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USAS
ExecutiveBoard Meetings
March 23rd, 2013
USU Eastern PrehistoricMuseum
Price, Utah
Find us at:http://www.utaharchaeology.org/ -And- http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/USAS-group/
President: Dale [email protected]
Vice-President:Ren [email protected]
Secretary: Nona [email protected]
Treasurer: Chanel [email protected]
USAS Advisors: DR. Byron Loosle [email protected]
Charmaine Thompson, [email protected]
Parliamentarian: Margene [email protected]
Statewide Newsletter: Ren [email protected]
Webmaster: Paul [email protected]
UTAH STATEWIDE ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY
The Utah Statewide Archaeological Society Executive Quarterly Meeting will be held at 10 AM,Saturday, March 23, 2013, at the USU Eastern Prehistoric Museum in Price, Utah.
As USAS President it is my pleasure to invite all USAS Executives, Chapter Executives and Membersand Advisors to this quarterly meeting. Chapter Presidents, be prepared to report on your activitiesduring the past quarter. There will be refreshments during the meeting and those who would like to mayjoin together for lunch after the meeting. See you all in Price!
Dale HatchUSAS President
Directions:There are blue visitor information signs that lead you directly to the museum and information center.Southbound on US Highway 6 and 191, take Exit 240 turn East onto 100 North. Continue East until yousee the life-sized bronze Utahraptor statue on your right-hand side.Northbound from State Highway 10, as you enter the city of Price, the highway becomes CarbonAvenue. Continue north on Carbon Avenue until you reach 100 North. Turn east on 100 North andcontinue on approximately 1 1/2 blocks until you see the life-sized bronze Utahraptor statue on yourright-hand side.Northbound US Highway 6 and 191 take exit 243. Continue West on Main Street to 155 East Main
From Dale Hatch & Uintah Chapter
USAS Statewide President Dale Hatch and Paul Carrol have been approached by Colleen Mandala, aUintah Chapter member to ask for help in funding the radiocarbon dating, plus carbon and nitrogenanalysis of an ancient bison skull found in a creek bed north of the Vernal area. It is now in herpossession and she wants to find out how old it is and then donate to the local museum. Paul and Dalehave both seen the skull as well as many of the Uintah chapter members. Colleen will be taking thebison skull out to USU professor Ken Cannon very soon and he will extract a 2 gram testing samplefrom the skull to be sent to a university in Georgia, to determine if the major testing is worthwhile.
The cost of the dating testing by USU professor Ken Cannon will be $625. Dale is asking for approval ofUSAS donating $200 toward this project. The Uintah chapter voted to donate $200 towards the projectand Colleen and her husband will pay the remaining money towards having the bison skull tested.
The skull itself was apparently found by Tom Freestone on his ranch, Northeast of Vernal, on the LittleBrush Creek. His son, Jeff, gave the skull to Tom's niece. Since Tom has been dead several years, we donot know the exact location where the skull was found.
A local archaeologist looked at the skull and indicated that it appears to be of an extinct species of bison(bison antique?). If so, that would place it at older than 10,000 years.
Utah County Chapter to Host the 2013 USAS-UPAC Statewide Convention
The earlier planned Dates of June 7-8 are being changed to June 14-15 due to some conflicts with otherevents happening on the earlier date and time. We hope this does not cause any undue hardship onanyone and look forward to seeing a big crowd at the convention. Topics of the Convention will includethe Fremont period Wolf Village and Excavations of the early Mormon Temple in Provo by the Officeof Public Archaeology and curated at the Museum of Peoples and Cultures.
2011 & 2009 Utah Archaeology JournalsDr. Mike Searcy, at BYU, is the new editor of the Utah Archaeology Journal. The 2011 and 2009
Journals are printed and ready for pick up if needed at the upcoming meeting.
