Wednesday, August 30, 2017

50 million artifacts from Texas’ past kept at UT lab


More than 50 million artifacts from Texas’ past kept at UT lab

Texas Archeological Research Laboratory is a museum that is not a museum at all.




Highlights

The trove from the laboratory reminds us that one of Austin’s best museums is not a museum at all.
Access to more than 50 million artifacts at the research laboratory is tightly restricted.
The drawer opens wide to reveal its prize: scores of woven sandals, each hundreds of years old.
The astonishingly well-preserved shoes, tucked away in a North Austin archive, were discovered inside the Ceremonial Cave at Fort Bliss in West Texas. Scholars suggest that they were left behind in the dry rock shelter as gifts from the faithful. There, desert conditions have ensured that this Native American apparel survives to tell a concrete story about a little-known Texas past.
The leathery trove also reminds us that one of Austin’s best museums is not a museum at all.
Although the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory contains more than 50 million precious objects, access is tightly restricted. Very few people even know where on the grounds of the J.J. Pickle Research Campus this University of Texas facility is located.
Yet the public can view some of its wonders, which go back 13,000 years, on its educational websites, such as the grown-up TARL Blog and the family-friendly Texas Beyond History, or visit them in person at public venues, including the Bullock Texas State History Museum and the LBJ Presidential Library, where selections of artifacts are now on view.
One also can enjoy a selection of sumptuous images from the lab’s archive in the recently published book “The Collections: The University of Texas at Austin,” edited by Andrée Bober, or browse the free digital edition at thecollections.utexas.edu.
Additionally, the lab, which is part of UT’s College of Liberal Arts, co-hosts an onsite fair with the Texas Historical Commission during October, which is Texas Archeology Month.
“TARL is an invaluable resource that preserves the history — and prehistory — of the people of Texas,” says Drew Sitters, archaeologist with AmaTerra Environmental Inc., an Austin-based consultant. “With its wealth of data, TARL facilitates research studies to help answer the many questions about our past.”
How it began
The Pickle campus, which sits on 475 restricted acres of prairie just south of the Domain development, was a magnesium processing facility in the years leading up to and during World War II. Magnesium is used in munitions, including luminous flares, tracer rounds and incendiary devices, and as an alloy in certain bomb casings.
In 1946, UT engineers petitioned to lease it as an applied research center, and then U.S. Rep. Lyndon Baines Johnson helped the university purchase the land three years later. Among other things, it has served as a key incubator for Austin’s tech industry, one reason so many companies are located in this area north of U.S. 183, originally miles from any residential neighborhoods.
“There was a quarry right here on the grounds of the research campus,” says Jonathan Jarvis, associate director of the lab. “I suspect that Quarry Lake on Braker Lane just west of MoPac may have also been part of the operation, but I don’t have any evidence for that readily at hand. Presumably the building that currently houses TARL was used for extracting the magnesium after the initial mechanical processing of the source rock was done elsewhere on the campus.”
The lab’s collection didn’t move to this campus until the 1960s, but systematic archaeological research in Texas goes back to the 1910s, then entered a golden age in the 1930s when federal New Deal projects put crowds of men and women to work on Texas archaeology.
“It began with J.E. Pearce, a professor of anthropology here at UT,” Jarvis explains. “Professor Pearce, who was himself a former principal of Austin High School, sent a questionnaire about artifact finds to school principals throughout the state, which was the first attempt to gather what is — for lack of a better term — a database of Texas archaeology.”
Pearce’s ultimate goal was to establish a museum of Texas anthropology for the university. For some time, many artifacts were stored at UT’s Little Campus; others at the Texas Memorial Museum.
The lab has undergone permutations through the years, but since its founding in the 1960s, it become the central repository for Texas archaeology at the university, from Pearce’s day to the present.
“I would contend that there has been more than one golden age of archaeology in Texas,” Jarvis says. “During the Great Depression, the Works Progress Administration conducted tremendous archaeological excavations across the state under the supervision of UT archaeologists. The program put a lot of unemployed local men to work, advanced our understanding of Texas archaeology and resulted in a truly amazing collection of artifacts.”
Archaeology for what now is called “cultural resource management” purposes — in compliance with laws and regulations applying mainly to government-controlled lands like roadways and military bases — began in earnest in the 1970s, which drastically increased the number of archaeological investigations and began a shift away from archaeology being a strictly academic exercise.
“In the present day, cutting-edge technologies allow for new discoveries and provide fresh insights on the existing body of knowledge,” Jarvis says. “So, another golden age, so to speak.”
What is here
