Previous documentation of petroglyph panels with apparent archaeoastronomical associations at Horseshoe Mesa (WS834) in Wupatki National Monument, Arizona, raised questions about the recording methodologies. The solar effects had been documented only on solstices and equinoxes, using tightly cropped still photographs, “freezing” a moving event and removing the interaction from the context of the panel. This project sought to test the validity of this common approach by recording the daily sun and shadow interactions on petroglyph panels 39 and 50 at…

Our annual holiday potluck and research slam will be held at Archaeology Southwest this year. There is ample parking across the Franklin Ave opposite Ash Alley. Please bring a dish to share and plenty of cash to vote on your favorite presenter in the Research Slam. The drinks are on us. This year only those actually presenting will be eligible to win the slam. However, we have a new "Golddigger Award" for the person who raises the most money before…

Chasing Centuries is a one-of-a-kind travel-history presentation based up a recently published book of the same name (Sunbelt Publications -- Jan 2019) that takes the reader along on an exciting and little-known adventure at the crossroads of archaeology and botany. Travel with author Ron Parker as he explores the depth and duration of human/agave coevolution across the desert southwest, and discovers unusual agaves apparently associated with archaeological sites long since abandoned by residents of extinct ancient cultures. These agaves appear…

For over a century, archaeology got the history of the ancient Southwest wrong.  So argues Steve Lekson as he advocates for an entirely new approach – one that separates archaeological thought in the Southwest from its anthropological home and moves it to more historical ways of thinking.  Focusing on the enigmatic monumental center at Chaco Canyon, the presentation provides a historical analysis of how Southwest archaeology confined itself and how it can break out of those confines and proceed into…

In conjunction with the Tucson Festival of Books we will once again be set up in front of the Arizona State Museum selling used books of all types. Lots of anthropology, fiction, art, history! Prices are extremely reasonable. Come stalk up! Ninety percent of the proceeds go to support the Arizona State Museum library  

Used book sale continues

Fifteen years of rock art recording on four major petroglyph sites in Southern Arizona has enabled assembly of motif details, drawings, and photographs of more than 16,000 glyphs located in landscapes with similar characteristics. By applying the scientific method to the collected and organized data, by working with ethnographic accounts and linguistic analysis by others, and by consulting with indigenous people, we have gained some understanding of, and identified threads of continuity between Native American belief systems and the rock…

Due to the Coronavirus AAHS is temporarily cancelling its monthly lectures