OAS | FEBRUARY 2024

Thanks to 31 generous households, the Mollie Toll Endowment for Archaeological Education has now received over $206,000.00 in donated principle. Thank you to everyone who continues to invest in and believe in the importance of this endowment!

A Report from Executive Director, Dr. John Taylor-Montoya

The Office of Archaeological Studies (OAS) is working with New Mexico Highlands University to mitigate and prevent further impacts to an archaeological site on their campus. The OAS just signed an agreement to continue that relationship and expand the scope of work. OAS also signed an agreement with the New Mexico Association of Conservation Districts to provide cultural resource management services.

In addition to filling the Executive Director position, the OAS is beginning the interview process for a Faunal Analyst and they have an offer letter out for a Lab Analyst position. The faunal analyst is a specialist in the study of animal bones and human-animal interactions in the past. The Lab Analyst will work under the Lab Supervisor, Dr. Shelby Jones, on research projects and daily laboratory tasks.

During the months of November and December the OAS was able to reach a total of 6,752 New Mexicans. So far, in January they have had two events and are looking forward to a couple more.

On Friday, January 5th the OAS education team accompanied the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science in Albuquerque for their first Friday Fractals event. The museum opened up after hours and played four screenings of their Fractal shows. The OAS brought their Traveling "Touch and Feel" Tabletop Exhibit and talked about prehistoric Archaeology and how basket weaving and ceramic designs relate to fractals. The crowd was excited to learn more about the history and brought a lot of great questions. All four shows sold out that night.

On January 16th, the OAS visited Las Vegas, New Mexico's Carnegie Library. The event started off with a presentation, then the tabletop exhibit was open for visitors to explore the artifacts and learn all about thousands of years of human history. The library advertised the event and as a result, the OAS had excited visitors come out just to see them. The library director even emailed the OAS the same day to book the next event.

Also in January, the OAS will be visiting the Moriarty Library on the 23rd and the Corrales Library on the 27th. The Corrales Saturday event will be catering to the kids who attend their after-school program and include an activity. Upcoming OAS Education events can be found on the MNMF Calendar.