After threading through offices resembling the set of a World War II-era movie about remotely stationed scientists, the lucky visitor, accompanied by multiple guides, first encounters maps. Tens of thousands of maps shelved in horizontal files.
“TARL maintains the archaeological site records for the state of Texas,” Javis says. “There are roughly 80,000 documented archaeological sites in Texas, each of which is plotted on a 7.5-minute United States Geological Survey topographic map, meaning they each cover an area 7.5 minutes of latitude by 7.5 minutes of longitude. There are about 4,440 of those maps covering Texas; it’s a big place.”
Geography is important for archaeological research in general, Jarvis says, and specific site locations are of critical importance. Vandalism and the looting of artifacts are unfortunately common occurrences, so specific site location information is restricted by state and federal laws.
“Many of the sites in Texas are on private land, so trespassing and privacy concerns are another consideration,” Jarvis says. “In any case, we can only disclose site location information to qualified researchers with a legitimate need to know.”
Besides identifying, cataloging and making available to scholars all the artifacts — as small as minuscule pot shards — a crucial lab function is preservation. A good portion of artifacts are kept in chilly lockers not unlike those in a food warehouse.
“The materials range from exceptionally durable stone to the most delicate of perishable organic material and everything in between,” Jarvis says. “Providing the appropriate environmental conditions for a collection of that volume and diversity is indeed a challenge.”
Many of the artifacts are stone tools and the like, which can tolerate normal fluctuations in temperature and humidity.
“So, no, we don’t necessarily need to store the entire volume of material in climate-controlled museum cabinets,” Jarvis says. “The cost of doing so would be exorbitant, approaching astronomic.”
The American Indian legacy
It is hard to exaggerate the excitement and pleasure felt by a visiting history buff allowed to hold a gallon-size plastic bag full of colorful shards extracted from the site of Fort St. Louis, the ill-fated camp of René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle’s lost party of Frenchmen in the 1680s.
The Texas Archeological Research Laboratory covers the full range of human habitation and activity in Texas, from the Paleo-Indian period — about 13,000 years ago, depending on whom you ask — to the early 20th century. Nearly all the collections are from Texas, along with a small amount of material from elsewhere around the world.
Virtually all the Texas material is American Indian, which comes with legal and theoretical challenges.
“If I had to guess, I would put it in the ballpark of 90 percent to 95 percent,” Jarvis says. “The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act is the most directly applicable law in terms of collection management. Much has been written about the conflict between scientific analysis and the wishes of descendant communities. While we are a scientific research lab first and foremost, our approach is to treat objects that are sacred to Native Americans with the respect and dignity they deserve, and we try to engage tribes as partners where possible.”
Paleo-Indians, the earliest inhabitants of North America, present another nettlesome issue. Their close genetic relationship to today’s American Indians was established through improved DNA testing during a nine-year court case related to the Kennewick Man, whose remains were found near the Columbia River in Washington state. Yet some still theorize, with less convincing scientific evidence, that Paleo-Indians were instead migrants from Europe or elsewhere.
“Exactly when they arrived has not yet been entirely resolved, but there is solid evidence for their presence in Central Texas at least 11,000 years ago or so, based on radiocarbon dating from carefully excavated sites such as Wilson-Leonard,” Jarvis says. “The Wilson-Leonard burial site along Brushy Creek in Williamson County is perhaps best known for an ancient burial popularly called the Leander Lady or Leanne.”
Leanne?
“She was buried along with a sandstone tool and beneath a limestone slab,” reported Dahlia Dandashi in the American-Statesman. “It is presumed that she was around the age of 30 at her death and measured about (5 feet 3 inches) in height. … Her burial is one of the earliest and most intact uncovered sites in North America.”
Paleo-Indians were long thought of as big-game hunters who followed Pleistocene megafauna, such as woolly mammoths, across the ice age landscape, Jarvis explains. Research conducted by the lab’s archaeologists and others paints a more complex picture of their subsistence strategy and culture.
What should ordinary people do when they encounter what they think might be a remnant of an earlier time, even if not from 11,000 years ago?
“There are local archaeological societies in just about every region and major metropolitan area in Texas,” Jarvis says, “and those groups are a good place to start for anyone interested in Texas archaeology. Similarly, the Texas Archeological Society is a venerable statewide organization that promotes responsible investigation. And the Texas Historical Commission has a network of volunteer archaeological stewards who are available to assist with documenting and interpreting possible sites.”
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Monday, August 28, 2017

The well-preserved remains offer a glimpse into the rapidly shifting world that surrounded Naia, a girl who died around 13,000 years ago.

