6, with a free public reception and panel discussion. Collaboratively curated with Pueblo potters and knowledge holders from 14 Pueblos, the exhibition presents pottery from the museum’s permanent collection through Pueblo perspectives on clay, land, community, teaching, identity, and continuing tradition. The opening runs from 2–4 p.m.; the panel will be held in person and online via Zoom, with Zoom registration required.

Read more: https://maxwellmuseum.unm.edu/news-events/event/exhibit-opening-coiling-kin-life-pueblo-pottery

The panel from 2:00 - 3:00 pm will take place at the museum's Hibben Center for Archaeology Research, Rm 105 and online via Zoom.