[Aztlan] March 2009 Ancient Americas Lectures and Conferences

Fri Feb 27 15:10:55 CST 2009

Listeros,

March is a very packed month for Lectures and Conferences. One of the  
highlights is the Michael Coe Seminar in Washington DC at the  
Smithsonian.

Mike Ruggeri

March 1, 2:00 PM
Southwest Iconography Explored Program "Seeking Knife-Wing: From the  
Ancient Maya to the Pueblos"
Marc Thompson, Ph.D.,
Director, El Paso Museum of Archaeology.
Journey with us through time and space as we seek Knife-wing, a figure  
with eagle and human characteristics, at the Classic Maya site of  
Chichen Itza and at pueblos such as Acoma, Hopi, and Zuni where it  
continues to be venerated.
El Paso Museum of Archaeology
4301 Transmountain Road
We are located at the base of the Franklin Mountains, on Transmountain  
Road just west of U.S. Highway 54.
El Paso, Texas
http://www.elpasotexas.gov/arch_museum/events.asp

March 2, 6:00 PM
Southwest Seminars; Voices in Stone
"Three Rivers Petroglyph Site"
Hotel Santa Fe
1501 Paseo de Peralta
Santa Fe, New Mexico
http://southwestseminars.org/SouthwestSeminars.org/Voices_in_Stone_2009.html

Monday, March 02, 2009, 7:30 PM
AIA Lecture
"Cahokia's Mound 34 and the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex"
John Kelly, Washington University of St. Louis (Stone Lecture)
College of Wooster,
Wishart Hall,
Lean Lecture Room
Wooster, Ohio
http://www.archaeological.org/webinfo.php?page=10124&society_code=all

Tuesday, March 03, 2009, 8:00 PM
AIA Lecture
John Kelly, Washington University of St. Louis (Stone Lecture)
"Cahokia's Mound 34 and the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex"
Wittenberg University,
Shouvlin Hall
Springfield, Massachusetts
http://www.archaeological.org/webinfo.php?page=10124&society_code=all

Thursday, March 5, 6:00 PM
The Aztec World Lecture Series
Presented by The Field Museum and Northwestern University
Jeffrey R. Parsons,
"The Aztec Environmental Management"
Jeffrey R. Parsons
Pre-Registration Required
312.665.7400.
West Entrance
Montgomery Ward Hall,
Ground Level
Field Museum of Chicago
http://www.fieldmuseum.org/calendarSystem/Search_Type.asp?Type=LEC

Friday March 6th, 7:00 PM
Pre-Columbian Society of Washington DC Lecture
"Funerary Traditions and Ancestor Commemoration among the Classic Maya  
of Piedras Negras and Yaxchilan"
Andrew Scherer, Baylor University – 2008-2009 Dumbarton Oaks Fellow
Piedras Negras (Guatemala) and Yaxchilan (Mexico) were among the  
dominant Classic period (AD 350-900) powers in the western Maya  
Lowlands. By the 8th century AD, these two centers had evolved into  
the capitals of competing regional polities. In this presentation, Dr.  
Scherer will illustrate how funerary traditions and ancestor  
commemoration were an important aspect of community identity and  
social memory among all sectors of Classic Maya society. Presenting  
mortuary data from royal tombs, elite burial contexts, and the graves  
of the general populace, Scherer will illustrate how community- 
specific traditions evolved at Piedras Negras and Yaxchilan and became  
important expressions of polity identity by the end of the Classic  
period.
BIO: Andrew Scherer is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Baylor  
University. He is a biological anthropologist and archaeologist whose  
research focuses on the ancient Maya. As a bioarchaeologist, he has  
studied ancient human skeletons from a number of Maya sites, including  
Piedras Negras, Tikal, El Zotz, Kaminaljuyu, and Colha, among others.  
Presently, Dr. Scherer is co-director of the Sierra del Lacandón  
Regional Archaeology Project, a multi-disciplinary research project  
investigating the Classic period (A.D. 350 - 900) Maya polities of  
Piedras Negras, Guatemala and Yaxchilan, Mexico. He has published a  
variety of articles on his work, most recently in Latin American  
Antiquity and the American Journal of Physical Anthropology.
Sumner School,
1201 17th Street, NW,
17th and M Streets, across the street from National Geographic. Metro:  
Farragut North (on the red line) and Farragut West (on the Blue/Orange  
line).
Washington, DC.
http://www.pcswdc.org/