Ice Age Predators Found Alongside Oldest Human in Americas

The well-preserved remains offer a glimpse into the rapidly shifting world that surrounded Naia, a girl who died around 13,000 years ago.


bigger than a modern grizzly.
The skull and bones of an ancient puma lie on the floor of the flooded cave.
Divers explore Hoyo Negro. The cave previously yielded the oldest and most complete skeleton of a human in the AmericaBy MichaPUBLISHED CALGARY, ALBERTA, CANADASome 13,000 years ago in what’s now the Yucatán Peninsula, a deep pit inside a cave became the final resting place for a menagerie of exotic animalNow, their exquisitely preserved bones, trapped for centuries under water, are offering some of the first solid clues to large Ice Age beasts were mixing and migrating between North and South America after the Isthmus of Panama connected the two contine“We’re going to go from a place with no records to having the best records for a lot of megafauna from Mexico, Central America, and northern South America,” says East Tennessee State University’s Blaine Schubert, who presented the findings this week at the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology’s annual meeting in CalgaryThe animal bones are also painting a more detailed picture of the strange world inhabited by Naia, an Ice Age girl found in the cave who is the oldest, most complete human skeleton yet discovered in the Americas. (See how humans first entered the Americas.
Giant Underwater Cave Was Hiding Oldest Human Skeleton in the Americas In a deep underwater cave, three divers make a stunning discovery: the oldest complete human skeleton ever found in the Americas. See the ancient remains, venture through the remarkable deep-water chamber, and see how a skeleton belonging to a teenage girl from 13,000 years ago led scientists to a major revelation about the earliest Americans.
Like the saber-toothed cats, giant sloths, and other wild creatures trapped in the cave, Naia most likely wandered in looking for fresh water and took a fatal fall into the 90-foot-deep pit. Later, rising seas brought on by melting glaciers raised the Yucatán Peninsula’s water table by hundreds of feet, flooding the caves and entombing the skeletons.
Cave divers first came across Hoyo Negro—Spanish for “black hole”—in 2007, and were stunned to find a massive water-filled chamber rife with articulated animal remains and the skeleton of Naia. Expeditions through the years have mapped at least 28 animal skeletons within the pit, only a handful of which have been fully excavated.

Carnivore Complexity

Now some of those bones have been recovered, and the latest fossil examinations are giving paleontologists crucial new insight into the Great American Interchange, a dizzying migration of ancient animals between North and South America.
After the Isthmus of Panama tectonically rose from the sea some 3 to 5 million years ago, the ecosystems that existed on the two continents—left to stew in their own evolutionary juices for tens of millions of years—were at last able to mix and mingle.
This complex exchange of life settled into the Americas’ modern ecosystems: South America gave North America armadillos, and North America gave South America llamas. But paleontologists still know very little about this massive interchange, since fossils are notoriously hard to come by in the tropical forests that cover the region.
By contrast, Hoyo Negro is a fossil bonanza. The underwater cave preserved entire animals, because the carcasses had nowhere to go, and the low-oxygen waters ensured that the remains laid undisturbed for more than ten thousand years.
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Paleontologists and cave divers have found the remains of saber-toothed cats, peccaries, mountain lions, tapirs, and elephant-like animals called gomphotheres within Hoyo Negro’s depths. Some parts of the underwater cave even preserved the footprints of ancient bears, crusted over in a film of calcite.
Earlier this year, the joint U.S.-Mexico team identified a new species of ground sloth in the cave, which they named Nohochichak xibalbahkah, Mayan for “great-clawed dweller of the underworld.” (Read about another ancient sloth found elsewhere in the Yucatán.)
At the paleontology meeting, Schubert revealed that bears also entered these caves—and, in the case of Hoyo Negro, sometimes never exited. Divers have found three exquisitely preserved skulls of the extinct bear species Arctotherium wingei. A cousin of the Andean spectacled bear, the ancient species was slightly smaller than today’s grizzly bear. (Read more about its sister species—the biggest bear that ever lived.)
The skulls are so well-preserved, Schubert says, that visitors to his lab often mistake them for high-quality reconstructions. Divers also found the skull of a stocky, coyote-like canid previously only known from South America.
Together, the remains represent the first hard evidence of carnivores leaving North America for South America, diversifying into new South American species, and then returning northward—adding greater complexity to the Great American Interchange.
It’s likely that Hoyo Negro will turn up yet more surprises: Schubert recently received a National Geographic grant for further fieldwork at the site. The team hopes to collect more bones—and venture deeper into the darkness.
“When you start out with a little bit of data, it’s easy to spin a simple scenario,” says Greg McDonald, a U.S. Bureau of Land Management paleontologist and a member of the Hoyo Negro team. “We are now recognizing that it is much more complicated, and this is the real fun of paleontology.”




