SAS Webinar
“A tale of two teosintes: how genetics is reshaping our understanding of maize domestication”
by
Jeffrey Ross-Ibarra
Saturday, May 11, 2024
2:00 PM – 3:30 PM PT
We are pleased to have a Jeffrey Ross-Ibarra, Evolutionary Biologist at University of California, Davis discuss his research in the evolution and adaptation of maize.

Abstract: The widely accepted narrative of maize domestication posits a single origin from the wild grass Zea mays ssp. parviglumis (lowland teosinte) in southwest Mexico, likely beginning with de novo mutation at an important gene controlling kernel architecture. However, recent genomic surveys challenge this simplicity, revealing evidence of gene flow from another wild relative, Zea mays ssp. mexicana (highland teosinte). Here we demonstrate widespread hybridization between maize and highland teosinte across time and geography, suggesting a revised model of maize origins in which maize hybridized with teosinte in the central Mexican highlands around 4000 years post-domestication. We also revisit the origin of the important domestication gene tga1, using population genetic analysis and simulations to show that relevant diversity at this key locus likely predated domestication, highlighting the importance of adaptation from pre-existing genetic variation. Together, our findings challenge existing models of maize evolution and illustrate domestication as a complex evolutionary process rather than a single event.

Jeffrey Ross-Ibarra is an evolutionary biologist who uses computational and genetic approaches to understand the evolution and adaptation of maize and its wild relatives. Dr. Ross-Ibarra’s undergraduate and early graduate background in ethnobotany has long influenced his interest in the coevolution of humans and their crop plants. More about Dr. Ross-Ibarra’s work can be found at his website rilab.ucdavis.edu.

The presentations will be presented at Young Hall, Room 224 and available via Zoom. The webinar will start at 2:00 PM PT and formally conclude at 3:30 PM. You may join starting at 1:45 PM to say “Hello” and participate in a social time.

SAS Webinar
“Finding Evidence for Ancient Maya Canal Use at Rio Azul, Guatemala”
by
Emily Johnson, UC Santa Barbara PhD Student
Saturday, April 13, 2024
2:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. PST

Emily will discuss her research of ancient plant remains in Guatemala and Belize. The result of this research is to better understand the agriculture of this Central American region and how practices may have changed over a period of 2000 years. Emily received a scholarship from SAS to collect soil samples and then analyze them for macrobotancial remains such as starch granules and phytoliths.

The presentations will be conducted via TEAMS. The webinar will start at 2:00 PM PT and formally conclude at 3:30 PM.

On March 9 via Zoom we are pleased to have two of our 2023 scholarship recipients talk about the field school that they attended.
2:00 – 2:30 PM PT – “Gallina Field School” by Noor Sullivan, University of Maryland, College Park
2:45 – 3:30 PM PT – “Blackfriary Archaeological Field School” by Brianna Ramirez, New Mexico State University

“Gallia Field School” by Noor Sullivan, University of Maryland, MPS in Cultural Heritage Resource Management student
Noor is interested in community-collaborative cultural resource management and
programming, particularly among indigenous communities. To this end he is enrolled in the Cultural Heritage Resource Management program at University of Maryland. In order to move his career interests forward by experiencing archaeological methods and being introduced to indigenous communities of New Mexico, he chose to attend the Gallina – Puebloan Rebels of the Southwest Field School. Noor will give a presentation on experiences at this field school.

“Blackfriary Archaeological Field School” by Brianna Ramirez, New Mexico State University recent graduate
This past summer, Brianna attended the Blackfriary Archaeological Field School in Ireland. This school provided a summer course on field work for bioarchaeology and post-excavation methods. Since Brianna is interested to become a forensic anthropologist this field school was signification because of the director’s commitment to ethics in the analysis and treatment of human remains and a dedication to community engagement and heritage. Brianna will discuss her experiences at the field school.

SAS Webinar
“Meadowcroft Rockshelter: Archaeological Excavation Challenged Clovis-First Peopling Model”
by
Dr. James M. Adovasio, Archaeologist, Primary Investigator
Introduced by Phil Fitzgibbons, Participating Archaeologist
Saturday, February 10, 2024
2:00 p.m. – 4:00 PM PT
James. M. Adovasio, Ph.D., D.Sc. achieved world acclaim as an archaeologist in the 1970s with his excavation of Pennsylvania’s Meadowcroft Rockshelter. Meadowcroft is widely recognized as one of the earliest well-dated archaeological sites in North America, with evidence of human habitation dating to ca. 16,000 years ago. Perhaps, more importantly, Meadowcroft is considered to be one of the most meticulous excavations ever conducted, anywhere. During his career, he has specialized in the analysis of perishable materials (basketry, textiles, cordage, etc.) and the application of high-tech methods in archaeological research. In recent years, his research has confronted another of archaeology’s mysteries by delving underwater to seek submerged evidence of early Americans off the coast of Florida in the Gulf of Mexico. Recently, he was the principal investigator of the re-excavation at the Old Vero Man Site in Florida. This Late Ice Age locality has figured prominently in the history of American Anthropology and promises to yield new insights into the behavior of the First Floridians. He is the author of more than 500 books, book chapters, monographs, articles, and papers which include “The Invisible Sex: Uncovering the True Roles of Women in Pre-History,” “The First Americans: In Pursuit of Archaeology’s Greatest Mystery,” and “Basketry Technology,” and most recently “Strangers in a New Land.” Adovasio received his undergraduate degree in anthropology from the University of Arizona and doctorate in anthropology from the University of Utah. He is formerly the Director of Archaeology at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, Florida Atlantic University and currently Director of Archaeology at Senator John Heinz History Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