The New Editor of the Utah Archaeology JournalI am excited to begin as the new editor of Utah Archaeology, and I’m especially grateful for the outgoingeditors, David Yoder and Chris Watkins, for getting the journal back on track. We have a lot going on inour state and many new archaeologists have joined our ranks. Being one of the newcomers, I’d like tointroduce myself. I am originally from Memphis, but later moved to Texas where I earned a degree inJournalism from the University of North Texas. A few years after graduation, I decided to make a careerchange and enrolled in BYU’s archaeology Master’s program. It is here where I had some of my firstexperiences with Utah archaeology and all that it has to offer. Since that time I went on to earn my Ph.D.in anthropology from the University of Oklahoma where I was trained in Southwestern archaeology, andI was hired last year by BYU’s anthropology department.
While my research focus is primarily the prehistoric peoples of northwest Chihuahua, Mexico, I haverecently begun a project in west Provo trying to determine what is left of the Provo Mounds that havebeen frequented by so many archaeologists and enthusiasts in the past. I definitely look forward tomeeting many of you and hope to work alongside you on a project in the near future. And as editor ofUtah Archaeology, I look forward to reading your submissions and appreciate the contributions youmake to further our knowledge of Utah’s past.
Mike SearcyUtah Archaeology [email protected] 801-422-5374
Division of State HistoryGreetings friends and colleagues,
The Utah Division of State History is preparing for our annual Archaeology Week. We are pleased to beable to continue with this tradition. This year is expected to be unlike any other; we are partnering withSLC's Open Streets event on May 4th for our open house. We are expecting many more visitors stoppingin to experience Archaeology Week activities. As always, we rely on and appreciate the support of ourprivate and agency partners.
The winning artwork for our poster is a photo of a Navajo pole structure near Kanab, Utah, taken byAndrew Yentsch from EPG. If you would like to sponsor this year's poster, we are asking for a minimumdonation of $100. Your name, or the name of your organization, will be listed at the bottom of theposter. These donations help defer the printing costs. If you wish to be a Poster Sponsor, donations willbe due by March 11th, 2013.
We also accept donations to help with learning activities for kids during our open house. Day Sponsors(a minimum $50 donation) will have their name or company logo boldly displayed during the festivities.These donations help pay for the cost of supplies. If you wish to be a Day Sponsor, we will be acceptingdonations through April 22nd, 2013.
The Bureau of Land Management, Hill Air Force Base, LDS Church History, and the US Forest Serviceare graciously helping us with the Archaeology Week Open House on May 4th. We'd love to have youvolunteer your time to help out with this amazing event. Those who help out the entire duration of theevent will receive lunch.
If you are interested in donating or participating, please contact Deb Miller ([email protected], 801-245-7249) or Derinna Kopp ([email protected], 801-245-7245).
Thank you for your support and partnership,Utah State Antiquities Section
A letter for USAS from the IRS. At the upcoming meeting we will be anxious to hear of anynews related to this notice recently received from State History. The letter is notice that a Form 990 wasnot filed for 2011 and the IRS needs a response by January 16, 2013. Note that not filing this form couldjeopardize our tax exempt status.
Opportunities In Archaeology
Weaving a Revolution: A Celebration of Contemporary Navajo Baskets. Special exhibit at the UtahMuseum of Natural History, January 12 to April 28. For more information,http://nhmu.utah.edu/weaving-a-revolution
Mummies of the World
The New York Times calls it “Magical and Mythical." Experience real mummies from Asia, Oceania,South America, Europe and ancient Egypt and come face to face with the largest collection of realmummies ever assembled! For a limited time exclusively at The Leonardo!
Exhibition Dates February 16, 2013 - May 27, 2013Open Sunday - Wednesday, 10:00am - 5:00pm, Thursday - Saturday 10:00am - 10:00pm
The Leonardo- Utah Science and Technology Arts Museum 209 East 500 South, Salt Lake City, UT
Inside every mummy is a story waiting to be told
Mummies of the World is the largest exhibition of mummies and related artifacts ever assembled. Thiscompelling collection, presented with reverence and dignity, includes ancient mummies and importantartifacts from Asia, Oceania, South America, Europe, as well as ancient Egypt, dating as far back as6,500 years.
