The Verde Valley Archaeology Center is hosting Dr. Todd Bostwich for a talk entitled, The Verde Salt Mine and the Prehistoric Procurement of Salt in the American Southwest. Salt has been a valuable trade item throughout human history. Native American salt procurement in the Southwest involved dangerous journeys across sacred landscapes associated with a deity called Salt Woman. This presentation describes the history of a famous salt mine in Camp Verde where prehistoric tools used for mining salt were discovered in the 1920s by historic miners. These tools were located deep inside tunnels dug into a thick, fresh-water salt deposit by Sinagua miners. Numerous photographs will be shown of these well-preserved, 700-year old tools and other Sinagua artifacts to illustrate the story of this unusual discovery.
The VV Archaeology Center will hold its annual meeting in the Sedona Ballroom of the Cliff Castle Casino Hotel, 555 W. Middle Verde Rd, Camp Verde, AZ, on Tuesday, January 21, beginning at 7:00 pm. A short business meeting and election of directors for 2014, which will be followed with a talk by our Director of Archaeology, Dr. Todd Bostwick.
Dr. Bostwick served for 21 years as the City Archaeologist for the City of Phoenix at Pueblo Grande Museum, where he established a comprehensive archaeology compliance program and served as coordinator with the National Park Service for the Pueblo Grande National Historic Landmark. He has been a Faculty Associate at Arizona State University and at Northern Arizona University for seven years.
This event is free and open to the public. Additional information is available at www.verdevalleyarchaeology.org, or by calling the Center at 928-567-0066.
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Contact: Ken Zoll, Executive Director
928-593-0364 (Cell); [email protected]