News/Info

Unmanned aerial systems (UAS) are now commonplace in archaeological work, from imaging, to mapping, to reporting, any archaeologist needs to know how and when to deploy this technology. Over three sections, participants will be taken through the process of getting a Part 107 license to legally fly a UAS, how to navigate the FAA LAANC system, and how to prepare for flying a mission. The second section will give extensive examples of how data is collected, processed, and readied for interpretation and analysis. The third session will cover reporting, presenting data, and the future of UAS work in the field.

This is a free webinar, and a three-hour certificate of participation will be offered to attendees that stay for all three sessions. Please email wwhitehead@swca.com if interested in attending and Bill will send out a link.

The following is an excerpt from the winning grant submission. Click on the link for the full document.

I was fortunate to receive a NMAC grant to conduct research on Diné fortresses on Chacra Mesa, historically referred to as “pueblitos.” These fortresses are located near Chaco Canyon and Pueblo Pintado, NM (Figure 1). The grant supported lodging and travel, including driving from our base camp in Cuba, NM to the sites, and I am very grateful for this support. Our fieldwork took place over three weeks in October (October 7–25, 2025).

Chacra Mesa forms the southeastern flank of Chaco Canyon (Figure 1), a major cultural center of the Ancestral Puebloans from 850 to 1250 CE, known for its monumental great houses and extensive trade networks. While Chaco Canyon lies within northwestern New Mexico, Chacra Mesa is located just outside the Dinétah, the ancestral homeland of the Diné, located to the northeast (Figure 2). The Dinétah played a central role in early Diné cultural development (Towner 1996), but Chacra Mesa provides a distinct and valuable perspective for examining Diné interactions with Puebloan groups, Utes, and Spanish colonists.

The Diné connection to Chaco Canyon is understudied, and fortress sites from the Gobernador Period (1630–1765 CE) may represent some of the earliest Diné settlements in the canyon area. While defensive fortresses in the Dinétah are well documented, those outside this region remain less understood. In the mid-1700s, Diné communities on Chacra Mesa constructed sandstone masonry fortresses to defend against Ute raids and encroaching Spanish colonists. Unlike similar structures in the Dinétah, which often served as both defensive and habitation sites, fortresses on Chacra Mesa appear to have functioned primarily as lookout points along trade and migration routes (Vivian 1960; Brugge 1986; Van Dyke et al. 2023; Winnicki 2023). Residential dwellings, or hogans, were typically located nearby (Dykeman 2023; Vivian 1960).

While the fortresses themselves have been well documented, my research focused on the surrounding communities: where people lived, how long they occupied these areas, and how they interacted with neighboring groups. We re-recorded four Diné fortress areas previously documented by Gwinn Vivian in the 1960s, searching for discrete forked-stick or masonry hogans. Our goals were to better understand community structure, occupation patterns, and site function. We collected cores and cross sections for dendrochronology and collected gray ware ceramics for petrographic analysis. These analyses will help determine whether ceramics were locally produced or acquired through trade.

For the first time, New Mexico has a volume dedicated to all projectile point types dating from the Paleoindian through Historic period. Filled with historical details, measurements, defining attributes, age estimates, interpretations, references, and images, Projectile Points of New Mexico: 13,000 Years of Technological Innovation edited by Dr. Bradley J. Vierra and with many contributing authors and supporters, is graciously offered on the Archaeological Society of New Mexico's website courtesy of the New Mexico Bureau of Land Management, who provided the grant for production costs, New Mexico State University, who was responsible for the contract, and Statistical Research, Inc., who produced the volume.

There are two posters also available for download included in the volume that provide an overview of the different projectile point types and some well-known flaked stone raw material source locations.

Greetings to the NewsMAC readership!

Wishing you all a warm end to the year. The annual NMAC conference has come and gone and was well-attended, and a detailed report on the conference proceedings has been prepared for this issue by past-president Heather Seltzer-Rogers.

The NMAC executive committee held their fourth quarterly meeting of the year at the beginning of December. Some improvements to the NMAC website should be rolling out in the near year, including an option to automatically renew your registration for the annual meeting (the website currently only has an option to renew your NMAC membership annually). Additionally, we will be adding an archive of descriptions for projects sponsored by NMAC’s annual research awards. Keep an eye on the website for project descriptions to be added over the next year.

In legislative news, NMAC has drafted a letter to the Department of the Interior asking that the DOI reconsider their planned revocation of the Public Land Order (No. 7923) which established the 10-mile protection zone around Chaco Canyon, and to extend the public comment and tribal consultation period for the planned action.
This will be my last address as NMAC president, and Thatcher Seltzer-Rogers will be taking over in my stead beginning in January. We appreciate your continued support of NMAC and participation in NMAC events.

Sincerely,
Evan Giomi
2025 NMAC President
egiomi@sricrm.com