1936:
Portales Daily News. Note that there was no “Clovis” cultural group yet…\
Click HERE for the pdf, with bonus Coronado article OR link below:
http://theclovissite.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/pdn1936.pdf
Interesting news from the genetics world. We’re slowly building a clearer picture of early Americans.
“A new genetic study of South American natives, published on the journal PLOS Genetics, provides scientific evidence to reformulate the traditional model and define new theories of human settlement of the Americas” from a new article by Professor Daniel Turbón, from the Department of Animal Biology of the University of Barcelona.
“This new research is based on the analysis of male Y-chromosomal genetic markers in about one thousand individuals, representing 50 tribal South American native populations.”
Things slow down here over the winter. Time to read, write, and catch up on all the things not finished over the year.
The Clovis age hand-dug well located within the South Bank area of the Blackwater site got an unexpected visit from its original excavator this summer. Shirley East, pictured above standing in the well, was a regular face around the Blackwater site between 1962 and 1969. Shirley was a crew member for many of the excavations at the site and actively involved with the Paleo-Indian Institute of Eastern New Mexico University.
Shirley and her husband visited the museum and site in early August while in town for business. Shirley’s last visit to the site was in 1993 when she was summoned to help locate the long-backfilled well as part of a mapping project with ENMU and the Smithsonian Institute. Shirley located the well in no time happily stating, “well its just right there!”.
Shirley shared many stories from those early days and even offered to share her knowledge of those excavations of yesteryear. The Blackwater site was certainly honored to receive the visit, and I am personally thankful for her extended hand of help.
As an added bonus, I learned that Shirley was the artist who painted the Pleistocene animals on display at the Blackwater museum and worked diligently to prepare displays for its Grand Opening in 1969. The Blackwater Draw Museum was first opened to the public primarily to display artifacts discovered at the Blackwater Locality.
The climate studies class at Eastern New Mexico University has resumed, instructed by Dr. David Kilby, and funded through a grant from New Mexico NSF EPSCoR. The class spent the Fall 2011 semester collecting sediment samples from various locations in Eastern New Mexico, including various locations at Blackwater Locality #1. The Students are now analyzing the samples in ENMU’s new geoarchaeology lab.
The students are describing the samples using the Munsell hue test, a standardized way of describing the color of the sediments when they are dry, moist, and completely saturated. They are also testing the plasticity, carbon content, and calcium content of the sediments using various tests including the amount of effervescence after the application of acid (pictured above).
For more information click below:
This is the raw photo. It will undergo some cleanup via PhotoShop and we hope will become a postcard.
Projectile Points from Blackwater Draw will be on display at an upcoming exhibit at the New Mexico Museum of Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico from May 11, 2012 - January 2014. The exhibit is titled “It’s About Time: 14,000 Years of Art in New Mexico“, and will include a chronological display of New Mexico art beginning with the Clovis culture and continuing to the present.
New Mexico Museum of Art
This will certainly be an outstanding exhibit, and one that all of us here at Blackwater are very excited about. So, if you live in New Mexico or if your future travel plans include a visit to our great state, then definitely consider adding a visit to Santa Fe and the New Mexico Museum of Art to your itinerary.
For more information about the museum and the exhibit just click on the above image.
Photo courtesy of Tandy Bozeman.
Photo courtesy of Tandy Bozeman.
Photo courtesy of Tandy Bozeman.
Photo courtesy of Tandy Bozeman.
Lots of activity at the site. Preparing to open for the season, giving guided tours to visitors, working on the analysis and re-writing our story. We also had some professional photography done recently and will add those images in the following days.
Happy Vernal Equinox.
We’re working on some new imagery for the Clovis site. Everybody loves the points. To think that this was probably stuck in the mammoth it was found with over 12,000 years ago.