Friday, March 6, 7:30 PM
Maya Society of Minnesota Lecture
"It's the Economy Stupid: The Classic Period Market Economy"
Bruce Dahlin,
Professor of Anthropology (retired),
Catholic University
Conventional wisdom has it that the Classic Maya were not supposed to  
have had much of a market economy. Instead, goods and services that  
sustained non-food producing elites, was circulated by means of  
redistribution, or taxes and tributes, that were then recirculated by  
the elites to sustain themselves and loyal followers. Recent  
geochemical research, however, is revealing a lower level to Maya  
economies. Systematic tests for phosphates – a necessary ingredient in  
all living matter – in the soils of open plazas at the heart of  
several urban centers unequivocally indicate that vast amounts of  
organic materials were brought in here. Concentrations of these  
phosphates form bands, often overlaid on rows of small rock alignments  
and rock piles, suggest an orderly arrangement of market stalls.  
Ongoing geochemical research at a number of sites has the potential of  
turning our notions of ancient Maya urban economies on its figurative  
head.
Drew Science 118
Hamline University
St. Paul, Minnesota
http://www.hamline.edu/mayasociety/MSM_LIST_lectures_and_worksh_Spring_2009.htm

Saturday, March 7, 9:00 a.m-12 p.m.
Maya Society of Minnesota Workshop
"Chunchucmil: A Specialized Trade Center in NW Yucatan, Mexico"
Bruce Dahlin.
Chunchucmil was one of the largest urban centers in one of the Maya  
lowlands' most marginal agricultural areas. Nevertheless, population  
peaked in the late Early Classic period (ca. 400-600 AD) and the only  
viable means of sustaining it was by importing critical amounts of  
food and basic goods which were circulated ? at least in part - in one  
of the few positively identified marketplaces in the Maya lowlands. It  
could do this as it was located along one of Mesoamerica's most  
vigorous maritime trade routes and at the ends of natural and manmade  
canals connecting the site to the Gulf of Mexico, thus facilitating  
bulk transport via cargo canoes. Indeed, its very raison d'etre was  
long distance trade as part of the ancient Mesoamerican World System  
which at the time was dominated by Teotihuacan. When Teotihuacan died,  
so did the World System of its time, and Chunchucmil.
Giddens Learning Center 6s
(the Anthropology Lab),
Hamline University
St. Paul, Minnesota
http://www.hamline.edu/mayasociety/MSM_LIST_lectures_and_worksh_Spring_2009.htm

Saturday, March 7, 10:30am
SunWatch Archaeological Park
Archaeoastronomy in the Americas
"Ancient Skywatchers of North America"
Bill Iseminger, Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site, Collinsville, IL,
SunWatch Indian Village/Archaeological Park
2301 W. River Road
Dayton, OH 45418
(937) 268-8199
http://www.sunwatch.org/index.php?option=com_events&task=view_detail&agid=33&year=2009&month=03&day=07

March 9, 6:00 PM
Southwest Seminars Lecture
Sally Cole
"Landscape and Narrative in the Colorado Plateau"
Hotel Santa Fe
1501 Paseo de Peralta
Santa Fe, New Mexico
http://southwestseminars.org/SouthwestSeminars.org/Voices_in_Stone_2009.htm

