Grant County Archaeological Society

11/01/2026

Our next meeting will be a ZOOM only meeting, at 6:00 PM on Wednesday, November 18. A short business meeting, including a last minute reminder to email your ballots to [email protected]. The results will be announced at the end of the evening, following the presentation by Michael Searcy;

Michael Searcy is a Professor of Anthropology and Chair of the Anthropology Department at Brigham Young University. He has worked in the US Southwest/Northwest Mexico and Guatemala for more than twenty years, and was formerly the Director of the Hew World Archaeology Foundation.

Over those years he has conducted research on the peripheries of the greater Southwest, in Utah, Idaho, and Nevada. He has excavated in the Fremont and Casas Grandes cultural areas. Like the Ancestral Puebloans, Mogollon, and Hohokam; they lived in desert environments and became increasingly more dependent on the agriculture of Maize. They created painted pottery and created exquisite designs on rock faces. This presentation will delve into how his research into these cultures on the frontiers align with the better known cultures of the Southwest.

Those interested in participating in this presentation can find more information and the ZOOM link at our website, https://grantcountyarchaeology.org/.

10/28/2026

Archaeology World
11 hours ago
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The discovery at Rimrock Draw Rockshelter in eastern Oregon has pushed back the timeline of human presence in North America, offering crucial physical evidence that people inhabited the continent during the Last Glacial Maximum.
Key Evidence & Discoveries
​Volcanic Ash Stratigraphy: Archaeologists led by Patrick O'Grady (University of Oregon Museum of Natural and Cultural History) excavated stone tools beneath an unbroken layer of volcanic ash identified as tephra from an eruption of Mount St. Helens dated to roughly 15,000 years ago.
​Tooth Enamel Radiocarbon Dating: Enamel fragments from an extinct Pleistocene camel (Camelops) and bison found in the same deep sediment layers yielded radiocarbon dates of ~18,250 to 18,500 calibrated years Before Present (cal BP).
​Blood Residue Analysis: Biochemical testing on stone scrapers uncovered at the site revealed blood residue matching extinct camelid and bison species, confirming these stone tools were used by humans for butchering or processing hides.
​Significance for Peopling of the Americas
​Challenges "Clovis First": For decades, the dominant paradigm held that the Clovis culture (~13,000 cal BP) represented the earliest human migrants to the Americas. Discoveries like Rimrock Draw, alongside Paisley Caves (Oregon) and White Sands (New Mexico), solidify the pre-Clovis consensus.
​Pacific Coastal Route Support: Occupying inland Oregon by 18,000 years ago suggests early humans likely migrated down the Pacific Northwest coastline long before the interior ice-free corridor opened between the Laurentide and Cordilleran ice sheets.

10/26/2026

I am sharing this notification from Archaeology Southwest. "A short film on the 60th anniversary of the National Historic Preservation Act and the threats to its future. Produced by a coalition of Tribal nations and preservation organizations from all 50 states. 5:28. Cultural Heritage Partners "

A short film on the 60th anniversary of the National Historic Prese...

10/18/2026

10/18/2026

On Wednesday, October 21, 2026, 6:00 PM: We will have snacks and hold a short business meeting of approximately 30 minutes. There is much to cover; candidates for the Board of Directors, individuals to help with a Library Inventory, and someone to help us possibly locate an alternate meeting space.
At 6:30 we will have our presentation on the final results from the Mares Rock Shelter given by Dr. Robert Stokes. Dr. Stokes has 38 years of archaeological experience, including academic field schools and research projects, as well as cultural resource management positions with private firms and State and Federal agencies. From 2018 to 2022, he was a full-time faculty member in the Anthropology Department of Eastern New Mexico University. In 2023, he accepted the position with New Mexico State Parks in Santa Fe as its Program Support Bureau Chief, overseeing all cultural and environmental compliance work at the 35 state parks.
In the summer of 2021, Eastern New Mexico University conducted a field school at the Mares Rockshelter along the Rio Grande in Selden Canyon north of Radium Springs. This will be a more expansive report than the brief 15 minute version given to the 2026 Mogollon Conference two weeks ago.
The meeting will be held at the Grant County Rolling Stones Gem and Mineral Society building at 2045 Memory Lane , Silver City, NM. The doors will open at approximately 5:30.

10/12/2026

Prior to the Mogollon Conference, Thatcher came to the Mimbres Culture Heritage Site to inventory the Allard Bartlett collection

10/12/2026

Spent a great weekend at the Mogollon Conference at NMSU

10/12/2026

I can remember PopPop Webb's (my mothers grandfather) corn crib. Many of these I have eaten, but not all

09/12/2026

Wednesday, September 16, 2026, 6:00 PM: ONLINE ONLY (Zoom info below): A short business meeting at 6:00 pm will be followed by a Zoom presentation given by Emily Lena Jones, Professor of Anthropology at the University of New Mexico, entitled ” The
Zooarchaeology of the West Baker Site: Exploring Mimbres Human-Animal Relationships
Outside the Mimbres Heartland.” West Baker (LA 83574) is a Classic Mimbres site located nearly 100 km southwest of the Mimbres valley. Excavated in 1964 but never analyzed or published, the collections from this site have been the subject of a recent effort, led by archaeologists Patricia Gilman and Thatcher Selzer-Rogers, to bring this unusual site to light.
As part of this project, Dr. Jones analyzed the animal remains collected by the original excavators. The West Baker zooarchaeological assemblage is robust enough to provide
some insight into how people at this site interacted with the animals in the region—and how their interactions may have differed from those of people living in the Mimbres heartland. In
this talk, Dr. Jones will discuss the West Baker faunal assemblage and what it suggests about hunting, tool-making, and other activities at this unusual site.
Emily Lena Jones is Professor of Anthropology and Regents’ Lecturer at the University of New Mexico. A zooarchaeologist and environmental archaeologist, her research focuses on the connections between the human-animal relationship and environmental change across time and space. Most recently, her work has focused on the Columbian exchange in central
New Mexico, a topic that is the focus of a forthcoming book from University of New Mexico Press.
Join Zoom Meeting (Members and friends can get on early to chat …. about 5:40 or so.)
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83210906871?pwd=m19mpOIbiWoOudq16ju5A3Yblm3zCr.1

Meeting chat link
https://us06web.zoom.us/launch/jc/83210906871
Meeting ID: 832 1090 6871
Passcode: 369276

08/20/2026

We had a wonderful presentation tonight from Dave Greenwald, but prior to beginning he informed us of a hopefully temporary financial difficulty faced by the El Paso Archaeology Society, the oldest in Texas. Through a partnership with the Jornade Research Institute, the are offering a unique 8 day tour of the Jornada Region. It includes all hotel stays, travel, entry fees, knowledgable guides, and most meals. It is limited to the first 14 enrollees, and has a very short notification/turnaround time. I urge you take advantage of this opportunity, and all income beyond expenses go toward assisting EPAS.