A diver picks up an ancient bear skull found on the floor of Hoyo Negro.
Three bear skulls found in the cave belong to an extinct species of short-faced bear that would have been bigger than a modern grizzly.
The skull and bones of an ancient puma lie on the floor of the flooded cave.
Divers explore Hoyo Negro. The cave previously yielded the oldest and most complete skeleton of a human in the AmericaBy MichaPUBLISHED CALGARY, ALBERTA, CANADASome 13,000 years ago in what’s now the Yucatán Peninsula, a deep pit inside a cave became the final resting place for a menagerie of exotic animalNow, their exquisitely preserved bones, trapped for centuries under water, are offering some of the first solid clues to large Ice Age beasts were mixing and migrating between North and South America after the Isthmus of Panama connected the two contine“We’re going to go from a place with no records to having the best records for a lot of megafauna from Mexico, Central America, and northern South America,” says East Tennessee State University’s Blaine Schubert, who presented the findings this week at the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology’s annual meeting in CalgaryThe animal bones are also painting a more detailed picture of the strange world inhabited by Naia, an Ice Age girl found in the cave who is the oldest, most complete human skeleton yet discovered in the Americas. (See how humans first entered the Americas.



Giant Underwater Cave Was Hiding Oldest Human Skeleton in the Americas In a deep underwater cave, three divers make a stunning discovery: the oldest complete human skeleton ever found in the Americas. See the ancient remains, venture through the remarkable deep-water chamber, and see how a skeleton belonging to a teenage girl from 13,000 years ago led scientists to a major revelation about the earliest Americans.
Like the saber-toothed cats, giant sloths, and other wild creatures trapped in the cave, Naia most likely wandered in looking for fresh water and took a fatal fall into the 90-foot-deep pit. Later, rising seas brought on by melting glaciers raised the Yucatán Peninsula’s water table by hundreds of feet, flooding the caves and entombing the skeletons.
Cave divers first came across Hoyo Negro—Spanish for “black hole”—in 2007, and were stunned to find a massive water-filled chamber rife with articulated animal remains and the skeleton of Naia. Expeditions through the years have mapped at least 28 animal skeletons within the pit, only a handful of which have been fully excavated.