Tuesday, March 10, 7:00 PM
Taos Archaeological Society Lecture
"Prodigy, Rebel, or Stepchild? Salmon, Aztec, and the Middle San Juan  
Region in the Chacoan and Post-Chacoan Periods"
Paul F. Reed, Preservation Archaeologist with the Center for Desert  
Archaeology
Over the last seven years, research by the Center for Desert  
Archaeology and its primary partners (Salmon Ruins and Aztec Ruins)  
has expanded and changed our view of Salmon, Aztec, and other late  
Puebloan communities in the Middle San Juan region. One of the primary  
research outcomes relates to the region's connections to Chaco Canyon  
and Mesa Verde. Strong connections to Chaco in the late 11th and early  
12th centuries are clear in the Salmon and Aztec data, whereas the  
presumed linkage to Mesa Verde is much more tenuous. Following the  
trend apparent across much of the Pueblo Southwest, sites in the  
Middle San Juan region were much more locally focused during the  
Pueblo III period (1150-1300). In addition, research reveals that the  
the three separate river valleys (Animas, La Plata, and San Juan)  
comprising the Middle San Juan landscape have unique settlement  
histories and local adaptations of the ancient Puebloan lifestyle.
Kit Carson Electric
118 Cruz Alta Rd,
Taos, New Mexico
http://www.taosarch.org/Default.aspx?pageId=98127&eventId=41962&EventViewMode=2&CalendarViewType=1&SelectedDate=3/21/2009

March 10, 7:30 PM
Cotsen Institute Lecture
"The Women in the Middle:
Inka Concepts Manifested in Farfan Burials"
Professor Emerita Carol Mackey, California State University
Northridge and Research Associate, Cotsen Institute
Lenart Auditorium,
Fowler Building
UCLA
Laura Lliguin
laural at ioa.ucla.edu
(310) 794-4837
http://www.ioa.ucla.edu/news-events/events-calendar/public-lecture-inka-archaeology

Wednesday, March 11, 2009, 7:00 PM
AIA Lecture
Rosemary Joyce, University of California, Berkeley (Brush Lecture)
"The Early History of Chocolate"
National Arts Club,
15 Gramercy Park South (Reception at 6:30 PM)
New York City, NY
http://www.archaeological.org/webinfo.php?page=10124&society_code=all

Thursday, March 12, 5:30 PM
"The Rebirth of a Goddess: The Aztec Tlaltecuhtli monolith and the  
seventh field season (2007–2010) of the Proyecto Templo Mayor"
Leonardo López Lujan
For reservations and information;
email or call 202-339-6440
Music Room
Dumbarton Oaks
Washington DC
http://www.doaks.org/public_events/lectures.html

March 12-14, 2009
51st Annual Caddo Conference
Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History,
Norman, OK
http://www.ou.edu/cas/archsur/CaddoConf/CaddoConference2009Newest.htm

Friday, March 13, 2009, 5:30 PM
AIA Lecture
Rosemary Joyce, University of California, Berkeley (Stone Lecture)
"The Early History of Chocolate"
Boston University,
Room TBA
Boston, Massachusetts
http://www.archaeological.org/webinfo.php?page=10124&society_code=all

