Santa Fe Archaeological Society

A Comparison of Musical Instruments from the Prehispanic American Southwest and Paquimé, Chihuahua
2022-11-15 19:00 - 20:00 (America/Denver) | Pecos Trail Cafe, 2239 Old Pecos Trail, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 87505
Musical instruments have been found at the Late Medio period regional polity of Paquimé in northern Mexico and in sites ancestral to Pueblo peoples of the American Southwest, but they have never been meaningfully compared. Paquimé’s occupation corresponds with the first half of the Pueblo IV period in the Southwest, a time when instruments were most numerous and diverse. Intriguingly, some instruments are found in both regions whereas others are not. I will summarize the types known for both locations and compare them, considering the social and physical contexts of their use.
Emily Brown
Emily spent her childhood in the house her father built north of Questa only a few miles from what would become the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument, the subject of tonight’s talk. She remembers finding pieces of chipped stone and pottery in the neighborhood, and this along with family trips to places like Chaco Canyon and Mesa Verde sparked an interest in archaeology at an early age. She double-majored in music and cultural anthropology as an undergraduate at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon but her interest in archaeology persisted and the summer after graduation she volunteered as an archaeologist at Bandelier National Monument. This led to a job with the National Park Service in Santa Fe doing archaeological work which confirmed that this was a career she wanted to pursue. After three years she went to Columbia University to complete her Ph.D., writing her dissertation on prehistoric musical instruments from the Southwest. She returned to the Park Service after finishing her coursework but left to establish her own cultural resource consulting firm in 2005. She lives with her husband and business partner in Santa Fe where they also garden and keep bees.

An Indigenous “Borderland?”: Reframing the Dynamic Late Prehispanic San Carlos Safford Area of Southeastern Arizona
2022-10-18 19:00 - 20:00
Thatcher A. Seltzer-Rogers, MS, RPA
PhD Candidate, Archaeology, Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico
Research Associate, Jornada Research Institute
President, Treasurer, and Webmaster, Archaeological Society of New Mexico
The San Carlos Safford Area of southeastern Arizona has historically received limited archaeological attention with recent mention only with respect to the arrival of Ancestral Pueblo migrants into southern Arizona in the late thirteenth century. Yet, despite this and the systematic destruction of sites during the early twentieth century with the expansion of floodplain agriculture, careful examination demonstrates the area held a sizable population with a dynamic history of political hierarchy, conflict, economic development, and population mobility. In this presentation, I synthesize these patterns and contextualize them as a strong example of an Indigenous borderland in the archaeological record.

The Importance of Chaco Canyon’s 10-Mile Protection Zone in the Greater Chaco Landscape
2022-09-20 19:00 - 20:00
Paul F. Reed
The last year has been very eventful in the battle to protect the Greater Chaco Landscape from the encroachment of oil-gas development. Late last year, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland announced the withdrawal of 351,000 acres of Federal BLM lands from oil-gas leasing in a 10-mile zone around Chaco Canyon and several Chacoan Outliers. This is the culmination of a nearly 10-year process. Other processes are moving forward, as well, including a comprehensive effort by Tribal Nations to understand their connections to the Greater Chaco Landscape. In this presentation, I’ll discuss recent progress and look into the future of Greater Chaco protection.
