January 2, 7:00 PM
"What's New in Mocheland"
Jim Kus will discuss recent excavations in Northern Coastal Peru
which
have allowed archaeologists to fill in some blank spots in the
understanding of the Moche culture. Jim will also cover the two new
museums that have been opened in the North Coast region. This lecture
is sponsored by the Fresno Archaeological Society.
Fresno State campus at University Business Center.
Fresno, California
http://www.***.com/

January 3, 6:00 PM
Center for Desert Archaeology Lecture
"Preserving the Places of Our Shared Past: The History and Future of
Preservation Archaeology"
Panel discussion led by Bill Doelle, Center for Desert Archaeology
Casa Vicente,
375 S. Stone Avenue,
Tucson, Arizona
http://www.***.com/

January 3, 7:00 PM
"Recent and Ongoing Research in Illinois Archaeology"
Lawrence Conrad, Emeritus professor, Western Illinois University
Since the 1930s Illinois has been at the forefront of American
archaeology and still is. This presentation will touch upon a few of
the ongoing and recently completed projects from across the state.
These projects illustrate some of the methods and techniques used by
archaeologists and physical anthropologists to expand our
understanding of Illinois prehistoric peoples.  Drawing on
information from a variety of sources-surface survey, excavation, the
study of existing collections of artifacts, animal and plant remains,
and human skeletal remains; remote sensing of buildings and
fortifications, trace-element analysis of lithic material, and DNA
studies-scholars and amateurs alike continue to make significant
discoveries.  Their finds illuminate our understanding of human
history in Illinois and the forces that have shaped human culture
throughout the world.  There will also be a discussion of the
desperate need to preserve the East St. Louis Mound Group, a portion
of the Cahokia site, which was long thought destroyed, but has
recently been discovered to be largely intact.
Contact; 309.547.3721
{*filter*}son Mounds Museum
Lewiston, Illinois
http://www.***.com/

Tues. January 3, 7:45 PM
Oregon Archaeology Society Lecture
"Native American Architecture of the Lower Columbia, Oregon Coast,
and
Willamette Valley: the Vernacular Style."
Melissa Darby MA, Principal Investigator, Lower Columbia Research &
Archaeology.
Ethnographic, archaeological and ethnohistorical accounts suggest
that
the architecture of the people of Western Oregon and the lower
Columbia region was similar to other Northwest Coast groups, but
there
were some distinct differences in dwelling styles on the central and
southern Oregon Coast. This presentation will explore several house
styles from the region. There has been a long running controversy of
where on the West Coast of America Captain Francis Drake landed
during
the summer of 1579. His logs and charts were suppressed, and the
official account censored. We do have Drakes descriptions of the
people they encountered, and their houses. This presentation will
explore whether these descriptions fit the record. Melissa Darby
MA,
is Principal Investigator, Lower Columbia Research & Archaeology and
president of the non-profit Drake Anchorage Research Collaboration
(DARC.) She is an anthropologist and archaeologist, historian and
architectural historian. She is also a noted authority on the
ethnohistory of the lower Columbia River region. Melissa has written
on the vernacular architecture of the people of the region, and how
settlement patterns were driven in part by the location of wetland
stands of wapato (Sagittaria latifolia.)
Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI)
1945 SE Water Street,
Portland, Oregon
http://www.***.com/

January 4, 7:30 PM
Pueblo Grande Museum Auxiliary Presentation
"Mexican Relationships with Classic Period Hohokam"
Join the Pueblo Grande Museum Auxiliary and Dr. Paul Fish, Curator of
Arizona State Museum and Professor, School of Anthropology,
University
of Arizona.   Dr. Fish will discuss Mexican and Hohokam relations
with
a southern perspective. Also covered will be the dramatic demographic
and social changes occurring in late pre-Hispanic times in the
Southwest. This presentation is free and open to the public.
Pueblo Grande Museum
Phoenix, Arizona
http://www.***.com/