Carnivore Complexity

Now some of those bones have been recovered, and the latest fossil examinations are giving paleontologists crucial new insight into the Great American Interchange, a dizzying migration of ancient animals between North and South America.
After the Isthmus of Panama tectonically rose from the sea some 3 to 5 million years ago, the ecosystems that existed on the two continents—left to stew in their own evolutionary juices for tens of millions of years—were at last able to mix and mingle.
This complex exchange of life settled into the Americas’ modern ecosystems: South America gave North America armadillos, and North America gave South America llamas. But paleontologists still know very little about this massive interchange, since fossils are notoriously hard to come by in the tropical forests that cover the region.
By contrast, Hoyo Negro is a fossil bonanza. The underwater cave preserved entire animals, because the carcasses had nowhere to go, and the low-oxygen waters ensured that the remains laid undisturbed for more than ten thousand years.
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Paleontologists and cave divers have found the remains of saber-toothed cats, peccaries, mountain lions, tapirs, and elephant-like animals called gomphotheres within Hoyo Negro’s depths. Some parts of the underwater cave even preserved the footprints of ancient bears, crusted over in a film of calcite.
Earlier this year, the joint U.S.-Mexico team identified a new species of ground sloth in the cave, which they named Nohochichak xibalbahkah, Mayan for “great-clawed dweller of the underworld.” (Read about another ancient sloth found elsewhere in the Yucatán.)
At the paleontology meeting, Schubert revealed that bears also entered these caves—and, in the case of Hoyo Negro, sometimes never exited. Divers have found three exquisitely preserved skulls of the extinct bear species Arctotherium wingei. A cousin of the Andean spectacled bear, the ancient species was slightly smaller than today’s grizzly bear. (Read more about its sister species—the biggest bear that ever lived.)
The skulls are so well-preserved, Schubert says, that visitors to his lab often mistake them for high-quality reconstructions. Divers also found the skull of a stocky, coyote-like canid previously only known from South America.
Together, the remains represent the first hard evidence of carnivores leaving North America for South America, diversifying into new South American species, and then returning northward—adding greater complexity to the Great American Interchange.
It’s likely that Hoyo Negro will turn up yet more surprises: Schubert recently received a National Geographic grant for further fieldwork at the site. The team hopes to collect more bones—and venture deeper into the darkness.
“When you start out with a little bit of data, it’s easy to spin a simple scenario,” says Greg McDonald, a U.S. Bureau of Land Management paleontologist and a member of the Hoyo Negro team. “We are now recognizing that it is much more complicated, and this is the real fun of paleontology.”
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Thursday, August 10, 2017

NEW FIND

A friend of mine found this one today.

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Thursday, August 3, 2017

Archaeology Day coming to Serpent Mound

Archaeology Day coming to Serpent Mound


Submitted story


Atlatl demonstrations will be given throughout the day during Archaeology Day on Aug. 19 at Serpent Mound.

Serpent Mound stands as one of the state’s most well-known examples of the prolific earthen artwork of Ohio’s ancient cultures. It is, in fact, one of the largest effigy mounds in the world. On Saturday, Aug. 19, visitors will be given an opportunity to learn about these ancient peoples and their works during Archaeology Day from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
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“The presentations and demonstrations will be full of information for anyone who is interested in Serpent Mound and prehistoric cultures of Southern Ohio,” said Serpent Mound Site Manager Tim Goodwin.
At 1 p.m. Dr. Brad Lepper will give a talk on what we know about Serpent Mound, including the latest research and interpretations. At 3p.m. Jeffrey Wilson will make a presentation on how the world’s largest effigy mound was saved by the ladies of Boston.
Many local artifact collectors will have their collections on display throughout the park for visitors to view. Demonstrations of Native American skills, such as flint knapping, ancient pottery making, fire starting, tool usage, and atlatl throwing will take place. One highlight of the day will be the opportunity for visitors to bring their own artifact finds in for identification.
Professional archaeologist Bill Pickard, from the Ohio History Connection, will be on site all day to help identify those stone tools or arrowheads you may have inherited or found in streams and farm fields.
For the kids there will be face painting and Native American games taking place throughout the day. Steve Free, an internationally acclaimed Native American singer, songwriter and recording artist, will be performing outside the visitor center from 1-3 p.m.
While at Serpent Mound, visitors may take advantage of seeing the museum, touring the mound and walking the 0.4-mile nature trail down below the cliff, upon which the effigy is located.
The event is free with an $8 per car parking fee. Arc of Appalachia members and OHC members can park for free.
To learn more about this event, visit http://arcofappalachia.org/archaeology-day/. For any questions you can call 937-365-1935 or email services@arcofappalachia.org
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Moundbuilders of Native North America, Before the Pyramids

The earthen monuments on exhibit is a glimpse at Native American construction over the last 5,000 years

