Archaeology Talks at Deer Valley Petroglyph Preserve
In celebration of archaeology month, the Deer Valley Petroglyph Preserve is offering free lectures on Saturday, March 16.
11 a.m.: Southwest rock art — Patayan and Hohokam cultures
Guest speaker: Aaron Wright
Aaron Wright, preservation archaeologist at Southwest Archaeology, will be discussing rock art in the southwest. Wright's research is currently focused on the Hohokam and Patayan traditions across southwestern Arizona. He is specifically interested in the cultural landscape of the lower Gila River, which is renowned for a unique mixture of Patayan and Hohokam settlements, dense galleries of world-class rock art and numerous enigmatic geoglyphs.
Noon: Myths and mysteries in archaeology
Guest speaker: Matthew Peeples
Depictions of archaeology in popular culture are full of dubious tales of ancient extraterrestrials, giants and widespread scientific conspiracy. Peeples' talk will explore such fantastic claims and learn how archaeologists separate plausible arguments from pseudoscience, including long standing myths about the petroglyphs at Deer Valley.