Open House for UA and PCC Students
Detailed Information
Friday, September 7, 2012
3:00–5:00 p.m.
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The Arizona State Museum’s Homol’ovi Research Program has explored 13th–14th century ancestral Hopi communities near Winslow, Arizona since 1984. Excavations in six large villages and several smaller villages plus a survey of 30 sq. miles surrounding these communities plus recent survey and excavations on Rock Art Ranch (see below) provide an enormous artifact assemblage and database that offers undergraduate and graduate students diverse opportunities to gain experience in laboratory analysis or find research topics from the level of independent studies and undergraduate research papers to theses and dissertations. The 2000 sq. ft. lab is located in room 301 in the ASM South Building. For more information contact E. Charles Adams (520-621-2093) or Richard C. Lange (520-621-6275).
Four Corners Learning Expedition
Once a year for eight days at the end of September and early October, Adams and Lange lead a learning expedition through the Four Corners country of the Pueblo Southwest, visiting all the major archaeological cultures, the Hopi Reservation, and taking a trip down the San Juan River. For more details please contact Darlene Lizarraga via email or at 520-626-8381
School of Anthropology will conduct its third field season with a fieldschool in northern Arizona located at the historic Rock Art Ranch, about 20 miles southeast of Winslow, under the direction of Dr. E. Charles Adams, Professor of Anthropology in the School who is also a Curator of Archaeology at ASM and director of the Homol’ovi Research Program. The fieldschool will run from June 3 through July 5 and participants will receive 7 hours of credit (Anth 455a and b for undergrads or Anth 555a and b for graduate students) from the University of Arizona. The ranch gets its name from a spectacular petroglyph site within Chevelon Canyon, which bounds the ranch on its west. The program will feature archaeological survey of the ranch and surrounding ranches, which have never before been investigated. The project participants will also get the chance to participate in excavations of two 13th century pueblos on the ranch under the direction of Dr. Vincent M. LaMotta, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Illinois, Chicago. Several field trips are planned, including to the Hopi mesas, which lie 75 miles north of the ranch. For more details visit the UA School of Anthropology website
(http://anthropology.arizona.edu/node/722) or email Dr. Adams.
Apply your interest in culture to bring the ideas and content of the museum to a broad public. Make the work of the museum assessable to a diverse and broad range of audiences. Learn about museum education and outreach.
School Programs Interpreter
Lead inquiry-based tours through the Paths of Life exhibition for K–12 students. Note: Need to take ANTH330A Interpreting Native Cultures and ANTH393 Museum Interpreter Internship. Receive credit.
School Outreach Presenter
Conduct object-based programs in K-12 schools about Native American and Mexican cultures. Programs include background information, stories, games, and craft projects.
Public Programs Office Assistant
Help plan and prepare materials for public programs around the themes of the exhibitions, collections, and research areas. May include designing discovery hunts, researching activities and cultural presenters, obtaining materials, creating hands-on activities, designing self-guided materials for teachers, and more.
Program Presenter
Help set up for programs and aide cultural tradition bearers and museum specialists with activities, demonstrations and performances at public programs.
Program Evaluation Assistant
Help develop evaluation tools, collect data and compile/analyze the data to inform exhibition and program development and evaluation of effectiveness.
Digital Activities Assistant
Help develop and design online activities aimed at K–12 students to further investigate and learn about the ideas and materials in ASM’s exhibits, programs, collections and research areas. May include creating podcasts, webquests, and other digital activities.
If interested, contact Lisa Falk, director of education (520-626-2973).
If interested, contact Davison Koenig, Curator of Exhibits (520-621-6280).
Learn how your anthropological background can create engaging exhibitions that weave research and material culture together in a compelling narrative that reaches a broad audience.
The Borderlands Archaeology Laboratory is directed by Paul Fish and Suzanne Fish. The Laboratory’s ongoing archaeological programs emphasize interdisciplinary research on the prehispanic archaeology of southern Arizona and adjacent northwest Mexico and the traditional agriculture of this region. Laboratory researchers maintain close ties with Mexican colleagues and act as UA institutional representatives for an International Agreement with the Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia. Core research themes are: 1) Land use and landscape as the interface between societies and their environments, and 2) societal institutions for the organization of population and territory. The Laboratory also serves as a base for graduate student projects and undergraduate research in the region. Current projects address hilltop trincheras sites of the Borderlands, preceramic and early agricultural settlements near Tucson, platform mound communities of the Hohokam Classic period in southern Arizona, the Casas Grandes Medio period in Chihuahua, and the prehispanic cultures of northern Sonora.
