The San Juan Basin Archaeological Society invites the public to a presentation in the Lyceum at the Center of Southwest Studies and on Zoom on Wednesday, May 10th at 7:00 pm. At 6:30 we will have social time, then after a brief business meeting, Mona Charles will discuss, "From This Earth: Ancestral Pueblo Pottery in the Animas Museum's Collection". For log-in information, go to SJBAS.ORG.

The Four Corners region of the American Southwest, including La Plata County is well known as a home of the Ancestral Pueblo peoples. Starting in the 1930s, local avocational archaeologists attracted the attention of professionals with the quantity and quality of the artifacts they excavated. Many of these artifacts made their way into much larger institutions, however a relatively small collection was donated to the Animas Museum. In 2016, Museum staff completed a NAGPRA Consultation and Documentation grant. Human remains, along with associated and unassociated funerary objects were identified and subsequently claimed by the Hopi tribe. However, many artifacts in our collection are not associated with burials and lack extensive data. During the summer of 2022, the Animas Museum received a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Sciences to properly identify, catalog, and care for these artifacts and make them accessible to the public, both in person and online. In this presentation, team members Mona Charles, Susan Jones, Briana Paxton and Patty Joy will talk about the project which will conclude this summer. susanjones@animasmuseum.org

Presenters:
Mona Charles is an anthropological archaeologist with over three decades of experience in the Four Corners, most of this time in Southwest Colorado. Ms. Charles has worked for various Municipal, State, and Federal agencies, Fort Lewis College, the La Plata County Historical Society, and many private consulting firms. Mona is probably best known for her work with the Basketmaker II sites of Darkmold and the Falls Creek Rock Shelters.

Patty Joy is a local fiber artist and quilt historian who has had experience working with arche-ologists in the field and in museums.

Briana Paxton is a local artist and museum conservator.

Susan Jones is currently the Collections Manager at the Animas Museum.