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Community Activities and Announcements (Ongoing)

This page is updated bi-weekly. Check back frequently for updates!


Upcoming Archaeology Things To Do:


UTE INDIAN MUSEUM (MONTROSE, CO/$):

  • Ongoing until May 31, 2025 (9:00am-4:30pm MDT) – Exhibit on Cheyenne Dog Soldiers. Look at the Cheyenne Dog Soldiers through a nearly forgotten ledger book of pencil illustration by Cheyenne warriors.  For more information, visit Ute Mountain Museum .


DENVER MUSEUM OF NATURE AND SCIENCE (DENVER/$):

  • Ongoing until August 24, 2025 (9:00am-5:00pm MDT) – Exhibit:  Angkor: The Lost Empire of Cambodia.  Available with a general admission, this new exhibit has over 100 intricate carvings, sacred sculptures and ancient relics, many never before seen outside of Cambodia.  For an additional cost, there is also an accompanying film for this exhibit.  For more information and to purchase tickets, visit DMNS - Angkor Exhibit and Film .


LINDENMEIER ARCHAELOGICAL SITE - TOUR (SOAPSTONE PRAIRIE NATURAL AREA, WELLINGTON, CO):

  • March 1, 2025 through November 30, 2025 (Dawn until Dusk) – The Folsom (Paleo-Indian) occupation site is on the National Register of Historic Places and was excavated by the Smithsonian Institute in the 1930s. There are interpretive presentations by specially-trained naturalist and visitors can view bison of the Laramie Foothills Conservation Herd.  For further information, visit Lindenmeier Site in Soapstone Prairie Natural Area .


CHEROKEE RANCH CASTLE TOUR (SEDALIA, CO/$):

  • (New Dates) March 5 - March 29, 2025 (10:00am MDT) - Located in nearby Sedalia, visit this historic ranch with its castle, petrified wood forest, and impressive historic collection. Learn about owner Tweet Kimball establishing the Cherokee Ranch and Castle Foundation to protect the ranch's plant life, wildlife and archaeological sites.  For more information and to make a reservation, visit Cherokee Ranch & Castle Tour .


OLD PUEBLO ARCHAEOLOGY CENTER - TOUR (TUCSON, AZ/IN PERSON/$):

  • (New) March 20, 2025 (8:00am-12:00pm MDT) – Tour (Donation Requested): Spring Equinox Tour to Los Morteros and Picture Rocks Petroglyphs Archaeology Sites.  Tour Full but Wait List is Available – visit Old Pueblo Spring Equinox Tour .


FOUR MILE HOUSE HISTORIC PARK (GLENDALE, CO/SCFD FREE DAY):

  • (New Date) March 28, 2025 (10:00am-4:00pm MDT) -  The park will be hosting a SCFD free day.  Registration is required.  For more information and to register, visit Four Mile House SCFD Free Day .


LOVELAND ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY (LOVELAND, CO/IN PERSON/FREE):

  • (New) March 29, 2025 (9:00am-6:00pm MDT) – Event: Spring Into Archaeology Fair 2025 will be held at the Thomas M. McKee 4-H, Youth & Community Building, Larimer County Fairgrounds/The Ranch.  This is a family-friendly event.  For more information, visit LAS - Spring Into Archaeology Fair .


HISTORY COLORADO - EDUCATIONAL CLASS (ONLINE/$):

  • Ongoing through November 2025 - The Museum Basics classes are suitable for those working or volunteering in cultural institutions such as museums, archives and libraries as well or those hoping to get into this field.  For more information and to register for this class, visit History Colorado Museum Basics Classes . Additional classes include:

    • March 12th: Strategic and Effective Approaches for Deaccessioning

    • May 4th: Hazardous Materials in Museum Collections

    • July 9th: Working with Communities as Partners

    • September 10th: Objects as Teaching Tools

    • November 12th: Fundamentals in Collections Rehousing


AMACHE NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE (CO):

  • Ongoing: Amache was one of ten internment camps established by the U.S. government during WWII to detain Japanese and American citizens of Japanese descent. There is a museum to visit,  a self-guided map/audio tour of the historic site and a virtual visit link.  For more information, visit Amache Visitors Information .


CANYON OF THE ANCIENTS (SW CO/$)

  • Year Round Tours:  A choice of guided tours led by the Southwest Colorado Canyons Alliance are available.  For more information, visit Canyon of the Ancients Tours .


SAND CREEK NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE (CO)

  • Ongoing: The Contact Station at the Sand Creek National Historic Site outside of Eads, Co is open (closed federal holidays). Note: Visitor Center in the town of Eads is closed until further notice due to cuts in federal government spending.  For more information, visit Sand Creek Visitors Information . Please also visit the Sand Creek Massacre exhibit at History Colorado Center, 1200 N. Broadway, Denver 80203.