• July 27, 2017
Marvels of the ancient world include the extraordinary earthen mounds built by Native people in North America. There is a new exhibition that highlights these achievements: Moundbuilders: Ancient Architects of North America opened June 24 at the Penn Museum in Philadelphia. It tells part of the story of more than 5,000 years of Native American moundbuilding through photographs, archival excavation records, and more than 60 artifacts excavated at mound sites throughout the eastern United States. The exhibition runs through December 2017.
“Places don’t make it into museum exhibits as often as objects do, but Moundbuilders highlights the amazing earthen monuments constructed by Native American populations over the course of the last 5,000-plus years,” said Dr. Megan Kassabaum, Weingarten Assistant Curator for North America at the Penn Museum and an archaeologist who directs the Smith Creek Archaeological Project, curator of the exhibition.
“By opening visitors’ eyes to these incredible engineering achievements and the people who built them, the exhibit emphasizes the complexity and variation of pre-contact Native cultures across the eastern United States and ties these places, people, and practices to contemporary groups.”
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Many thousands of mounds were built across the U.S. over the last several millennia. They include the Watson Brake site in northeast Louisiana from 3500 BCE—built 1,000 years before the Great Pyramid at Giza—to Cahokia, a city of well over 10,000 people by the 1050 CE located near St. Louis, Missouri as well as the ancient mounds and complex community of Poverty Point in southern Louisiana.
The exhibition includes excavated artifacts made from a variety of materials such as a carved underwater panther boatstone believed to be used as a spear weight along with pots and pendants, some bearing sacred designs associated with the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex; that site featured a system of signs and symbols shared among different groups living hundreds of miles apart ca. 1000-1500 CE.
Photos of the mounds include those of Cahokia, Poverty Point and other spots in the eastern part of the country but mainly from the Mississippi Valley.
The Cahokia site was set amid the “largest prehistoric concentration of people and monumental architecture north of Mexico,” according to Dr. Kassabaum. The entire city had approximately 120 mounds and the ceremonial core of the city spans about five square miles.
One of Cahokia’s important features is Monk’s Mound, the largest site discovered so far, which stood at 100 feet and included five separate terraces and spans across 14 acres.
The Poverty Point site consisted of one 70 feet-tall mound, four smaller mounds and six concentric earthen ridges surrounding a central open area. Artifacts collected from the site indicate the presence of skilled artisans and extensive long-distance trade extending from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico.
Penn Museum staff reported that they are working on other Native American projects for the future
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American Indian artifacts, art and related collectibles at Best of Santa Fe, August 12-13

American Indian artifacts, art and related collectibles at Best of Santa Fe, August 12-13

  • Santa Fe , New Mexico
  • July 27, 2017
  • Early to mid-1900s Southern Plains war shirt, a museum quality beaded hide example as picturesque as it gets and in very good condition (est. $20,000-$40,000).
    Early to mid-1900s Southern Plains war shirt, a museum quality beaded hide example as picturesque as it gets and in very good condition (est. $20,000-$40,000).
    Allard Auctions, Inc.
SANTA FE, N.M. – Over 800 pieces of American Indian artifacts, art and related collectibles, to include two major collections and other items in a variety of categories, will come up for bid at Best of Santa Fe, an annual auction event hosted by Allard Auctions, Inc., based in St. Ignatius, Mont. The auction will be held the weekend of Aug. 12-13, at the Santa Fe Scottish Rite Temple.

This year’s Best of Santa Fe is being held the week before Indian Market, giving collectors of American Indian items added incentive to be in town that weekend. For those who can’t be there in person, online bidding will be provided by iCollector.com and LiveAuctioneers.com. Phone and absentee bids will also be taken. Santa Fe Scottish Rite Temple is at 463 Paseo de Peralta.

One of the major collections is that of the longtime collector, hobbyist, Indian trader and feather artist Bob Wills from Dumont, N.J. “We’re honored to have Bob’s beadwork collection, plus the other interesting things he’s gathered over the years,” said Steve Allard of Allard Auctions, Inc.

The other headliner is an old collection of beadwork, baskets, cornhusks, horse gear and other pieces, gathered in the Columbia River Basin in the 1950s and ‘60s. All pieces are documented in the ledger of the original owner, Tommy Thompson, along with interesting notes and stories.

Also consigned are additional quality beadwork examples, a huge assortment of fine baskets, several high-end Navajo rugs/weavings, some rare old Pueblo pottery, “and the best group of Northwest Coast and Eskimo items it’s ever been our privilege to offer,” Mr. Allard remarked.

The auction will also feature lots of great Indian jewelry, some really rare original Native and Western art, a collection of Apache items, kachina carvings, Santa Fe antiques, antique trade beads, and a selection of interesting and hard-to-find antique, Western and Mexican collectibles.