The Borderlands Laboratory offers research space for graduate students with related regional interests. Undergraduates periodically undertake internships and independent studies in the context of laboratory investigations. Depending on grant funding, research assistantships, undergraduate jobs, and work study positions may be available. The Laboratory houses extensive Hohokam collections from the Tucson Basin and provides access to largescale survey data from southern Arizona and northern Sonora for use in student projects. For more information, contact Paul Fish or Suzanne Fish.
Spring 2013 Archaeological Field School
ASM’s Borderlands Laboratory regularly collaborates with the School of Anthropology to offer a spring semester archaeological field school for undergraduate and graduate students. The six-credit hour field school (ANT 455a and b or 555a and b) is taught by Drs. Paul Fish and Suzanne Fish on designated weekdays, allowing students to take additional courses during the spring semester. Regional field trips are included on several weekends. In spring, 2012, investigations will take place at University Indian Ruin, a Hohokam archaeological preserve in Tucson. The research will combine test excavations and artifact analysis with ground penetrating radar and total station mapping to study the developmental sequence of adobe buildings on a platform mound and in surrounding residential compounds. An extended course description, research discussion, and application information can be found at Spring Semester Archaeological Field School web page (http://anthropology.arizona.edu/spring-field-school).
As a joint undertaking of the School of Anthropology and the Arizona State Museum, the Southwest Land, Culture, and Society is intended to serve as a formalized node , interconnecting faculty and students with anthropological interests in the Southwest U.S. and northern Mexico. A focus on the interrelationships between the environment, culture, and society of the Greater Southwest over the past 12,000 years is a central part of the program’s mission. The program’s faculty include a wide range of interests in the region and teach and teach in varied University units. A core course for the program is Southwest Land and Society (ANTH/ARL/LAS/AIS 418/518) is offered annually, surveys human societies in the region from earliest times to the present, and is co-taught by an ethnographer/ethnohistorian and an archaeologist. For more information about the program, contact Paul Fish (coordinator).
TheASM Bioarchaeology Lab and Collections provide students and faculty alike with opportunities to learn about the biological variation of past peoples of Arizona. Opportunities arise for student volunteers to assist with lab and in field work activities and, from time to time, student employment opportunities develop out of long-term projects run by the lab. Our extensive collections offer the opportunity for students and faculty to address unique hypotheses about the lives of Arizona's past peoples. In addition, Dr. Watson's and Dr.
McClelland's research projects offer additional opportunities in Bioarchaeology in Arizona and Sonora. Numerous thesis and dissertation topics await in the lab, collections, and among our field work in bioarchaeology. In addition to the research potential of our work, research, and collections described above, we are also available for consultation and/or collaboration on faculty or student projects that may involve human remains or address questions of human mortuary treatment, variation, demography, or health. Our work provides time-depth to these issues and a bio-cultural evolutionary perspective.
For more information contact Dr. James Watson or Dr. John McClelland.
The Stanley J. Olsen Laboratory of Zooarchaeology at the Arizona State Museum is one of the top laboratories for zooarchaeological research in North America. The Lab houses a large reference collection of close to 4000 fish, bird, reptile, amphibian, and mammal skeletal specimens from over 600 species. The collections include specimens from six continents; however, most specimens were collected from the southeastern and southwestern regions of North America. The Olsen Lab is used by students, visiting scholars, and volunteers, as well as for public outreach activities. The collections have been used in many University of Arizona courses, as well as for undergraduate and graduate student theses, dissertations, and research projects. The laboratory is also a significant source of employment for current graduate and undergraduate students, as well as volunteers, internships, and independent study opportunities. For more information contact Dr. Barnet Pavao-Zuckerman.
The Office of Ethnohistorical Research, in room 320, will be open for visitors on September 9. If it is not possible for participants to visit our office during the open house, we are amenable to scheduling formal visits within the following week. Contact Dr. Dale Brenneman or Dr. Michael Brescia.
