The AAC is currently accepting nominations for next-year’s AAC Board Members. The following positions are open for 2023:

• President-Elect (three-year term: one year as President-Elect, one year as President, one year as Immediate Past President)
• Information Officer (two-year term)
• Secretary (two-year term)
• Member-at-Large (two-year term; two positions available)

Additional information about each position can be found in our Bylaws Page and in this document: AAC OFFICERS DUTIES 12-21-20.pdf. If you are interested, please send a brief candidate statement to Shannon Plummer (splummer@arizona.edu) by September 16, 2022. 

The Arizona Archaeological Council is holding its next board meeting on June 29th, 2022 at noon. The meeting agenda can be accessed by AAC members and can be found here: 

2022 June AAC Meeting Agenda.pdf

CALL FOR PAPERS

2022 AAC Fall Conference

Sept. 9; 8:30am-4:00pm

Flagstaff, AZ (location TBD)

Best Practices and Ethical Approaches to Arizona’s Archaeology

Archaeologists have long focused on developing better approaches to the methodology and interpretive frameworks of our discipline. Like archaeological communities across the country, Arizona archaeologists have strived to be at the forefront of such advances. Considering recent calls for increased focus on ethical approaches to archaeology and the protection and preservation of cultural resources in a multi-perspective and inclusive space, Arizona archaeology is primed to remain at the forefront of practice and industry. Addressing issues of sexual harassment, racial and social injustice, and gender equality as well as confronting our colonial legacy as a discipline is vital to contemporary practices and training. In addition, rising curation costs have encouraged practitioners to consider how to preserve Arizona’s cultural resources more efficiently without impeding development or sacrificing quality (e.g., fieldwork, artifact and data collection, respect for descendant communities). This year’s conference theme seeks to address these issues head-on to encourage best practices and ethical approaches that promote better preservation of Arizona’s cultural heritage going forward.

We invite submissions for presentations related to this year’s conference theme that focus on ethical, technical, and theoretical approaches to Arizona archaeology. Please submit presentation title and a 100-word abstract by August 1, 2022 to aacboard@gmail.com. If you have any questions about submissions or the conference, please contact Jim Watson at watsonjt@arizona.edu.

2022_AAC_Fall_Conference-call_for_papers.pdf

The CoAS Spring 2022 Newsletter is hot off the digital press! We are very pleased to include the minutes from the 2022 Annual Business Meeting of CoAS as well as the winners of the 2022 State Archaeology Celebration Poster Contest. We’re also excited to introduce you to new SAA board members. We are extremely grateful to all of our CoAS members that submitted updates and news from their respective organizations to include in this newsletter.

Announcing SKOPE (Synthesizing Knowledge of Past Environments), a free web application that provides easy access to PaleoCAR’s tree-ring based annual retrodictions at 800m spatial resolution (calibrated to PRISM) of precipitation and temperature, for the Southwest US for the last 2000 years. At a coarser spatial resolution (~50km), SKOPE offers annual reconstructions of the Palmer Modified Drought Index (PMDI; the successor to the Palmer Drought Severity Index or PDSI) for the contiguous 48 US states, also for the last 2000 years.  Please click these links for a more detailed announcement, to try the SKOPE App, or to view the SKOPE User’s Guide.

The AAC Board voted in January 2022 to establish a standing Arizona Heritage Policy Committee to assume some of the functions of the former Governor’s Archaeology Advisory Committee (GAAC), which was sunseted by the Arizona Legislature on July 1, 2020, as well as replace the AAC Ad Hoc Political Action Committee. The purpose of the standing committee is to offer recommendations to interested organizations such as local, state, and federal agencies, the Arizona Legislature, or any other body whose decisions could impact Arizona’s Cultural Heritage, with the goal of fostering a conservation and stewardship ethic among land managers, developers, utilities, and agricultural and livestock producers while collaborating to preserve significant historical and archaeological resources for the befit of future generations of Arizonans. Specific areas of focus would include public policy and planning outreach, public education and outreach, and professional development for Heritage Resource professionals. The first meeting of the committee will be held on April 14, 2022 at 2 PM via Microsoft Teams. Agenda is attached.