A fascinating mix of old and new, this never-before-seen collection bridges the gap between past andpresent with contributions from 20 world-renowned museums and organizations across seven countries.
Embark on a journey into the extraordinary world of mummies and mummification. Through modernscience, engaging interactive and multi-media exhibits featuring 3-D animation, explore how mummiesare created, where they come from and who they were. Using state-of-the-art scientific methodology,discover how modern science enables researchers to study mummies through innovative and non-invasive ways, offering unprecedented insights into past cultures and civilizations.
What secrets do mummies hold about the past…and what clues do they bring us for the future? Ajourney awaits as we unravel their mysteries.
Paleoamerican Odyssey
The Center for the Study of the First Americans is hosting the international public conference“Paleoamerican Odyssey”, next Fall, October 17-19, 2013, in Santa Fe, New Mexico, U.S.A. A briefdescription follows, and a small advertisement is attached.
The Center for the Study of the First Americans is excited to present three days of public lecturesby leaders in the field of first Americans studies (archaeologists, paleoanthropologists, and geneticists)as well as posters and artifact displays. The conference is open to the public and will be held October 17-19, 2013, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The Center is excited not only about visiting this gorgeous andhistoric place, but also reaching a large audience of professionals, avocationals, and members of thepublic interested in the Ice Age peopling of the New World. So please pass on this message tocolleagues, students, and friends.
Lists of speakers, exhibits, and displays, as well as information about the conference banquet andspecial lodging rates is available at http://paleoamericanodyssey.com/index.html.
For professionals and serious avocationals, there’s still time to submit a poster proposal for theconference. The deadline is April 1, 2013. If interested, please visit our Call for Posters athttp://paleoamericanodyssey.com/posters.html. Poster space is limited, so make sure you submit yourposter proposal early!Sincerely,
Laurie Lind, Office Manager, Center for the Study of the First Americans [email protected]
Laurie Lind, Office Manager Center for the Study of the FirstAmericansDepartment of AnthropologyTexas A&M University4352 TAMU, 210 Anth BldgCollege Station, TX 77843-4352979-845-4046 Office 979-845-4070 Fax979-219-3304 Cell [email protected]
National Park Service’s 2013 Archaeological Prospection Workshop
The National Park Service’s 2013 workshop on archaeological prospection techniques entitledCurrent Archaeological Prospection Advances for Non-Destructive Investigations in the 21st Centurywill be held May 13-17, 2013, at the Cedar Point Biological Station near Ogallala, Nebraska. Lodgingwill be at the Cedar Point Biological Station near Ogallala, Nebraska. The field exercises will take placeat the site of Alkali Station near Paxton, Nebraska. Alkali Station was a major trail facility used bytravelers on the Oregon and California trails, the Pony Express, the transcontinental telegraph, and thefrontier army. Co-sponsors for the workshop include the National Park Service’s MidwestArcheological Center, the Lute Family, and the University of Nebraska’s Cedar Point Biological Station.
This will be the twenty-second year of the workshop dedicated to the use of geophysical, aerialphotography, and other remote sensing methods as they apply to the identification, evaluation,conservation, and protection of archaeological resources across this Nation. The workshop will presentlectures on the theory of operation, methodology, processing, and interpretation with on-hands use of theequipment in the field. There is a registration charge of $475.00. Application forms are available on theMidwest Archeological Center’s web page at http://www.cr.nps.gov/mwac/. For further information,please contact: Steven L. DeVore,
Steven L. DeVore, Archeologist, National Park Service,Midwest Archeological Center, Federal Building, Room 474, 100 Centennial Mall North, Lincoln, Nebraska 68508-3873tel: (402) 437-5392, ext. 141; fax: (402) 437-5098; email: [email protected].