With its impressive collection of microfilmed Spanish colonial documents and a library with more than 8,000 secondary works, reference materials, indexes to major archival collections, maps, and guides to paleography and translation, OER offers plenty of resources for student and faculty researchers interested in the ethnohistory, documentary history, environmental history, and/or political ecology of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. In addition, OER’s documentary history projects present employment and volunteer opportunities for qualified bilingual graduate students who gain first-hand experience in reading, transcribing, translating, and annotating colonial documents, as well as training in the principles of documentary editing and the critical use of primary sources and secondary literature. Opportunities also exist for 1 or 2 undergraduate work-study students or volunteers involving the organization of an increasing volume of digital archival materials.
OER welcomes ideas for collaboration with interested faculty in its research and programs. One of our current endeavors, the O’odham–Pee Posh Documentary History Project, is a collaboration involving other ASM faculty as well as the O’odham–Pee Posh communities. A recent project to translate the letters of Philipp Segesser, a German-speaking Swiss Jesuit priest who served some 36 years in Sonora, enlisted the help of German Studies faculty and students. And OER’s collections made our office the ideal location for a paleography class conducted by faculty from the Department of Spanish and Portuguese in years past. Students employed on our projects or conducting research in our office have come to us from a variety of disciplines, including Anthropology, Archaeology, History, and Linguistics as well as Religious Studies and Spanish.
OER typically hosts at least one learning expedition each year that brings the history and culture of the Greater Southwest alive for the general public. We have visited Spanish missions and presidios, ranches and land grant homesteads, in an effort to show the public the links between the past and the present. Faculty and graduate students interested in sharing their knowledge of and expertise in Spanish missions, presidios, Mexican frontier life, and ecological change are encouraged to discuss with OER faculty how they might participate.
Under the direction of Dr. Ann Hedlund, The Gloria F. Ross Tapestry Program at Arizona State Museum conducts original research on topics that include prehistoric and ethnographic textile analysis, native Southwestern weaving traditions, and contemporary fiber art trends. Occasional projects are available for volunteers and interns interested in native craft specialization and organization, photo documentation of handweaving and weavers, and development of the online Joe Ben Wheat Database of Southwestern Textiles. The Program sponsors periodic lectures, exhibits and other public events. See our textile-related displays in ASM’s east hallway on the third floor, outside room 305. For more information visit the Tapestry Center website
(http://www.tapestrycenter.org/).
Arizona State Museum's Preservation Division actively supports and promotes the museum's policy to preserve and protect the collections entrusted to its care. The treatment of objects is guided by the principle that the integrity of the object should be preserved in every way possible. The ASM Conservation Lab provides preventive and interventive conservation of ASM's vast collections, serves the public through workshops and queries, instructs scores of conservation students, and continues to conduct cutting-edge research. Investigations conducted in the lab include:
- characterization tests for objects of art and archaeology
- testing of pesticide residues on museum objects
- new protocols for ceramic care
- integrated pest management systems
For more information contact Dr. Nancy Odegaard, head of preservation (520-621-6314) or Teresa Moreno, associate conservator (520-621-6314)
Three Arizona statutes protect paleontological and archaeological sites 100 years old or older on State lands.Two additional Arizona statutes protect human graves and funerary objects 50 years old or older on both State and private lands.The Arizona State Museum’s Arizona Antiquities Act Permits and Repatriation Office is responsible for overseeing a number of compliance-related activities concerning these laws, including the issuance of paleontological and archaeological permits; issuance of burial agreements; and coordinating compliance projects with federal and state land-managing agencies, tribes, and private landowners. The office conducts archaeological damage assessments and works closely with law enforcement agencies investigating antiquities violations. For more information contact Todd Pitezel, permits and repatriation administrator (520-621-4795) or Nancy Pearson, assistant permits administrator (520-621-2096).
ASM Library was the very first independent library established on the UA campus in 1957 by a bequest from Rev. Victor Stoner, a graduate of the UA Anthropology Department. The Library continues to offer its resources to the campus and broader community Monday-Thursday, 10am -3pm . It is a non-circulating research collection focusing on the archaeology, ethnology and material culture of the American southwest and northern Mexico. The collection strengths also include museum studies, ethnohistory, dissertations and thesis from the School of Anthropology, the American Indian Studies Program, and archaeology and cultural resource management gray literature.