Upcoming Archaeology Lectures


HISTORY COLORADO PAAC PROGRAM ENRICHMENT SERIES (ON-DEMAND/FREE):

COLORADO ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY-NORTHERN CHAPTER (IN PERSON ONLY/FREE):

  • March 12, 2025 (5:30-6:00pm MDT Social/6:15pm MDT Lecture) – Finding Julesburg III. Speaker: Riley Limbaugh, Masters Student in Archaeology, Colorado State University.  Limbaugh will discuss his findings of his search for the lost town site of Julesburg III.  For more information, visit CAS-Northern Chapter Julesburg III Lecture .


SAN JUAN BASIN ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY (HYBRID/FREE):

  • March 12, 2025 (7:00pm MDT) – Adaptive Foraging Behaviors in the Horn of Africa during the Toba Super-Eruption. Speaker: John Kappelman, Professor Emeritus, University of Texas-Austin.  For more information and to access the Zoom link, visit SJBA March Lecture - Toba Super-Eruption .


ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUE OF AMERICA - BOULDER CHAPTER (IN PERSON/FREE):

  • March 12, 2025 (7:00pm MDT) – Normalizing Loot: A Case Study of a Plundered Imperial Shrine. Speaker: Elizabeth Marlowe, Professor of Art History and Chair of the Art Department, Colgate University.  For more information, visit AIA-Boulder Chapter March Lecture .


AMERICAN INDIAN ROCK ART ASSOCIATION (ONLINE/FREE):

  • March 15, 2025 (6:30pm MDT) – Geoarchaeology and Rock Art: the Middle Fork of the Powder River, Wyoming. Speaker: Julie Francis (author with Larry Loendorf, William P. Eckerle, Spencer Pelton, and Mark Willis).  For more information and to register for the Zoom link, visit ARAA - Geoarchaeology Lecture .


ARIZONA ARCHAELOGICAL AND HISTORICAL SOCIETY (ONLINE/FREE):

  • March 17, 2025 (7:00pm-8:30pm MDT) – Piecing Together the Legacy and Remote Data Puzzle: Architecture and Monumentality in Eastern Honduras.  Speaker: Anna Cohen, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Florida State University.  For information and to register for the Zoom link, visit AAHS Cohen Eastern Honduras Lecture .


COLORADO ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY - PIKES PEAK CHAPTER (COLORADO SPRINGS, CO/HYBRID/FREE):

  • March 18, 2025 (7:00pm MDT) – Manifest Destiny Comes to the Great American Desert: How Expansionist Legends Fared in the Rocky Mountain West.  Speaker: Katherine Scott Sturdevant, Senior History Faculty, Pikes Peak State College.  For more information and to access the “Join Online” link, visit CAS-Pikes Peak Lecture .


SHUMLA ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH & EDUCATION CENTER (ONLINE/TEXAS/FREE):

  • March 19, 2025 (11:00am-12:00pm MDT) – Lunch & Learn Series. Rattlesnake Canyon: Shumla’s Level 2 and 3 Documentation Methods. Speaker: Dr. Karen Steelman, Science Director.  Steelman will be discussing the history of work carried out by Shumla at Rattlesnake Canyon.  For more information and register to receive the Zoom link, visit Shumla Rattlesnake Canyon Research Lecture .


SMITHSONIAN ASSOCIATES (ONLINE/$):

  • (Corrected Date) March 19, 2025 (5:00pm-6:30pm MDT) – Ancient Foods and Flavors. Speaker: Katherine Moore, Archaeologist.  Moore discusses her current research in North and South America and the Near East undertaken by the Penn Museum, Philadelphia where she studies and teaches about ancient food in its Center for Analysis of Ancient Materials.  For more information and to register to receive the Zoom link, visit Smithsonian Associates - Ancient Foods & Flavors Lecture .

  • (New) April 2, 2025 (10:00am-11:15am MDT) -The Mesopotamian Riddle: Cracking the Code of Cuneiform.  Speaker: Joshua Hammer, Journalist and Author. For more information and to register to receive the Zoom link, visit Smithsonian Associates - The Mesopotamian Riddle .


ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE OF AMERICA - NATIONAL (ONLINE/FREE):

  • March 19, 2025 (6:00 MDT) – Archaeology Hour Series.  Complex Society Without Rulers. Speaker: Rosemary Joyce. For more information and to register to receive the Zoom link, visit AIA-Archaeology Hour Complex Society Lecture .


CROW CANYON ARCHAEOLOGICAL CENTER, DISCOVER ARCHAEOLOGY WEBINAR SERIES (ONLINE/FREE):

  • March 20, 2025 (4:00pm MDT) – Victory Togetherness: The Struggle for Sovereignty through Basketball at St. Francis Mission School.  Speaker: Tria Blu Wakpa.  For more information and to register to receive the Zoom link, visit Crow Canyon - Victory Togetherness Lecture .

  • (New) March 27, 2025 (4:00pm MDT) – Under-recognized Food Crops of Southwestern Native American Tribes.  Speaker: Reagan Wytsalucy.  For more information and to register to receive the Zoom link, visit Crow Canyon - Under-recognized SW Food Crops Lecture .

