OAS | December 2024

This month Dr. John Taylor-Montoya hosted a number of tours of the Office of Archaeological Studies for lecture attendees, donors and trustees. Attendees were able see the laboratories first-hand, learning about archaeomagnetic dating and research, plasma-dating, breakthrough super critical fluid applications, osteology, lithics, ethnobotany and education outreach. The tours are always endlessly fascinating and result in new volunteers and donations.

The labs are busy, busy these days. The ethnobotany lab, for example, has a one-year Ph.D. tenant from Boston University studying land-use practices of Spaniards form the 18th and 18th centuries. He is also working to organize a comprehensive comparative collection for researchers to use. Thanks to the generosity of donors, we reached our $20,000 fundraising goal for the archaeomagnetic laboratory. Laboratory Supervisor, Dr. Shelby jones, will apply these funds to the maintenance and installation of new equipment. The laboratory is poised to be the premier archaeomagnetic dating and research laboratory in North America when installation is complete, housing the largest repository of archaeomagnetic samples in the world. That’s right – the world. Right here in New Mexico. MNMF should be very proud to support this important collection and research.

The OAS’s education outreach programs are flourishing thanks to the talents of the new Educational Coordinator, Ziggy Prothro. Ziggy is a one-woman road show, taking OAS educational programming all over the state of New Mexico. Her goal is to reach every district in the state within her first year. Ziggy is visiting public schools, primarily middle school, tribal schools, libraries, festivals, juvenile detention centers and more to build and share archaeological curriculum. Currently, there are more requests from teachers for her to visit than she can accommodate, so she has had to create a waitlist. These are great problems to have and will hopefully result in more staff support for archaeological education. We are currently aiming to raise $25,000 to support education outreach costs, including purchasing sand art boards and clay for student curriculum. Click here if you would like to make a gift to directly support these purchases.