January 5, 7:30 PM
Saginaw Chapter of the Michigan Archaeological Society Lecture
Ohio hunters in the Saginaw Valley Late Woodland Period.
Don Simons, MAS state president
Over a span of almost 40 years, the speaker rigorously surface
collected artifacts on this small site (#211/Simons) located in St.
Charles Twp., southern Saginaw County.  The Simons collection
includes
diagnostic artifacts from several small intermittent Archaic
occupations.  However, the pre{*filter*} sample dates to the Early Late
Woodland period that is the focus of this program.  Nearly all tools
and debitage are made on Upper Mercer chert from almost three hundred
air miles away in Ohio.  The lithic assemblage shows a substantial
range of on-site activities including projectile point manufacturing
and other processing activities to prepare for hunting and related
activities.
  The data suggests that the primary function of this location, during
the Early Late Woodland era, likely served hunters as a staging area
for their hunt. Moreover, the major use of unique tool material from
Ohio and the resulting reliable typological data from this site links
seamlessly with that from many other related sites in the Saginaw
Valley and southeastern Michigan.
Castle Museum of Saginaw County History,
500 Federal Ave,
Saginaw, Michigan
http://www.***.com/

January 6, 6:45 PM
Pre-Columbian Society of Washington D.C. January Lecture
"Ancient Human Impact on Marine Ecosystems"
Torben Rick, PhD, is Curator of North American Archaeology and
Director of the Program in Human Ecology and Archaeobiology in the
Department of Anthropology at the Nation Museum of Natural History.
Today's marine ecosystems are plagued by overfishing, pollution,
climate changes, euthrophication, and numerous other processes. Much
of our understanding about these ecosystems comes from research
carried out during the past 30 or so years. Our January speaker
Torben
Rick will draw on research in the Chesapeake Bay, the Channel
Islands,
CA and elsewhere to provide a millennial-scale perspective on human
interactions with marine and ocean ecosystems. These projects provide
context and baseline data for understanding the past, present, and
future of our marine environments..
Charles Sumner School Museum and Archives,
1201 17th Street  NW.
Washington D.C.
http://www.***.com/

January 6-7, 2012
Institute of Andean Studies 52nd Annual Meeting
Room 112, Wurster Hall,
University of California,
Berkeley, California
http://www.***.com/

January 11, 7:00 PM
Illinois State Museum Lecture
"The End of Time: Maya, Aztec, Pawnee, and Pueblo Views of the "End
of
the World"
Presented by Dr. Jonathan Reyman, Curator of Anthropology, Illinois
State Museum
News media reports about the so-called Maya prediction of the end
of
the world in 2012 fail to note that many Native American peoples, and
peoples elsewhere in the world, have a cyclical view of time in which
a cycle of time ends and a new one begins. For example, the Hopi in
Arizona are now in their Fourth World. The Maya did predict the end
of
a time cycle in roughly 2012, but it was to be followed by the start
of another 5,000-year cycle, not the end of time itself. This
presentation will focus on cosmology and cyclical time for four
Native
American groups.
Illinois State Museum Research & Collections Center,
1011 East Ash Street
Springfield, Illinois
http://www.***.com/

January 12, 7:30 PM
Bernie Jones
"Orange Countys Sculpted Rocks: The Santiago Petroglyph Style"
Bernie Jones
In March 2007, a wind-driven fire burned 2,036 acres in the hills of
Orange County, California. Ridges of rock and boulders were exposed
for the first time in decades unveiling an extensive rock art complex
containing a unique petroglyph style. This distinctive style consists
of a bewildering array of pre{*filter*}ly non-representational grooves,
grooves within grooves, scoops, channels, and gouges. These grooved
petroglyphs were created in every conceivable size, shape, length,
depth, and grouping with relatively few cupules or painted areas
among
them. The body of work is expanding with a conservative estimate of
3,000 individual images already found. Particularly compelling are
small, hand-sized, grooved rocks placed in dry, run-off areas. These
small stones may have some affinal relationship to certain engraved
stones found in Orange County. Juxtaposed to these diminutive stones
are very large boulders which have been heavily abraded and grooved,
giving them the appearance of bas-relief sculpture. A number of
iconographic images are imbedded within the non-representational
petroglyphs that characterize this rock art environment. This is a
preliminary report on the discovery, description, and categorization
of what we have named the Santiago Petroglyph Style.
Irvine Ranch Water District,
15600 Sand Canyon Avenue (between the I-5 and I-405, next to the Post
Office)
Irvine, California
http://www.***.com/

