The past comes alive at Aha! Archaeology Day on Saturday, March 19, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The Museum of Northern Arizona, Elden Pueblo, and Northern Arizona Archaeological Society present “Passport to the Past,” with the best of northern Arizona archaeology. Admission to the Museum is free all day. Visitors can experience a new interactive video, join MNA’s knowledgeable docents on gallery tours, take part in hands-on artifact exploration and analysis, and have fun with educational games and crafts for all ages.
Kids are given a passport as they enter the Museum and can earn a Junior Curator Badge by visiting activity stations. They learn how to use a pump drill, make rock art, use a hunter’s kit, sample prehistoric foods, and grind corn. They will visit with Flagstaff’s famous archaeologist, “Major Brady,” to learn about a meteorite in the Geology Gallery and meet Museum co-founder “Harold Colton” to receive their Junior Curator Badge.
An informative line up of lecturers will speak throughout the day. Navajo Nation Archaeologist Jim H. Collette tells a rousing tale of scientific mystery and debate about the origins of the Fiftymile Ancestral Puebloan settlement in southern Utah and gives a visual trailside tour of the isolated Fiftymile Mountain.
Banks Leonard, Senior Project Director at Soil Systems, Inc., presents archaeological findings that add fuel to another stirring debate in Evidence for an Episode of Anthrophagy at Cowboy Wash, Southwestern Colorado. This ancient site reveals bones, cooking pots, and human waste that tell this story.
Loren Haury will sign and sell copies of the Journal of the Southwest, a volume he edited, celebrating the centennial of the birth of his father, Emil Walter Haury, (1904–1992). “Doc Haury,” as he liked to be called, was one of the greatest Southwestern archaeologists and a longtime member of the MNA board. Ten copies will be sold to benefit MNA.
Throughout the day, view an exciting computer video, “The Interactive Archaeology of the Grand Canyon,” created by NAU professor and chair of the Anthropology Department George Gumerman IV and Joelle Clark, an instructor from NAU’s Science and Mathematics Learning Center.
Roger Moder, Superintendent of Navajo National Monument, and Peggy Moder, Park Volunteer and Project Director, will guide you through interactive video on the Monument’s three major ruins. The video includes Navajo artist Shonto Begay telling the story of the Keet Seel cliff dwellings, footage on Betatakin, and the story of Inscription House.
Cultural Resource Specialist J. Grace Ellis from Grand Canyon National Park will lead two explorations. At What’s an Artifact?, learn about the different kinds of artifacts and what they tell us about the people who made them. At But You Don’t Look Like Indiana Jones, different kind of archaeological research are explored, with opportunities to gain experience in the lab and in the field.
Elden Lab will teach prehistoric artifact analysis from excavated materials at Elden Pueblo. This after-excavation process provides archaeologists valuable data for analysis. Members of the Northern Arizona Archaeological Society identify, date, chart, and classify artifacts.
Gallery guides are available to all visitors in the Museum’s Archaeology and Ethnology galleries with hands-on exhibit pieces to touch.
Arizona Archaeology Awareness Month is celebrated statewide in March and focuses on current efforts to preserve the past by protecting our fragile and non-renewable cultural resources.
Admission to Aha! Archaeology Day is free for everyone, all day from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Museum of Northern Arizona. The Museum seeks to inspire a sense of love and responsibility for the beauty and diversity of the Colorado Plateau. It sits at the base of the San Francisco Peaks, just three miles north of historic downtown Flagstaff on Highway 180. Additional information about the Museum is available at 928/774-5213 or at www.musnaz.org.
Aha! Archaeology Lectures at the Museum of Northern Arizona
Wednesday, March 2, 4 p.m.
View “Thieves of Time,” a film about pothunting in Arizona. Museum of Northern Arizona Director Robert Breunig and archaeologist Peter Pilles discuss making this film. Free with admission.
Wednesday, March 9, 4 p.m.
Reflections of archaeologist Davina Two Bears and students from Northern Arizona University’s Navajo Nation Archaeology Department about archaeology on the reservation. Free with admission.
Wednesday, March 23, 4 p.m.
Basketmaker and Pueblo Archaeology in Southern Nevada, by MNA Research Associate Dr. Margaret Lyneis, who discusses her research findings. Free with admission.