Events & Lectures

Site Steward Lecture Series 2011-2012

All lectures will be held at the forest service office located at 11 Forest Lane, approximately 6 miles southwest of Santa Fe, off the intersection of NM 14 and NM 599, directly east of the new Rail Runner Station. Doors open at 5:15. Lectures begin at 6:00. You are welcome to bring a brown bag supper to enjoy before or during the lecture.

Feb 1.  Polly Schaafsma.  "Rock Art and Shamanism-The Current Debate"

Ms Polly is a treasure! With degrees in anthropology and archeology she has pursued her interest in rock art with diligence and vigor. Anyone who has seen rock art has to have wondered 'Where are they going, where did they come from: and what do all those etchings mean?' Ms Polly has also wondered, and her curiosity has led her to cull together rock art that is similar and that attempts to bring order from chaos.

Her several books have long been considered basic to rock art study. Most recently she produced " The Imagery and Ideology of Pueblo Warfare" and "Painting the Cosmos: Metaphors and Worldview in Images from the Southwest Pueblos and Mexico".

Mar 7.  John Pitts speaking on his recent trip and work in Uzbekistan. 

Jan 4 2012.  Completed. Phil Young.  "Eat - Pray - Petra: Protecting a World Heritage Site's Past"

Phil will highlight some of the past criminal heritage resource investigations he has conducted in the United States that resulted in landmark convictions.

He will discuss conditions and challenges faced by managers at Petra Archaeological Park (http://www.petrapark.com/) in Southern Jordan.  As a World Heritage Site, annual visitation to Petra tripled in the 3-years following its selection as one of the 7 Ancient Wonders of the World. Increased visitation has added pressures. This program will talk about the many travelers that have experienced Petra, from its time when it was known as "Raqmu" in Nabataean/Hellenistic times to the present. In addition to a short history of the area, the development of the Park's Cultural Resources Management, Park Ranger, Tourism Police, and Visitor Services programs will be presented.

Phil was raised in Southern California, is a Navy veteran, majored in history & anthropology, and had a career with the National Park Service stretching from Louisiana to Alaska and points in between. He retired as a Regional Special Agent (aka "The Pot Nazi") to take a job as an archaeologist with the New Mexico State Historic Preservation Div. He has remained active with NM SiteWatch and wildland fire incident management duties. As a contractor for the US Dept. of Interior's International Technical Assistance Program, he made two trips to work a total of three months at Petra in 2011.

Nov 2 2011.  Completed. Dan Leniham speaking on Underwater Archeological Preservation. 

Wow! In my dreams I slip in and out of such wrecks deep in the sea.  Alas, I am confined to listening and watching what others have done.  Our speaker for November, Dan Leniham, has been there and done it all , from Spanish ruins in Florida to the Arizona in Pearl Harbor!  He says his discussion will "range from sites in reservoirs to submerged caves" locally, nationally, and internationally.  As instigator and head of the Submerged Resources Center, based in Santa Fe for 34 years, his experience is remarkable.  His book "Submerged" will be available that evening.  Come along for the ride!

Oct 5 2011.  Completed. Shelley Thompson and Gary Nugent reminisce, with slides, about their spring tour to the petroglyphs in SE Utah

It will be a pleasure and an education for some and for others fond memories of that trip. Shelley talks of her interest in archeology because of a Time-Life book on the American Southwest and an "enthusiastic librarian who fed that interest". Gary took Shelley, in 1999, on a tour of the southwest which cemented a relationship and a shared enthusiasm for archeology. Shelley writes of remnants of long ago people that seem "Transcendental in the service of philosophy beyond our experiences of phenomena, although not beyond potential knowledge." 'Twill be interesting !.