Colorado Plateau Archaeological Alliance

07/07/2023

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1040618223002215?dgcid=coauthor

Climatic change appears to influence major patterns in human history. However, confirming the association between climatic events and adaptive human r…

09/03/2020

Ten years ago, BLM Moab implemented a variety of strategies to reverse the devastating impacts to archaeological resources from rogue OHV users in Tenmile Canyon. Last fall, we went back to see how those approaches are working. What we found was discouraging. Here is the summary of our findings.

Shared with Dropbox

03/08/2019

Yes, the rumors are true. The Society for American Archaeology will, next month in Albuquerque, honor CPAA executive director Jerry Spangler with the President's Recognition Award for his ongoing efforts to protect Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. And while this is a great personal honor, the real credit goes to all of you who love and treasure this special place. Thank you SAA!

01/15/2019

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/national/environment/will-anyone-mine-after-grand-staircase-escalante-reduction-by-trump/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.ebefef40851e

Advocates fear mining will undermine Grand Staircase-Escalante’s main attractions.

01/05/2019

CPAA worked closely with the Society for American Archaeology to prepare this amicus brief.

Justice Department’s environmental hit man says there’s no "time or space" to address archeologists’ concerns

01/05/2019

https://www.ksl.com/article/46460259/new-book-sheds-light-on-harvards-forgotten-1931-archaeology-trek-in-eastern-utah

A new book by two Utahns explores the final leg of a major Harvard study in southeastern Utah. The researchers never filed a report about the six-week expedition.

11/28/2018

Sometimes you are allowed to brag. CPAA executive director Jerry Spangler and board president James Aton teamed up to write a book on the 1931 Claflin Emerson Expedition ... and it has already won the prestigious Don D. and Catherine Fowler Book Prize. Many thanks to the Fowlers! Now get your copy just in time for the holidays.

Copyright: 2018Trim: xPages: 384 Paperback9781607816492$ 39.95Trade eBook9781607816508$ 32.00Trade The Crimson Cowboys The Remarkable Odyssey of the 1931 Claflin Emerson Expedition //=$meta['subtitle'][0]?> Jerry D. Spangler James M Aton Winner of the Don D. and Catherine S. Fowler Prize. In 1931 a....

08/15/2018

I am known to grumble sometimes that archaeologists give short-shrift to actually documenting vandalism, but then I stumble across someone who has given serious thought to the documentation process. Found this in an official archaeological report, and I admit I am in awe of James Firor's attention to detail:

"The chronology of looting at the site can be discerned based on the presence of diagnostic beer cans within the disturbed fill. Two distinct episodes of looting are apparent. Based on the presence of detachable pull tab cans, Structure 8 in Room Block 1 was looted sometime in the early 1970s, probably prior to 1976. This resulted in the destruction of the east wall and about half of the floor of the structure. The more extensive damage in Room Block 2 was conducted sometime after 1974, by two individuals who consumed a case and a half of beer during the looting. One of the individuals brought a case of Coors, and either had a mustache or was obsessive-compulsive, as indicated by the majority of Coors cans with the nondetachable opening tabs broken off. (Men with facial hair will understand this, as they will have had hairs painfully plucked from their mustache by these opening tabs.) His accomplice favored Bud Light but brought only a 12-pack, which necessitated his bumming Coors off his buddy when the Bud Light was gone. This could be inferred by the distinct spatial distribution of Coors cans that did not have the opening tabs removed. Both of the looters participated in the looting and near-total destruction of Structure 1, during which time about 10 Coors and all the Bud Light was consumed. Afterwards, the Coors drinker looted Structures 2 and 3, while the Bud Light drinker, now bumming Coors, ineffectively rooted around in Structures 5 and 6, creating two pits but causing only modest disturbance and no structural damage except for a very small hole in the floor of Structure 5."

07/23/2018

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/trump-administration-officials-dismissed-benefits-of-national-monuments/2018/07/23/5b8b1666-8b9a-11e8-a345-a1bf7847b375_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.be981eaed5a1

Accidentally released documents show officials instead emphasized the value of logging and drilling.

05/07/2018

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/the-energy-202/2018/05/03/the-energy-202-interior-agency-blocks-group-of-archaeologists-from-attending-scientific-conference/5aea1d9230fb042db57972ac/?utm_term=.712e1bb1b372

Some groups say it's an example of the Trump Interior Department’s effort to restrict researchers’ scientific communications.