Saturday, March 14, 9:30 a.m.-4:15 p.m.
Smithsonian Institute Seminar
Michael Coe
"Mexico: From the Olmecs to the Aztecs"
Before their subjugation by the invading Spanish conquistadores, the  
indigenous peoples of Mexico were heirs to a 2,500- year-old tradition  
of complex life, with powerful states, cities, magnificent art,  
standing armies, developed religious and philosophical systems, and  
other hallmarks of "civilization." Because of Mexico's diverse  
geography, these early cultures evolved in distinct ways but were  
periodically unified by the rapid spread of what some scholars  
considered exchange networks and others called empires. Scholar  
Michael Coe examines four of these powerful civilizations—Olmec,  
Teotihuacan, Toltec, and Aztec—that extended over non-Maya Mesoamerica  
before the conquest.
9:30 to 10:45 a.m. The Olmec: Mesoamerica's Oldest Civilization
For about 1,100 years (1500 B.C. to 400 B.C.), the Olmec created one  
of the most brilliant but enigmatic cultures of the NewWorld, with  
cities like San Lorenzo and Venta, and art including colossal heads,  
pottery, jade, and gods.
11 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. Teotihuacan: City of the Gods
This vast pre-Columbian city complex dominated Mesoamerica for about  
600 years (until 600 A.D.) with its grid plan, broad avenues, palaces,  
and enormous pyramids; new fieldwork at the Pyramid of the Moon  
revealed captive sacrifice on a grand scale.
12:15 to 1:30 p.m. Lunch
Participants provide their own lunch.
1:30 to 2:45 p.m. Tula of the Toltecs
Revered as super-civilized forebears of the Aztecs, Toltecs had a  
warrior cult and two great gods, Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca, and a  
highland capital, Tula, "the Place of the Reeds."
3 to 4:15 p.m. The Aztecs: Empire of the Sun
Evolving from nomadic barbarians, the Aztecs came to dominate most of  
non-Maya Mesoamerica from their island capital, Tenochtitlan- 
Tlatelolco (now under Mexico City). Through their art, poetry, and  
religion, we see they were misrepresented by the Spaniards as  
practitioners of human sacrifice on a grand scale.
Coe is a professor emeritus of anthropology at Yale University and co- 
author of Mexico: From the Olmecs to the Aztecs (Thames and Hudson,  
sixth edition), which is available for signing.
S. Dillon Ripley Center
1100 Jefferson Drive, SW
Washington DC
Metro: Smithsonian Mall Exit (Blue/Orange)
http://residentassociates.org/ticketing/tickets/reserve.aspx?performanceNumber=216729

Saturday, March 14, 1:30 PM
Pre-Columbian Society of the Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and  
Anthropology Lecture
Abigail Seldin, University of Pennsylvania, Anthropology Department  
Graduate Student,
Co- Curator of  Fulfilling a Prophecy: The Past and Present of the  
Lenape in Pennsylvania:
Flying with the Fourth Crow: A Reflection on Curating Fulfilling a  
Prophecy
Once the undisputed lords of southeastern Pennsylvania, the Lenape  
disappear from the state's history after their forcible removal  
westward in the 1700s. Although the academic community has maintained  
that no Lenape remained in Pennsylvania at the close of the 18th  
century, this position is belied by the recent emergence of the direct  
descendants of Lenape women who intermarried with German settlers.  
These Lenape-Germans have kept their ancestry a well-guarded secret,  
fearing the persecutions suffered by their contemporaries in the  
American Indian community. Yet, for more than two hundred years, the  
members of this lineage have faithfully upheld their Native  
traditions. The extraordinary stories of these women and their  
families are being shared for the first time in the exhibition;  
Fulfilling a Prophecy: The Past and Present of the Lenape in  
Pennsylvania, on display at Penn Museum through October 2010.  A  
collaboration between Penn graduate student Abigail Seldin, Chief  
Robert Red Hawk Ruth and Tribal Secretary Shelley DePaul of the Lenape  
Nation of Pennsylvania, Fulfilling a Prophecy is one of first exhibits  
to be co-curated by an anthropologist together with Native American  
representatives in the United States. The talk Ms. Seldin will present  
addresses the history of the secret Lenape of Pennsylvania, and her  
experiences working with the Lenape over the past three years.
Room 345
University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
University of Pennsylvania Museum
3260 South Street
33rd and Spruce Streets in West Philadelphia.
Spruce Street becomes South Street just east of the Museum.
Since the South Street Bridge is closed for construction, the I-76  
exits for South Street cannot be used.
http://www.precolumbian.org/nextmeeting.HTM

