Mar 9Homer Thiel explores pithouse architecture and how the most common prehistoric dwellings in southern Arizona changed over time. The illustration at the top is by Robert Ciaccio. For several thousand years people have been constructing pithouses in the Sonoran Desert. Desert Archaeology employees are frequently asked "What is a pithouse?"…
Feb 24R. J. Sliva, Desert Archaeology's senior flaked stone analyst, shows how revisiting curated collections can answer new questions. One of the first questions people usually ask archaeologists—after “What’s the coolest thing you’ve ever found?”—is “Where does all the stuff go?” The short answer is “to the museum,” which is our…
Jan 27R. J. Sliva takes you on a tour of the Desert Archaeology authors bookshelf. Do you remember being a kid and getting so engrossed in what you were doing—reading a book, building a Lego tower, setting up elaborate dioramas with plastic dinosaurs—that you completely lost track of time and looked…
Jan 6R. 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…