Click here to join the meeting https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_NzUwOTIyOWMtYjI5Yy00YWQ0LTg4MzgtMjVjNmZlYThhYTFk%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%2233b6e2c3-0b1a-4879-b741-47461a6c1a89%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%225f450e74-eff3-4785-a351-107917a2cee2%22%7d

AHPC April 2022 Draft Agenda.pdf

The Arizona Archaeological Council is holding its next board meeting on April 6th, 2022 at noon. The meeting agenda can be accessed by AAC members and can be found here: 

2022 April AAC Meeting Agenda.pdf

2023 Southwest Symposium Archaeological Conference

January 5-7, 2023

Santa Fe, NM

Call for Sessions

Due April 11, 2022

As the organizers of the 2023 Southwest Symposium Archaeological Conference, we look forward to welcoming our colleagues to the beautifully restored La Fonda Hotel, located on the historic Santa Fe Plaza, next January.

In order to make this conference as inclusive as possible, we are initiating an open call for organized sessions related to the conference theme:

Attributes to Networks: Multi-scalar Perspectives on

Understanding the Past in the Southwest US and Northwest Mexico

The 2023 symposium will highlight alternate approaches to interpreting the archaeological record of the American Southwest and Northern Mexico at multiple scales. Potential session themes could include such topics as material analyses of technology and production; the materiality of belief; households and communities; place, space, and landscapes; trade and exchange; inter-regional social networks; or interpretations of big data. We strongly encourage session proposals that include presentations that engage descendant community consultation and collaboration.

We will follow the traditional format of the Southwest Symposium, with four non-concurrent sessions held over two days. Each session will be approximately three hours in length, which can accommodate eight 20-minute individual presentations with a question-and-answer session or panel discussion at the end. Sessions slightly shorter than three hours will also be considered. Alternative presentation formats may be considered, so long as they fit roughly within the nominal three-hour session schedule.

Given this conference structure, it is possible that not all session proposals will be accommodated. Therefore, we strongly encourage anyone considering organizing a session to contact either Maxine McBrinn (maxine.mcbrinn@gmail.com) or Judith Habicht-Mauche (judith@ucsc.edu) to discuss their plan before submitting a formal proposal.

Session proposals should include Title, Session Abstract (200 words), Names of Session Organizers (with professional affiliation and contact information (phone and email)), and a list of the names of session participants (with professional affiliation, if any, and email), along with a brief descriptive title for their presentation and short abstract (100 words) for each. Session organizers should also include a paragraph describing how the session fits with the symposium theme. If the session is proposed to have a non-traditional format (something other than 20-minute individual presentations), please explain the format and how it will proceed within the 3-hour limit.

Session proposals should be sent as Word document attachments via email to Judith Habicht Mauche (judith@ucsc.edu). The deadline for submitting session proposals is April 11, 2022.

AAHS Research and Travel Grants - Call for Proposals!
Deadline February 15, 2022

*Membership in AAHS is required and all members are eligible to apply*

RESEARCH and TRAVEL GRANT AWARDS

AAHS Research Grants up to the amount of $1,000 are awarded annually. Travel grants are also available in amounts up to $500 to support or present research. Research in archaeology, anthropology, history or ethnology in the US Southwest and Northwest Mexico are considered. Further information on criteria and application is on our website at https://www.az-arch-and-hist.org/?p=465

CARRYL B. MARTIN RESEARCH AWARD

A single award of $5,000 is given annually to a high-quality archaeological or historical research project that focuses on significant questions in the archaeology of the Southwest United States or Northwest Mexico. In the spirit of Carryl Martin projects that allow opportunities for participation by avocational AAHS members will receive special consideration. For more information https://www.az-arch-and-hist.org/?p=4450 

(The Martin proposals are normally due in the fall but we are extending the deadline this year to February 15th.)