January 14-15, 2012
13th Southwest Symposium
"Causation and Explanation: Demography, Movement, Historical Ecology"
HIbben Center and Maxwell Museum of Archaeology
Albuquerque, New Mexico
www.unm.edu/~swsympos

January 19, 7:30 PM
The Huron Valley Chapter of the Michigan Archaeological Society
Lecture
"The Crafting Of Prehistoric Maya Kinship"
Dr. Bradley Ensor, Eastern Michigan University
Kelsey Museum of Archaeology
434 S. State St.
Ann Arbor, Michigan
http://www.***.com/

January 20, 12:00 PM
San Diego Archaeological Center Lecture
"Finding the Preclassic Maya in the Rainforest of Guatemala"
Carole Melum, on a mule trip to the remote rainforest of northern
Guatemala, once home to the preclassic Maya. Ms. Melum will examine
exciting new discoveries that have been attracting worldwide
attention, and research that sheds light on the preclassic period
(800
BCE to 200 BCE) of this ancient civilization.
Annemarie Cox at 760-291-0370
http://www.***.com/

Saturday, January 21, 1:00 PM
Dumbarton Oaks Lecture
Spiritual Skin: Guardian and Assistant Tattooing of the Americas
Lars Krutak
Events are free and open to the public. Space is limited and

Founders' Room.
Dumbarton Oaks
Washington DC
http://www.***.com/

January 25, 5:00 PM
AIA Lecture
"The Making of Maya: Secrets of their Ancient World"
A lecture by Justin Jennings of the Royal Ontario Museum
The opening of a museum exhibition is the end of an odyssey that
begins with an idea and ends with a frenetic evening of translating
the last credit line and{*filter*} the last graphic panel.  In this
talk, Justin Jennings will take you through The making of Maya:
Secrets of their Ancient World through the eyes of an archaeologist.
You will sit at the table as we create the core concept for the show,
and tag along to visit the collection storerooms to select objects
(and lament the ones that got away).  You will witness as layer after
layer is added to create a final product that, if we are lucky, takes
you momentarily into a different era.
Bahen Centre, Room1190,
University of Toronto
40 St. George Street
Toronto, Canada
http://www.***.com/

January 26, 8:30 AM-7:00 PM
Library of Congress Lecture
"Pre-Hispanic Aztec Nobility; "Who Really Owned the Estate in the
'Place of Dog Tail?': Land Tenure Patterns Among the Pre-Hispanic
Aztec Nobility in the Late 15th  Early 16th Centuries."
Anastasia Kalyuta, Kislak Fellow in American Studies
Kluge Center Meeting Room, First floor, Thomas Jefferson Building
Library of Congress
Contact: (202) 707-3302
http://www.***.com/

Saturday, January 28, 1:00 PM
Dumbarton Oaks Lecture
Performing the Body: Movement and Adornment in the Ancient Andes
Blenda Femenias
Events are free and open to the public. Space is limited and

Founders' Room.
Dumbarton Oaks
Washington DC
http://www.***.com/

Tuesday, January 31, 2012, 7:00 PM
Maya Lecture Series in conjunction with the exhibit, "Maya: Secrets
of
their Ancient World." (lecture fees)
"Reconsidering Ideas about Early Maya Political Organization"
Helen Haines
Royal Ontario Museum,
Level 1B
Signy and Clophe Eaton Theatre
Toronto, Canada
http://www.***.com/

Mike Ruggeri's Ancient America Museum Exhibitions, Conferences and
Lectures
http://www.***.com/