For activities in a different month click the name of that month on the buttons above.
Friday March 5, 2010:
“Set in Stone but Not in Meaning: Southwestern Indian Rock Art” free presentation by Old Pueblo Archaeology Center's director, archaeologist Allen Dart, for Tohono O’odham Nation Cultural Center & Museum in Topawa, Arizona. Cosponsored by the Arizona Humanities Council. 12 noon to 1:30 p.m. Free. Archaeologist Allen Dart, Executive Director of Tucson, Arizona’s nonprofit Old Pueblo Archaeology Center, illustrates pictographs (rock paintings) and petroglyphs (symbols carved or pecked on rocks), and discusses how even the same rock art symbol may be interpreted differently from popular, scientific, and modern Native American perspectives. Funding for program provided by the Arizona Humanities Council. Directions to Tohono O’odham Nation Cultural Center & Museum from Interstate 19 and Ajo Way (State Route 86) in Tucson: Go west on Ajo Way (State Route 86) about 60 miles to Sells. Once you arrive in Sells go past Baboquivari Intermediate School to midtown Sells, then turn south onto the business district loop road, which is about at milepost 114. After you turn left there, go past the Tohono O’odham Police Department to the end of the street. Turn right and go past the Indian Oasis Elementary School (on your left) and government offices (on your right), and keep going till the loop road begins to curve to the right. Turn south onto the paved highway to Topawa/San Miguel. (This highway is Federal Route 19 but it’s probably not marked as such.) Continue 7 or 8 miles. At almost one mile beyond milepost 18 you may see a wooden sign that says “Baboquivari Park” and points at a graded dirt road going off to the left. Turn left onto the Baboquivari Park road and go about 1/4 mile to the Tohono O’odham Nation Cultural Center & Museum. No reservations needed. For meeting details contact Allison Francisco in Topawa at 520-383-0201 ext. 115 or Allison.Francisco@tonation-nsn.gov; for information about the presentation subject matter contact Allen Dart at Tucson telephone 520-798-1201 or adart@oldpueblo.org . Click here for a flyer containing more information.
Saturday March 6, 2010:
"Rock Art and Archaeology of Ventana Cave" Old Pueblo Archaeology Center carpooling educational tour with archaeologist Allen Dart departing from Pima Community College, 401 N. Bonita Ave., Tucson. 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. $25 ($20 for Old Pueblo Archaeology Center and Pueblo Grande Museum Auxiliary members; no charge for Tohono O’odham Nation members) In celebration of Arizona Archaeology and Heritage Awareness Month, Old Pueblo Archaeology Center offers this early-morning carpool tour onto the Tohono O’odham Nation to visit the Ventana Cave National Historic Landmark site, which is a rockshelter that contains pictographs, petroglyphs, and other archaeological features used by Native Americans for 10,000 years. Fees will benefit the Tohono O’odham Hickiwan District’s efforts to develop a caretaker-interpretive center at Ventana Cave, and the nonprofit Old Pueblo Archaeology Center’s education programs. Reservations required: 520-798-1201 or info@oldpueblo.org Click here for a flyer containing more information.
Saturday March 6, 2010:
“OPEN3” hands-on, two-hour excavation program for children ages 6-12 at Old Pueblo Archaeology Center, 2201 W. 44th Street, Tucson (in Tucson Unified School District’s Ajo Service Center, just west of La Cholla Blvd., ½-mile north of John F. Kennedy Park). One session at 10 a.m. and one at 1 p.m. Free This free program allows children to learn about different cultures by participating in the excavation of “OPEN3,” a full-size replica of a southern Arizona Hohokam Indian archaeological site. Old Pueblo’s instructors provide instruction and hands-on experience in the methods archaeologists use to excavate real archaeological sites and to make scientific interpretations about how ancient people looked, what they ate, how they constructed their houses, what language they may have spoken, what they may have believed in, and how they created beauty in their lives. The Old Pueblo Educational Neighborhood (“OPEN”) program has been recognized as a superior children’s archaeology education program in independent evaluations by both archaeologists and professional educators, and it has received substantial funding from the Arizona Humanities Council, the Community Foundation for Southern Arizona, the Joseph and Mary Cacioppo Foundation, the Long Realty Cares Foundation, the Stocker Foundation, Wells Fargo, and other granting organizations. Children do not get to keep archaeological artifacts. Each session limited to 28 children. Reservations required. 520-798-1201 or info@oldpueblo.org . Saturday March 6, 2010 Arrowhead-making and Flintknapping Workshop at Old Pueblo Archaeology Center, 2201 W. 44th Street, Tucson (in Tucson Unified School District’s Ajo Service Center, just west of La Cholla Blvd., ½-mile north of John F. Kennedy Park) Choice of two sessions: 9 a.m. to noon or 1 to 4 p.m. $35; $28 for Old Pueblo Archaeology Center and Pueblo Grande Museum Auxiliary members Flintknapper Allen Denoyer teaches hands-on workshop on making arrowheads and spearpoints out of stone to better understand how ancient people made and used stone artifacts. Class is designed to help modern people understand how prehistoric Native Americans made and used artifacts, and is not intended to train students how to make artwork for sale. Workshop limited to 10 registrants but nonregistrants may watch for free. Reservations required for workshop participation: 520-798-1201 or info@oldpueblo.org . Click here for a flyer containing more information.