SAS Meeting – UCD Scholars
Saturday, January 13, 2024
at UCD, Young Hall, Room 224
or Zoom
UCD Presentations
2:00 – 2:30 PM PT – “Blue Oaks Ranch Field School” by Lauren Castaneda-Molin, University of California, Davis student
2:45 – 3:30 PM PT – “Seasonality, Subsistence, and Population Pressure: Archaeological Insights from Two San Francisco Bay Archaeological Sites Using Stable Isotopes” by Edgar Huerta, University of California, Davis PhD candidate
3:30 – 4:15 PM PT – “Isotope analysis of teeth from Santa Clara” by Diane Malarchik, University of California, Davis PhD candidate

Sacramento Archeological Society, Inc.’s
Annual Meeting
Saturday, December 2, 2023
1:00 p.m. – 6:00+ p.m.
at U. C. Davis campus, Young Hall, Room 224 and Zoom
Followed by dinner at local restaurant

The Annual Meeting will be conducted in person at U. C. Davis campus, Young Hall, Room 224 and broadcasted via Zoom start at 2:00 PM PT with a presentation by Patricia McNeill and formally conclude at about 4:30 PM after the SAS Annual Meeting. After which all attendees are invited to attend a dinner to socialize at a local restaurant. If you are unable to attend in person, you may join the webinar starting as early as 1:40 PM.

The schedule for the event is as follows:
1:00 – Set up, meet and greet
2:00 – Featured talk “Varsche Rivier 003: a middle aged rock shelter in southern Namaqualand, South Africa” by Patricia McNeill, U. C. Davis PhD candidate
3:00 – SAS Annual Meeting
5:00 – Socialize at Tasty Palace Asian Restaurant

“Varsche Rivier 003, a middle aged rock shelter in southern Namaqualand, South Africa”

Patricia McNeill, a 2022 scholarship recipient has been investigating hunter-gatherer mobility and resource catchment area in the arid Knersvlakte of Namaqualand, Western Cape, South Africa. In this dissertation research she is in the process of examining ostrich eggshell beads from the site and analyzing waste fragments of shells that were discarded after eating the egg in order to reconstruct mobility and paleoclimate. In this presentation she will cover the most recent discoveries from VR003, her investigation area. One of the tools she uses to analyze mobility of Stone Age people in the region is radiogenic strontium isotopes. Strontium isotopes (⁸⁷SR/⁸⁶SR) can be used as a tracing tool for biogenic materials, such as teeth, bone, and egg shells. This analysis is not yet complete.

Patricia McNeill is a PhD candidate at University of California, Davis. She received her B.A. Summa com laude Evolutionary Anthropology and M.A. at University of California, Davis. She has conducted extensive research at the Center for Experimental Archaeology at Davis. Her field experience includes Varsche Rivier 003, Namaqualand, South Africa, Ranis, Saale-Orla Kreis, Thüringen, Germany and Bureau of Land Management, Eagle Lake Field Office, California. She has four publications.

SAS Webinar
“Glittering and Glassy: Understanding the Intersection of Colonial Mineral Extractivism and the Production of Late Rio Grande Lead Glaze-Painted Pottery in Seventeenth-Century New Mexico”
by
Danielle Marie Huerta, PhD Candidate U.C. Santa Cruz
Saturday, November 11, 2023
2:00 PM – 3:30 PM PT

What happens to Indigenous technologies when the dissemination of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) is forced to occur within a historical context characterized by colonial regimes of labor exploitation and religious/ideological subjugation? In order to understand how Colonialism affects the very systems of knowledge it appropriates, it is necessary to understand how that knowledge is situated within Indigenous ways of interacting with and viewing the world around them.

Danielle Marie Huerta will be presenting initial results from her multi-sited and methodologically diverse dissertation project that aims to understand how Spanish colonial mining practices in New Mexico may have impacted the ability of Pueblo potters to create and maintain communities of practice, cultural perceptions of place, and the ability to pass down sociotechnical knowledge from one generation to the next, ultimately leading to the decision by said potters to stop producing glaze-painted pottery in the early eighteenth-century. Using a combination of methods such as lead isotope sourcing, chemical characterization of lead glaze paints using LA-ICP-MS, and ceramic petrography, late Rio Grande Glaze Ware pottery was analyzed from four sites, San Marcos Pueblo (LA 98), Paa’ko (LA 162), Patokwa (LA 96), and the Sanchez Site (LA 20000). These seventeenth-century sites all represent different but interconnected temporal windows and settlement contexts during the Colonial period that have archaeological evidence for the intersection between late Glaze Ware use and/or production and colonial metallurgical activities and/or exploitation of Pueblo labor and Traditional Ecological Knowledge.

Danielle Marie Huerta is a PhD Candidate at University of California, Santa Cruz and 2022 SAS Scholarship recipient. She received her B.A. in Anthropology from Texas A & M University, College Station in 2015 and M.A. from University of California, Santa Cruz in 2017. She is currently a Graduate Student Researcher and Archaeological Technician at Los Alamos National Laboratory where she supports their Environmental Protection and Compliance group with managing cultural resources. She has served as an Archaeological Technician with the Cibola National Forest, SEARCH, Inc., Aspen CRM Solutions, and Bureau of Land Management – New Mexico State Office. She has participated in multiple survey and excavation projects in the state of New Mexico since her first field school in Abiquiu in 2014.