USAS Chapter News
Castle Valley Chapter
Meetings held: The 3rd Thursday of each month at 7 p.m. at the CEU MuseumPresident- Cliff Green Past President- Craig Royce
Vice President- Heidi Essex Secretary- Nona Burgess Treasurer- Margene Hackney Historian- Diane G. Jenkins
Newsletter Editor- Heidi Essex
CVAS AdvisorsBlaine and Pam Miller, John Senulis, Dr. Tim Riley
Honorary Members Don and Sherril Burge, Blaine and Pam Miller Maurine Dorman, Ray and Deanne Matheny
Central Utah Chapter
President: Jeff Roberts 75 North 300 East
Annabella, Utah [email protected]
Iron County Chapter--inactive--
Promontory Tubaduka chapter
Meeting held: The second Thursday of each month 7 p.m. at the Anthropology Lab in the lower level of the Social Sciences Building
Weber State University, about 37th and Harrison Blvd. in Ogden.
President: Mark Stuart Secretary: Vi Meyer2054 East 6550 South 813 North Medoland DrOgden, Utah 84405 Brigham City, Utah [email protected] [email protected]
Salt Lake / Davis Chapter
President: Tamara Frehner, at [email protected] Meeting held:The 2nd Wednesday of each month 7:00 p.m.,
REI 3285 E 3300 S, Salt Lake City, Utah 84405
Our January meeting was Wednesday, January 16, at 7pm at the REI on 33rd South in Salt Lake. RonRood, local archaeologist, spoke on "Zooarchaeological Evidence for an Archaic Age Communal RabbitDrive in Wyoming." Archaeological evidence from a 6000 year old site provides us with evidencesuggesting these prehistoric hunters and gatherers had a successful jackrabbit drive where they capturedmany animals. The bone assemblage discussed and talked about is a really interesting group of sites incentral Wyoming all dating about 6000 years ago.
Our February meeting was held Wednesday, February 13, at the REI on 33rd South in Salt Lake. JimO'Connell, Professor at the University of Utah, was our guest speaker.
Our March meeting will be Wednesday, March 13, at 7pm at the REI on 33rd South in Salt Lake. Dr.Benjamin Pykles, Historic Sites Curator with the Church History Department of the Church of JesusChrist of Latter-day Saints, will be speaking on “Hawaiians in the Utah Desert: Historical Archaeologyin Iosepa.” Friends and guests are welcome!
Our April meeting will be Wednesday, April 10, at 7pm at the REI on 33rd South in Salt Lake. ShaunNelson, Cultural Resources Program Manager with the Utah National Guard, will be speaking on“Archaeological Investigations of Prehistoric Use of the Camp Williams Uplands, Utah County.”Friends and guests are welcome!
Archaeology Day Open House on Saturday, May 4, sponsored by the Utah Division of State Historyin partnership with SLC’s Open Streets event. If you are interested in volunteering, please contact DebMiller ([email protected], 801-245-7249) or Derinna Kopp ([email protected], 801-245-7245). Formore information on Archaeology Week events, visit www.history.utah.gov. Please note that we will notbe having our regular chapter meeting in May.