Sunday, March 15, 1:00-5:00 PM
Spring 2009 Mesoamerican Network Meeting,
1:10: David Cheetham
"Ethnicity and Identity in Prehistory: An Early Olmec Case Study"
1:50: Tricia Gabany-Guerrero
"Iconografía Michoacana: The A-O sign in the Hinterlands of Highland  
Mesoamerica"
2:30: Robey Callahan
"The Role of "Dreams" in Yucatán Maya Culture"
break 3:10-3:30
3:30:  Pesach Lubinsky
"History and Origins of Vanilla Cultivation in Mesoamerica"
4:10:  Cameron Walker
"The Long and Curious Relationship between Mexican Archaeology,  
Politics and Tourism"
University Hall 252
California State at Fullerton
For directions and campus map go to: www.fullerton.edu/campusmap
Park in Lot E, near University Hall (free on Sundays)
http://www.mesoamericanet.com/

March 16, 2009, 7:30 PM
Arizona Archaeological and Historical Society Lecture
"Paquime Postscript: New Work Around
Casas Grandes"
Duval Auditorium,
University Medical Center,
1501 North Campbell Avenue (north of Speedway).
Tucson, Arizona
http://www.statemuseum.arizona.edu/aahs/lectures.shtml

Thursday, March 19, 6:00 PM
The Aztec World Lecture Series
Presented by The Field Museum and Northwestern University
"Archaeology of a Provincial Town"
Deborah L. Nichols,
Pre-Registration Required
312.665.7400.
West Entrance
Montgomery Ward Hall,
Ground Level
Field Museum of Chicago
http://www.fieldmuseum.org/calendarSystem/Search_Type.asp?Type=LEC

March 19, 7:30 PM
El Paso Archaeological Society Lecture "Investigations in the Southern  
San Andres Mountains, South Central New Mexico"
Meade Kemrer
Five years of work in the Southern San Andres Mountains 60 miles north  
of El Paso produced a considerable amount of information regarding  
prehistoric occupation during the A.D. 900-1400 interval. This summary  
includes five categories: environmental change, chronological  
development, settlement and demography, farming, and cultural identity  
in the study area. The study area underwent considerable environmental  
change subsequent to the prehistoric era. Environment characteristics,  
especially sediment geology, botanical records and hydrological  
information produced a model designed to approximate prehistoric  
landscape conditions. The traditional Jornada Mogollon chronology  
based primarily on radiocarbon dating proved to be too coarse to  
identify important cultural changes during the A.D. 900-1400. A new  
chronology was developed from the ceramic sequence dated by the tree- 
ring method. Villages and associated activities are highly dispersed  
during the A.D. 900-1140 period. The A.D. 1140-1275 span represents a  
severe drop in population, living in clustered roomblocks, and with  
evidence of raiding or warfare. Large aggregated defensive pueblos  
characterize A.D. 1275-1400 settlement. Two years of fieldwork  
produced the first study of prehistoric farming east of the Rio Grande  
in the Jornada Mogollon area. Findings include farming strategies,  
farmer occupation, and farming tools. Two contemporaneous culturally  
distinctive populations occupied the study area. Through time, the  
relations between them appear to became much stronger during the A.D.  
1275-1400.
El Paso Museum of Archaeology
in the Auditorium
4301 Transmountain Rd.
El Paso Texas
http://www.epas.com/newsletter.htm

March 19, 5:30 pm
Gordon R.Willey Lecture
"Itza and Kowoj: Conflicts and Factions in the Last Maya Kingdom"
Prudence Rice,
Professor of Anthropology,
Southern Illinois University, Carbondale
Location; Yenching Institute,
2 Divinity Ave.
Cambridge, Massachusetts
http://www.peabody.harvard.edu/current_events.html

March 19, 7:30 PM
South Suburban Archaeology Society
"The Collier Lodge Site: A 9000-Year Record of Life Along the Kankakee  
River"
Mark R. Schurr, PhD
Marie Irwin Community Center,
18120 Highland Avenue,
Homewood, Illinois.
Helen Hardman, SSAS Program Chair; (708)748-7806 for more information.
http://www.museum.state.il.us/iaaa/southprograms.htm

