March 2025

Hello Friends,

Short-sleeve weather is here and our spring field work schedule is set! The team will be at Red Elk site at the end of March and then begin field work at Rattlesnake Canyon site in mid-April. We are thrilled to be working at these exceptional sites.

We often highlight fieldwork in our eNewsletters - the canyon landscapes, desert vegetation, diligent team and stunning rock art. But our efforts don't begin in the field. It takes time and skill to prepare for field work. We acquire any necessary permits and create a scope of work that details the process we will use in our documentation and research. We build maps of the rock art panel that locate and identify each individual figure.

If we are conducting digital microscopy, we select microscopy locations across the panel, identifying intersections of paint within and between figures and marking them for analysis in the field. We prep field schedules, equipment lists, confirm staffing, travel, and meal plans. Last, but certainly not least, we plan for what is going to happen as soon as we return from the field in post-processing and archiving the data we collect. It's a big job to prepare for fieldwork, but it's worth it to make sure that each minute in the field counts.

Don't miss next week's Lunch and Learn. Karen Steelman will be talking more in-depth about the plan for preservation at Rattlesnake Canyon.

Wishing you all the best,

Jessica

Mock Excavation at Comstock ISD

The Comstock High School Senior class has been learning about Lower Pecos archaeology all year through field trips, activities, classes and hands-on laboratory experiences. As part of their final project, like last year's Scholars class, they developed hands-on activities for grades K-5 to teach their younger classmates about archaeology and the fascinating history of this place they all call home. There were coloring pages, artifact bingo, and even a mock excavation!

The lower school kids had a blast learning from their "elders."  We were proud to watch the Scholars fall comfortably into the role of teacher. These experiences are priceless for each and every one of them.

The future is bright for our Scholars. We can’t wait to see what’s next for them! One thing is for sure, they know now that they can attempt and succeed at anything in science, technology, and education!

Digitized legacy slides aid in preservation efforts

Shumla's Curation Intern Memphis has been hard at work digitizing the Curt Harrell Collection of slides and negatives. Curt took excellent photos of many rock art sites in the Lower Pecos in the 1980s and 1990s. He generously donated this valuable collection to Shumla as baseline comparison and reference images as we work to preserve the rock art sites of the Lower Pecos.

A grant from the Texas Historical Foundation supported the purchase of a new scanner that allows us to digitize multiple negative film strips or color slides at a time. The scanner has helped bring Curt's beautiful photos to life for us and allows us to preserve these images in our archive into perpetuity.

Below you can see Curt's 1992 photo of a figure from Panther Cave (left) side-by-side with a photo that Shumla took of the same figure in 2015 (right). They are taken from slightly different angles, but small changes in the surface and spalls in the paint that occurred over the intervening 23 years are visible.

Campus gets a facelift

Wow, isn't Shumla's Harrington Campus looking beautiful?

It takes a lot of work to keep it in tip-top shape! Our facilities technician Justin Berry recently finished single-handedly re-painting every inch of our campus buildings. He battled sneaky geckos, extreme temperatures, driving rains, and gale-force winds. But he came out on top, and our campus is looking fine! (Not to mention, ready for another 20 years of West Texas weather.)

A big thank you to Justin for his excellent work!

Ancient torch bearers in Spanish caves

Yup! You read that right!

Sometimes Shumla's Dr. Karen Steelman is contracted by outside researchers to help with radiocarbon dating other rock art resources.

This project was particularly interesting and resulted in a new article co-authored by Dr. Steelman and former Shumla archaeological chemist Rudy Banny. Click here to read: From artists to miners: a multiperiod human prehistoric activity inside the ‘Hall of the Hinds’ in Arenaza Cave (Northern Spain)” in the Journal of Archaeological Science.

Here's the gist: In dark zone caves, visitors in the past would have used hand-held torches as a light source. When knocking ash from the torch to keep the flame bright, bits of charcoal were left behind on the wall.

By radiocarbon dating this charcoal, we can learn when these caves have been visited in the past. Shumla's plasma oxidation laboratory was the perfect place to prepare these samples. The results showed that Paleolithic art within Arenaza Cave in Spain was visited during the Bronze and Roman ages!

This means that the function and importance of the cave and/or the rock art did not end with its Paleolithic creators, but that it was visited through many ages and by many different peoples. Check out the article to learn more about the way the cave was used over the ages!

March Lunch & Learn

On Wednesday, March 19 at noon, Dr. Karen Steelman is taking us to Rattlesnake Canyon Mural!

Rattlesnake Canyon is an outstanding example of Pecos River Style painting. Like all Pecos River Style sites, Rattlesnake Canyon Murals holds valuable information regarding regional history and ancestral cosmovision through their iconography and "written" in their own hand.

Unfortunately, during past flash floods, water inundates the shelter floor and covers the base of the pictograph panel. As time passes and the canyon silts in, waters at flood stage will continue to rise up the painted surface and eventually destroy it.

In this Lunch and Learn, Science Director, Dr. Karen Steelman, will describe the initial work that Shumla conducted at Rattlesnake in 2014 and 2015. Then she will share our plans for the full preservation and further study of this significant painted mural.

MARCH

Topic: Rattlesnake Canyon and Shumla’s Level 2 and 3 Documentation Methods

Presenter: Dr. Karen Steelman

Day: Wednesday

Date: March 19, 2025

Time: 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM Central Time

Platform: Zoom

What's Up Next?

In April, Texas State University student Robert Stein will discuss his recently completed internship with Shumla. He will cover his participation in lab and field work relating to the Hearthstone project. In particular, Robert completed graphic databases for rock art figures at multiple sites in the Lower Pecos for Hearthstone, and participated in documentation of and scouting for Pecos River Style sites.

Join us to hear a first hand account from one of our archaeological interns!

Can you support us?

Your gift will fund the preservation of the oldest "books" in North America. Any amount supports our skilled team, vast archive, archaeological projects and educational programming.

Another way to give to Shumla is through our Amazon Wishlist.

Shumla on YouTube

Our YouTube channel houses our Lunch & Learn presentations as well as other presentations Shumla has done online and in person. Get caught up! And share them!

Shumla Archaeological Research & Education Center 

P.O. Box 627, Comstock, TX 78837

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