Trail of the Ancients Chapter
Meetings held: Field trips on weekends by interested members.President: Lawrence Guymon [email protected]
Secretary: Marty Warner [email protected] E. 300 S. 86-2 Blanding, Utah 84511
Uintah Basin Chapter
Meetings held: 2nd Tuesday of each month 7 p.m. at the Golden Age CenterPresident: Jeffrey Rust Secretary: Dorothy Caldwell
Vice President: Judy Chambley Treasurer: Coleen MandalaProfessional Advisor: Jimmie McKenzie, BLM
Utah County Chapter
Meetings held: Third Thursday of the month Provo City Library, Room # 308 or #309Treasurer: Toni wall Newsletter: Ren Thomas
[email protected] 801-798-2085 [email protected] 435-623-2014
Professional Advisors:Dr. James Allison, BYU Charmaine Thompson USFS
and Paul Stavast with the Museum of Peoples and CulturesHonorary Advisor- Dr. Joel Janetski
The January Regular Meeting of the Utah County chapter of USAS was held on the 17th, 7:00 PM atthe Provo City Library located at 550 North University Ave. In Provo, Utah. Dr. Mike Searcy, BYU wasour guest speaker and his topic entitled “Archaeoastronomy at Casas Grandes, Chihuahua, Mexico”
For our February Regular meeting was held visiting the Lehi Hutchings Museum, 55 North CenterStreet, Lehi, Utah, February 21, 7:00 pm with guest speaker Derrina Kopp, Physical/ForensicAnthropologist at the Antiquities Section, Utah Division of State History. The title of her presentationwas "Any Time and Any Place: Case Studies of Inadvertent Discoveries of Ancient Human Remains onPrivate Lands in Utah" which highlighted some of the instances over the last 5 years in which peoplehave accidentally discovered human remains on private lands and the Antiquities recovered them. Shealso talked a little bit about the laws and what people should do if they think they have found humanremains.
Officer ElectionsThis year is an important year for the Utah County Chapter as we are hosting the annual USAS
Statewide Convention. It is always a great time and a challenge, and we are hoping to have a completeroster of officers to help pull it off. Please consider serving or talking with and nominating a friend youthink could serve as an officer.
Serving as an officer can be as much as you would like to make of it. Thanks are in order for ourprofessional advisors Dr. Jim Allison, with BYU and Charmaine Thompson, with the National ForestService. In the past I have emphasized how easy it is to coordinate with them in planning and bringingoff our monthly meetings and with our convention this year they are certainly stepping up again. Atconvention time we get to travel the state and see some of the country’s greatest archaeology and thisyear it is our turn.
In serving, you also have the opportunity to lead us in a new direction. When I joined the groupmany of the officers at that time had been involved with the archaeology of the valley and Utah Lake andthat was then the focus, as it probably always will be. USAS surveyed rock art west of Utah Lake, tookpart in excavations of American Fork Cave, Kay’s Cabin in the Goshen Valley and West Canyon, westof Lehi, among many other lakeside projects including Heron Springs, Seamon and Hinkley Mounds.However, when Glen Davis and Richard Hansen served they brought more of an emphasis on historicarchaeology and the early settlement by European and Mormon colonizers, and our group participated inhistoric projects in the Strawberry Valley and at Cedar Fort.
Involvement in USAS has been very enjoyable and enriching. The past two decades have beenremarkable times in the archaeology of Utah, the Southwest, the Americas and the world, and ourinvolvement with USAS has given us the chance to witness it first hand. Where else could you have seenthe debate over the role of humans in the extinction of ice age animals played out between Donald K.Grayson and Paul S. Martin, except on TV. With UPAC & GBAC we have seen first hand the evidenceto bring down the “Clovis first” paradigm with the presentation by Tom Dillehay of his finds at MonteVerde, Chile. The early peopling of the Americas was made personal with years of excavations at NorthCreek Shelter near Escalante, Utah, with Dr. Joel Janetski. USAS was also given the chance to be someof the first to survey with Dr. Duncan Metcalfe in Range Creek with it’s remarkably preserved Fremontculture as it was transferred to the public trust. And Oh so long ago now, I was able to skip the state forsome time with the Forest service’s P.I.T program and survey on the eastern fringes of the Anasaziculture area in New Mexico. Now, with Jim Allison joining our organization and his expertise in theceramics of the southwest we have a wonderful opportunity to explore the formative period of Utah. Hisexcavation at Wolf Village in southern Utah Valley is already bringing to light and raising new questionsabout the relationship of the Fremont culture with the greater Southwest and will for some time. Thiswill also be a central theme of our convention this year.
We are not looking for miracles, the guides and resources are already in place, just take part andparticipate. Serve as an officer or nominate someone you would like to work with in exploring UtahArchaeology. Nominations will be taken over the next two months with elections in April. All positionsare open.