Saturday March 6, 2010:
Arrowhead-Making/Flintknapping and Traditional Pottery-Making Demonstrations at Old Pueblo Archaeology Center, 2201 W. 44th Street, Tucson (in Tucson Unified School District’s Ajo Service Center, just west of La Cholla Blvd., ½-mile north of John F. Kennedy Park) 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 4 p.m. Free Flintknapper Allen Denoyer and pottery maker John Guerin demonstrate how flaked stone arrowheads and pottery vessels were made by ancient peoples of the American Southwest. No reservations needed. 520-798-1201 or info@oldpueblo.org for more information. Click here for a flyer containing more information.
Thursday March 11, 2010:
“Set in Stone but Not in Meaning: Southwestern Indian Rock Art” free presentation by archaeologist Allen Dart for Santa Cruz Valley Chapter, Arizona Archaeological Society, at Santa Cruz County’s North County Facility, 50 Bridge Road, Tubac, Arizona 7-8:30 p.m. Free Archaeologist Allen Dart, Executive Director of Tucson, Arizona’s nonprofit Old Pueblo Archaeology Center, illustrates pictographs (rock paintings) and petroglyphs (symbols carved or pecked on rocks), and discusses how even the same rock art symbol may be interpreted differently from popular, scientific, and modern Native American perspectives. Funding for program provided by the Arizona Humanities Council. No reservations needed. For meeting details contact Alan Sorkowitz in Tucson at 520-207-7151 or asorko@cox.net ; for information about the presentation subject matter contact Allen Dart at Tucson telephone 520-798-1201 or adart@oldpueblo.org Click here for a flyer containing more information.
Friday March 12, 2010:
"Ancient Native American Pottery of Southern Arizona" free presentation by archaeologist Allen Dart at Pima County Public Library, Salazar-Ajo Branch, 33 Plaza, Ajo, Arizona 2 to 3:30 p.m. Free. Using digital images and actual ancient pottery, archaeologist Allen Dart shows Native American ceramic styles that characterized specific eras in Arizona prehistory and history, and discusses how archaeologists use pottery for dating archaeological sites and interpreting ancient lifeways. Allen discusses the importance of context in archaeology, how things people make change in style over time, and how different styles are useful for identifying different cultures and for dating pottery. Then he shows illustrations and examples of the pottery styles that were made in southern Arizona by the ancient Early Ceramic and Hohokam cultures, and historically by Piman (Tohono O odham and Akimel O odham), Yuman (including Mohave and Maricopa), and Apachean peoples from as early as 800 B.C. into the early twentieth century. The program features slides and a display of authentic prehistoric pottery, and recommended readings for more information about ancient ceramics. Funding for program provided by the Arizona Humanities Council. No reservations needed. For meeting details contact Ms. Lee Irwin in Ajo at 520-387-6075 or Lee.Irwin@pima.gov ; for information about the presentation subject matter contact Allen Dart at Tucson telephone 520-798-1201 or adart@oldpueblo.org Click here for a flyer containing more information.
Saturday March 13, 2010:
“Vista del Rio Archaeology Celebration” at City of Tucson’s Vista del Rio Cultural Resource Park, 7575 E. Desert Arbors St. (at Dos Hombres Road), Tucson, Arizona. 9 a.m-3 p.m. Free. This Old Pueblo Archaeology Center program, sponsored by Vista del Rio Residents' Association, is designed to educate children, especially ages 6 to 12, about the ancient Hohokam Indians who lived at Tucson's Vista del Rio archaeological site and elsewhere in southern Arizona. Includes hands-on activities including making pottery artifacts to take home, grinding corn using an ancient metate and mano, and learning to play traditional Native American games, plus demonstrations of traditional Native American pottery-making and arrowhead-making crafts. The hands-on activities, demonstrations, and informational materials will be along the trails through the Vista del Rio Cultural Park where part of an ancient Hohokam Indian village is preserved. No reservations needed. For more information contact Cris Wagner at Old Pueblo Archaeology Center, 520-798-1201 or info@oldpueblo.org Click here for a flyer containing more information.
