Desert Archaeology cultural resources management CRM graphics illustration photography services tucson arizona Jan 20

Transitions: Sarah Herr is New Desert Archaeology President

Incoming president Sarah Herr writes this week's blog. The featured image (top) is a reconstruction of the native settlement near the Spanish mission and mission garden at the base of A-Mountain in Tucson, by our own Rob Ciaccio. On Tuesday, I became majority owner and president of Desert Archaeology, Inc.…

Knights of Pythias cemetery announcement in the Tucson Citizen, 1915 Jan 13

Tucson’s Abandoned Court Street Cemetery

This week's blog is written by Homer Thiel, Desert Archaeology's historical archaeology expert. Hidden beneath the streets, sidewalks, homes, and businesses of an eight-block area located across the street from downtown campus of the Pima Community College in Tucson is the historic Court Street Cemetery. It opened in 1875, after…

Pit dug for corn-roasting experiments at Desert Archaeology Jan 6

Experimental Archaeology: Learning by Doing

R. J. Sliva, who has done the compulsory lithics graduate student curing-hides-with-brains experiment, recounts the more informative experimental archaeology conducted by Desert staff.  Some men simply want to watch the world burn... particularly when it advances archaeological knowledge. Traditional technologies expert and long-time Desert associate Allen Denoyer led the team…

Mission San Agustin del Tucson ruins Dec 30

Celebrating the Past, Looking to the Future

R.J. Sliva mulls the end of 2016 and what historical preservation means to a community. Legacy. What is a legacy? It’s planting seeds in a garden you never get to see. I wrote some notes at the beginning of a song someone will sing for me. -- “The World Was…

Historic place setting excavated by Desert Archaeology in downtown Tucson, Arizona Dec 20

The Benefits of CRM Archaeology: Tucson, History, and Food

R. J. Sliva considers how history and cuisine have intertwined to make Tucson a singular place. This week, as people celebrate a variety of winter holiday traditions with special foods, we turn our attention to an important question. Why does CRM (cultural resources management) archaeology matter? Your answer may run…

Desert Archaeology Technical Report 2014-07 Dec 16

Broad Perspectives from a Narrow Window: The La Villa Site

The La Villa site was one of the largest pre-Classic Hohokam settlements in the Phoenix Basin, covering more than 80 acres between its founding (A.D. 500-650) and abandonment (A.D. 1000-1100). The people who lived here supported themselves through farming, and the site itself was situated within a major network of…