  • (New) April 3, 2025 (4:00pm MDT) – Cooper’s Ferry/Nipéhe: A Pre-Clovis Site in North America. Speaker: Loren Davis.  For more information and to register to receive the Zoom link, visit Crow Canyon - Cooper's Ferry/Nipéhe Lecture .


COLORADO ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY - ROCK ART ASSOCIATION (ONLINE/FREE):

  • March 20, 2025 (7:00pm-9:00pm MDT) – Investigate the Petroglyphs from the Big Island of Hawaii. Presenter: Alma Evans, Colorado Art Association member.  For more information and to access the “Join Here” link, visit CAS-CRAA Hawaiian Rock Art Lecture .


OLD PUEBLO ARCHAEOLOGY CENTER (TUCSON, AZ/ONLINE/FREE):

  • (New) March 20, 2025 (7:00pm-8:30pm MDT) – Thursday Food For Thought Lecture Series. Crossing the Akimel to Snaketown: The Ancestral Connection to Modern Day O’Odham. Speaker: Reylynne Williams, Gila River Indian Community.  For more information and to register to receive the Zoom link, visit Old Pueblo Food For Thought Thurs Lecture .


ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE OF AMERICA (ONLINE/FREE):

  • March 20, 2025 (7:30pm-9:00pm MDT) – AIA-Spokane Chapter: Remembered Places, Significant Spaces: Room Closure Practices in the Pueblo Southwest.  For more information and to access the Zoom link, visit AIA-Spokane Pueblo Southwest Room Closure Practices Lecture .

  • (New) March 23, 2025 (9:30am-10:30am MDT) – AIA-Long Island Chapter: Looking for Lucy: Revisiting The Foundation Of Race & Gender In Historical Archaeology.  Speaker: Whitney Battle-Baptiste, Professor of Anthropology, University of Massachusetts and Director of the W.E.B. Du bois Center at UMass Amherst.  For more information and to access the Zoom link, visit AIA-Long Island Chapter - Looking for Lucy Lecture .

  • (New) March 23, 2025 (3:00pm-4:30pm MDT) – AIA-Los Angeles County Chapter: “Barbarians” and Bronzes: The Origins of Civilization In Ancient Vietnam.  Speaker: Nam C. Kim, Department of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin-Madison.  For more information and to register to receive the Zoom link, visit AIA-Los Angeles County - "Barbarians" and Bronzes Lecture .

  • (New) March 26, 2025 (5:00pm-6:40pm MDT) – AIA-Washington Chapter: Eldorado On The Nile: The Art of Luxury In Ptolemaic Alexandria. Speaker: Dimitris Plantzos.  For more information and to register to receive the Zoom link, visit AIA-Washington DC Eldorado on the Nile Lecture .


ARCHAEOLOGY SOUTHWEST (IN PERSON & RECORDING/TUCSON, AZ/FREE):


PARKER ARTS – (PARKER, CO/IN PERSON/FREE):



 

Announcements

ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE PUBLICATION OF THE FINAL REPORT ON THE SWALLOW SITE (5JF321)


We are pleased to announce the Swallow Site Oversight Committee has completed and released the final report on the Swallow Site located on Ken-Caryl Ranch, Jefferson County, Colorado. The report is titled, Archaeological Investigation at the Swallow Site, Jefferson County, Colorado and is published as Memoir Number 7 of the Colorado Archaeological Society, Denver (Copyright 2024).  The Denver Chapter of the Colorado Archaeological Society led the decade-long investigation at the Swallow Site with the help of many CAS member volunteers.  


The report is available to download as a “Read Only” pdf document from the Online Resource for Colorado Archaeology and Historic Preservation (ORCA) website via this link to ORCA’s Distributed Reports web page – https://archaeologycolorado.org/content/distributed-publications . Just click on the report’s title to access, read and/or save the pdf file.


Background:


During the early 1970s through to the late 1990s, the Denver Chapter of the Colorado Archaeological Society (DC-CAS) carried out archaeological fieldwork on the Ken-Caryl Ranch property in Jefferson County ahead of the construction of the Ken-Caryl residential development by Johns Manville Corporation.  Among the numerous archaeological sites identified, the Swallow Site (5JF321) was one of the most culturally-rich and important sites recorded on the Ken-Caryl Ranch property.


Through the efforts of a multitude of CAS member volunteers, the prehistoric occupation of the Swallow Site was recorded, excavated and analyzed.  However, numerous attempts undertaken to synthesize the high volume of information recovered into a cohesive report were unsuccessful.  In 2018, the Swallow Site Oversight Committee was formed to reexamine and synthesize the Swallow Site data and to produce a comprehensive final report for publication on behalf of DC-CAS.


The Denver Chapter Board is most appreciative and grateful for the Committee’s dedication, hard work and tenacity to bring this report to fruition.  The Board also wishes to express its thanks to the Paleocultural Research Group (PCRG) for the publication layout work undertaken for the final report and to the Online Resources for Colorado Archaeology and Historic Preservation (ORCA) for hosting the Swallow Site publication on their website. 



 








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