The collection catalog is available online (http://larc.asmua.arizona.edu).The catalog includes the bibliographic holdings of the ASM Library, Archives, Office of Ethnohistorical Research Library, Archaeological Records Office, Bioarchaeology Laboratory, Photography Department and the Archaeological Repository.
ASM Archives cares for personal papers, institutional records, and project files related to other Museum collections. These include information about archaeological fieldschools, ethnographic fieldwork, contract archaeology, and the research done by ASM staff, UA School of Anthropology faculty, former students, and private individuals who have donated their materials. Maps, correspondence, manuscripts, technical reports, and extensive unique research files are included. Some of the materials held by the Archives have restrictions on access to protect site location, personal information, or sensitive cultural information. Access is by appointment only. Contact Mary Graham, Head, ASM Library and Archives, or Archivist, Amy Rule.
The Librarians, Mary Graham and Marly Helm, are happy to provide class tours and instruction. Reserve readings (non-electronic) may be arranged in the ASM Library for courses if desired. We also provide internship and volunteer opportunities.
Contact Mary Graham via email, Marly Helm via email, or call the ASM Library and Archives at 520-621-4695.
The Photographic Collections contain over 350,000 photographic prints, negatives and transparencies illustrating the prehistory and ethnology of the Greater Southwest. The Collection's emphasis is on prehistoric and historic Southwestern archaeology and the ethnology of the Native Peoples of the American Southwest and Northwest Mexico. Photographs documenting both fieldwork and artifacts are available. Major collections document archaeological excavations at Ventana Cave, Snaketown, Naco, Lehner, Point of Pines, and Grasshopper. A sampling of ethnographic materials includes: O'odham tribes; contemporary craft artists from the Hopi, Apache and O'odham tribes; contemporary use of traditional farming methods; historic photos by Daniel Linderman of Piman people and by Grenville Goodwin of Western Apache. Special collections cover such diverse topics as aesthetic photography in Arizona, mission architecture of Sonora, Mexico, Mexican Indian costumes and masks, and ethnoarchaeology in the Philippines. Please contact Jannelle Weakly for research requests and photographic permissions.
Our website (http://www.statemuseum.arizona.edu/) has been consistently praised for the depth of its content aimed at both general and scholarly audiences. Information available ranges from online games and exhibits to scholarly papers and databases to podcasts and a blog. Students have worked on technical aspects of many website projects including preparing images of collections, creating text and image-based web pages, programming complex web applications, and developing online games. Students have also worked on non-technical aspects of content development in partnership with ASM curators and public programs staff. For more information about the website and opportunities to assist, or if you have project ideas, contact Laura LePere (520-626-6939).
Any ground-disturbing activity on state land, county or municipal lands, such as archaeological research or commercial development can result in the destruction of Arizona's cultural resources. Under the Arizona Antiquities Act, ground-disturbing activities on these lands must be preceded by a literature search to understand what is already known of the area and if necessary, by a ground survey for the identification of any new physical evidence of past human activity.
Under this same law, the Arizona State Museum is mandated to maintain these archaeological records in perpetuity and to make them available to authorized personnel. Through a system of archaeological permits, and document management, the Museum preserves a record of what has been discovered, what has changed and what has been destroyed. The records generated by these activities are archived at the Arizona State Museum in the form of hard copy documents and in a secured, online Geographic Information System called AZSITE.
AZSITE is used by land managing agencies, archaeologists, and a variety of scholars as an archaeological research and resource management tool. Records are available to qualified archaeologists and land managers at the Museum or online. A public version of AZSITE—AZSITE Public (http://azsitepublic.asu.edu/)—will display the density of archaeological finds within a 1 square mile area to provide an over of the likelihood of encountering cultural resources during any development in that area. For more information, contact Rick Karl or Shannon Twilling in the AZSITE Office (520-621-1271).
