Sacred Sites Research Inc

Identify, protect, and preserve North American Indian sacred sites. The year 2024 was very successful for Sacred Sites Research, Inc. The primary accomplishment was recording 29 rock art sites on Lincoln Forest lands near Carlsbad, New Mexico. We also recorded one large site on private land at the request of the landowner. The fieldwork for the project, sponsored by the Bureau of Land Management and the Permian Basin Cultural Resource fund, was undertaken in three sessions that ranged from 7 to 15 days. Some sites are remote and require long hikes. SSR is lucky to have skilled archaeologists and rock image artists for this challenging work. About 60% of the laboratory research associated with this fieldwork was also completed in 2024. SSR is currently working hard to get this phase of the project completed so we can begin recording additional rock art sites in Carlsbad National Park. A separate project was to finish the recording of the petroglyphs surrounding Cottonwood Pueblo on White Sands Missile Range, north of Las Cruces, New Mexico. Most of these petroglyph panels had been previously recorded by Margaret Berrier and LeRoy Unglaub, which helped immensely in the SSR research at the site. In April, SSR board members, Lawrence Loendorf, Laurie White, Mark Willis and Amanda Castenada, taught a half day workshop at the Society for American Archaeology meeting in New Orleans. This was well received with good reviews. In a Montana project, SSR president Loendorf, collected more Fremont pottery from the Valley of the Shields site. We were also successful in using Thermoluminescence dating to learn the pottery dates at AD 1500. An article on the importance of Fremont pottery with this date at a site in Montana was submitted for publication in December 2024. The article has been accepted and will be published soon. Presentations by SSR board members in 2024 L. Loendorf 2-22-24 Rock Art as a Cultural Resource. Elizabeth Lynchs Cultural Research Management class. Eastern New Mexico University. L. Loendorf 4-19-24 New Developments with the Shield-bearing Warrior Motif on the northwestern Plains. Society for American Archaeology meeting. L. Loendorf-9-17-24 New Technologies in Rock Art Research. American Prairie Museum and Visitor Center, Lewistown, Mt. L. Loendorf-9-21-24 Shields and Shield-bearing Warriors. Pre-Columbian Society, Washington D.C. L. Loendorf 11-6-24 Warfare, Pots and Rock Art in the Jornada Mogollon Region, New Mexico. Oregon Archaeological Society, Portland, Or.