Thursday March 18, 2010:
Old Pueblo Archaeology Center’s “Third Thursday Food for Thought” dinner & presentation: “2,500 Years in the Marsh: The Prehistory of the Marsh Station Road Site along Cienega Creek, Arizona” with archaeologist Michael J. Boley at La Cocina Restaurant in the historic Old Town Artisans complex, 201 N. Court Avenue in downtown Tucson 6 to 8:30 p.m. Free. Reservations are required but our guests can select and purchase their own meals from the restaurant’s general menu instead of ordering from a limited, preselected menu. Archaeologists at William Self Associates, Inc. recently excavated portions of a number of sites as part of the SFPP, LP (and their operating partner, Kinder Morgan Energy Partners) El Paso-to-Phoenix pipeline expansion project. One of these sites, the Marsh Station Road site, was occupied temporarily and/or seasonally from at least 1050 B.C. to A.D. 1400, with notable occupations during the Early Agricultural period and the Hohokam Rincon phase. The site is located near the confluence of Cienega Creek and Mescal Wash southeast of Tucson and covers some 20 acres. Our guest speaker will discuss the prehistory of the Marsh Station Road site and focus on its Early Agricultural and Hohokam occupations. Attention will be given to the presence of Early Agricultural period corn in a nonriverine setting, and to the diversity of material culture, particularly projectile points. The site’s Hohokam component will be discussed in light of a“hinterlands” concept. Old Pueblo’s guest speaker for this “dinner-format” program is Michael J. Boley, a project director with William Self Associates, Inc. Mr. Boley received his B.A. in Anthropology from the University of Wyoming in 1996 and his M.A. in Anthropology (Archaeology) from the University of Arizona in 2005. He began his career as a southwestern archaeologist in 1998 as crew member and crew chief on a variety of projects in the region, including large-scale excavations at Pueblo Grande and the Palo Verde Ruin in the Phoenix Basin and at the Yuma Wash and Marana Mound sites in the Tucson Basin. He also served for two years as co-director of the Borderlands Archaeology Laboratory at the Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona. For reservations (due by 3 p.m. Wednesday March 17) or more information contact Old Pueblo Archaeology Center at 520-798-1201 or info@oldpueblo.org Click here for a flyer containing more information.
Saturday March 20, 2010:
“Spring Equinox Tour of Los Morteros and Picture Rocks Petroglyphs Archaeological Sites” departs from northeast corner of Silverbell Road & Linda Vista Blvd. in Marana, Arizona 8 a.m. to noon. Free Archaeologist Allen Dart leads this carpooling tour to Los Morteros, an ancient village site that includes a Hohokam ballcourt and bedrock mortars, and to Picture Rocks, where ancient petroglyphs include a solstice and equinox marker, dancing human-like figures, whimsical animals, and other rock symbols made by Hohokam Indians between A.D. 650 and 1450. Free. LIMITED TO 32 PEOPLE. Reservations required. 520-798-1201 or info@oldpueblo.org Click here for a flyer containing more information.
Tuesday March 30, 2010:
“Change and Continuity: 1500 years of Hopi Farming and Land Stewardship” presentation by Micah Loma’omvaya at Pima County Public Library Himmel Park Branch, 1035 N. Treat Ave., Tucson 6:30-8 p.m. Free. The ancient Hopi practice of dry land farming and a host of other sustainable techniques have been adapted to the high desert environment of the Colorado Plateau for centuries. This valuable environmental knowledge and the use of drought-tolerant domestic Hopi crop varieties lend themselves to supporting the enduring Hopi culture and value system in the area known as Hopi Tutskwa, the indigenous Hopi lands. From their ancient ancestors the Hisat.sinom throughout the American Southwest, today’s Hopi have inherited a legacy of rich traditions including the Hopi values and practices of land stewardship. This presentation highlights the fascinating array of practices of Hopi land stewardship, and explores the enduring connection and respect for the land with its many natural and cultural resources that run deep and remain embedded in Hopi culture today. Speaker Micah Loma’omvaya, a Hopi tribal member of the Bear Clan from Songoopavi Village on Second Mesa, Arizona,holds a B.A. degree in anthropology and has worked in this discipline since he was 17. Funding for program provided by the Arizona Humanities Council. No reservations needed. For meeting details contact Old Pueblo Archaeology Center at Tucson telephone 520-798-1201 or info@oldpueblo.org ; for information about the presentation subject matter contact Micah Loma’omvaya in Second Mesa, Arizona, at 928-206-7433 or hopianthro@gmail.com Click here for a flyer containing more information.
Wednesday March 31, 2010:
"Old Pueblo - Young People" fundraising raffle at Old Pueblo Archaeology Center, 2201 W. 44th Street, Tucson, to benefit Old Pueblo's children's archaeology education programs. Raffle tickets are 6 for $10, or $2 singly. You don't need to be present to win! Contact Old Pueblo at 520-798-1201 or info@oldpueblo.org for tickets and prize information. Click here to download the prize list.