The Archaeological Repository at the ASM is responsible for accepting, processing, cataloging and caring for all archaeological materials generated by the various archaeological investigations undertaken by contracting companies and field schools working in the state received by the Museum through repository agreements. Through this process the Museum acquires not only the objects, but also receives all reports, and the supporting written and photographic documentation. This material is checked in, electronic inventories prepared, and the paper and digital archives prepared for storage. The staff of two permanent members and a crew of student assistants photograph and catalog individual objects for incorporation into the collection. The repository staff then facilitates the study of these collections by making them available to students, researchers and exhibitors, either by providing space for researchers or through loans to appropriate institutions (Museums, Contact companies, Academic departments, etc.). Contacts: Arthur W. Vokes (Repository Curator), Theah Erickson (Assistant Repository Curator) Phone: (520-626-9109).
ASM's ethnological collections—about 26,000 items—represent over 400 different culture groups. More than one third are from the SW United States and NW Mexico. In addition to the collections from the Southwest, the remaining collections are from other parts of North America, Central and South America, Africa, Oceania and Asia.
Southwestern collections consist primarily of basketry, pottery, and textiles. Katsinas, carved masks, jewelry and beadwork are also well represented. As well, the collections contain a wide variety of other utilitarian artifacts, such as musical instruments, weapons, and household tools. The collections date mostly from the 1880s to the 1980s.
Plains and Great Lakes beadwork, Mexican masks, Philippine pottery, and select examples of African and Oceanic sculpture are but a few of the other artifact categories in the Arizona State Museum's extensive and varied ethnographic holdings. The ethnological collections at ASM are indexed by several databases. These databases are currently accessible in-house, but plans are underway to offer online access.
Queries about the ethnological collections should be addressed to Diane Dittemore or Andrew Higgins (520-621-2079).
The collections consist of ca. 175,000 cataloged items, c. 30,000 cubic feet of research collections, c. 15,000 site survey collections, and several thousand type sherds.
The ASM archaeological collections focus on the Greater Southwest. In addition, the collections also include small collections of material from other parts of North America, South America, and the Old World. Archaeological collections are organized into Catalog Collection, Research Collection, Site Survey Collection, and Southwestern Sherd Library.
The Catalog Collection contains the primary reference materials for archaeological projects. These items are frequently used for exhibition, illustration in special publications and catalogs, teaching, and general comparative studies.
The Research Collection constitutes the primary documentation of the published and unpublished analyses of archaeological projects. These collections are used in a variety of ways, including preparation for further field work in the same area or adjacent areas, and for restudies or more intensive studies of major artifact classes and other problem-oriented research.
The Site Survey Collection consists of small diagnostic samples of sherds and lithics from thousands of sites across Arizona. These collections can be used to determine spatial and temporal outlines of prehistoric cultures in the region.
The Southwestern Sherd Library consists of samples of Southwestern pottery types from sites throughout the range of occurrence of the type. The Library is used for comparative research and for identification and teaching purposes by Museum staff and scholars and students.
Archaeological collections at ASM are accessible for study to students and scholars by application to the Curator of Collections or the Archaeological Collections Curator. Access may be granted for study at the Museum or, in some instances, by loan to a scholar's home institution. The archaeological collections at ASM are indexed by several databases. These databases are currently accessible in-house, but plans are underway to offer on-line access.
Queries about the collections should be addressed to Mike Jacobs or Lisa Zimmerman (520-621-6312).
The Pottery Vault stores some 20,000 Southwest Indian whole-vessel archaeological and ethnological ceramics that are the focus of ASM's POTTERY PROJECT. Spanning 2000 years of life in the unique environments of the American desert Southwest and northern Mexico, the collection reflects almost every cultural group in the region. This collection—the largest and most comprehensive of its kind—is one of the nation's most significant cultural resources. It has been designated an Official Project of the Save America's Treasures program, a public private partnership between the White House Millennium Council and the National Trust for Historic Preservation to celebrate and preserve our nation's cultural legacy. The interpretive area and “wall of pots” provide information and interpretation of the pottery vault.
Queries about the ethnological pottery should be addressed to Diane Dittemore (520-621-2079). Questions about archaeological pottery may be directed to Mike Jacobs (520-621-6312).
More Information
For more about museum opportunities, see our page on Museum Career Resources (http://www.statemuseum.arizona.edu/edu/museum_careers.shtml)
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