March 19, 7:30 PM
Pacific Coast Archaeology Society Lecture
"The Archaeology of Annihilation: Place, Meaning, and Destruction"
Dr. James Snead
The intentional destruction of homes, monuments, and cities is often  
treated as a grim sidelight to warfare in human society. Annihilation  
is, however, a complex cultural phenomenon, both in the ancient world  
and in our own, bound up in ideas of place, meaning, and legitimacy.  
Archaeologists view destruction through our own cultural lenses, often  
leading us astray. This talk will examine the cultural aspects of  
annihilation, with specific reference to the study of an intentionally  
destroyed archaeological site in northern New Mexico, Burnt Corn Pueblo.
Irvine Ranch Water District
15600 Sand Canyon Avenue
(between the I-5 and I-405, next to the Post Office)
Irvine, California
http://www.pcas.org/meetings.html

March 21-22, 2009
37th Annual Midwest Conference on Andean and Amazonian Archaeology and  
Ethnohistory
Deadline for submission of title and abstract is February 9, 2009
University of Michigan at Ann Arbor
http://sitemaker.umich.edu/andean.conference/home

Sunday, March 22, 2009, 2:00 PM
AIA Lecture
Heather McKillop, Louisiana State University
"Canoe Travel and Sea Trade of the Ancient Maya"
DeNault Auditorium in Grimm Hall,
Concordia University,
Irvine, California
http://www.archaeological.org/webinfo.php?page=10124&society_code=all

March 22
"City of Fire; Teotihuacan, Mexico: Urban Planning and Social Identity"
Matthew H. Robb, PhD, from St. Louis Art Museum
Dr. Robb has conducted extensive research on the largest prehistoric  
site in Mexico, Teotihuacan. He has a particular interest in how  
sculpture from domestic contexts at Teotihuacan helped shape a shared  
civic identity, and he will present examples to support his  
hypothesis. He believes this issue also would have been very important  
at Cahokia.
Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site
30 Ramey Street
Collinsville, IL 62234
tel: 618-346-5160
http://www.cahokiamounds.com/news-events/events/?month=03&year=2009

Tuesday, March 24, 2009, 7:30 PM
AIA Lecture
Charles Stanish, Cotsen Institute, UCLA (Stone Lecture)
"The Civilizations of Ancient Peru: Inca, Moche and Tiwanaku"
University of Nevada,
Las Vegas Campus,
Room TBA
http://www.archaeological.org/webinfo.php?page=10124&society_code=all

Thursday, March 26, 6:00 PM
The Aztec World Lecture Series
Presented by The Field Museum and Northwestern University
"The Aztec Sense of History"
Emily Umberger,
Pre-Registration Required
312.665.7400.
West Entrance
Montgomery Ward Hall,
Ground Level
Field Museum of Chicago
http://www.fieldmuseum.org/calendarSystem/Search_Type.asp?Type=LEC

March 26, 2009, 7:00 PM
Verde Valley Chapter,
Arizona Archaeological Society Lecture
"Chaco's Northern Prodigies"
Sedona Public Library
3250 White Bear Road,
Sedona, Arizona
http://www.azarchsoc.org/verdevalleychapter.html

Monday, March 30, 2009, 7:30 PM
John Kelly, Washington University of St. Louis (Stone Lecture)
AIA Lecture
"Cahokia's Mound 34 and the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex"
Chan Auditorium,
University of Alabama
Huntsville, Alabama
http://www.archaeological.org/webinfo.php?page=10124&society_code=all

Monday, March 30, 2009, 6:00 PM
AIA Lecture
James Kus, California State University-Fresno
"What's New at Machu Picchu"
University of Akron,
Folk Hall
Akron, Ohip
http://www.archaeological.org/webinfo.php?page=10124&society_code=all

Mike Ruggeri's Ancient America Museum Exhibitions, Conferences and  
Lectures
http://community-2.webtv.net/Topiltzin-2091/AncientAmerica/