A strong candidate for top lot of the auction is the early-to-mid-1900s Southern Plains war shirt, with an estimate of $20,000-$40,000. The museum-quality beaded hide war shirt, with shoulder and arm strips, quilled human hair drops, ermine tail suspensions, yellow ochred edges with fine cut-in fringe and beautiful green ochred body is as picturesque as it gets and in very good shape.

Of all the Navajo rug/weavings up for bid, one stands out from the rest, as much for its size (133 inches by 92 inches) as its estimate ($15,000-$30,000). Made circa 1970s-1980s, the room-size Teec Nos Pos rug is done in a sturdy, extra fine weave and loaded with wonderful, traditional and more contemporary figures and symbols. And like the war shirt, it is in very good condition.

Other Navajo rugs will include a mid-1900s extra fine weave fancy Germantown revival wearing blanket, very colorful and with symmetrical designs and fringed edges, 53 inches by 40 inches (est. $10,000-$20,000); and a room-size fine weave storm pattern rug, executed circa 1970s/’80s in gorgeous earth tone colors, museum quality and in excellent condition (est. $7,500-$15,000).

Several goldtone photos by the renowned American photographer E.S. Curtis (1868-1952) will cross the auction block. One is an early 1900s original orotone photo titled The Old Well at Acoma, in the original frame and signed (est. $10,000-$20,000). Another is a glass orotone photo of Curtis’s famous Signal Fire to the Mountain Gods in the original frame (est. $8,000-$16,000).

Two very different lots have identical estimates of $5,000-$10,000. One is a mid-to-late 1800s Mohawk solid wood cradleboard with elaborately hand-carved and painted designs and crossed early Canadian flags, 28 inches in length. The other is a circa 1900s Zuni pottery water jar, rather large (12 inches by 14 inches) and very interesting with rare double deer figures and floral forms.

Start times are 12 noon on Saturday, Aug. 12, and 10 am on Sunday, Aug. 13 (Mountain time). Previews will be held both auction days: from 8 am until noon on Aug. 12 and from 8-10 am on Aug. 13. A buyer’s premium of 20 percent (for online purchases) and 15 percent (for in-person and absentee bidding) will be applied to all purchases. Register in advance for online bidding.

Allard Auctions, Inc. has been selling exclusively American Indian artifacts and art at auction since 1968. The firm is always on the hunt for quality merchandise for future auctions. To inquire about consigning a single piece, an estate or an entire collection, you may call them at (406) 745-0500 or toll-free: (888) 314-0343; or, you can e-mail them at info@allardauctions.com.

To learn more about Allard Auctions, Inc., and the upcoming Best of Santa Fe 2017 auction Aug. 12-13, visit www.allardauctions.com. For a full color catalog ($30), you may call (406) 745-0500.
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Cowboy and Native American Indian artifacts up for bid Sept. 29-Oct. 1 at Showtime Auction

Cowboy and Native American Indian artifacts up for bid Sept. 29-Oct. 1 at Showtime Auction

  • Ann Arbor , Michigan
  • August 2, 2017
  • Uncle Sam's Monogram Whiskey self-framed tin sign, one of over 200 signs and calendars in the auction.
    Uncle Sam's Monogram Whiskey self-framed tin sign, one of over 200 signs and calendars in the auction.
    Showtime Auction Services
ANN ARBOR, Mich. – What will quite possibly be the largest and most important collection of Cowboy and Native American Indian items ever offered at auction will come up for bid on the weekend of September 29th through October 1st at the Washtenaw Farm Council Grounds in Ann Arbor. The three-day event will be held by Showtime Auction Services, based in Woodhaven.

Approximately 2,000 lots of investment-grade, museum-quality artifacts will cross the auction block, the vast majority of them coming from the lifetime collection of Brad and Mary Watts of Phoenix, Ariz. “Mary passed away not long ago and Brad has decided to unleash this incredible trove of material onto the collecting public,” said Mike Eckles of Showtime Auction Services.

The Watts collection is filled with Native American Indian objects as well as traditional cowboy antiques and collectibles. “Even the cigar tins are Western themed with cowboys and Indians,” Mr. Eckles remarked. This is a rare chance for “Old West” fans to enhance their collections.”

All items in the auction are guaranteed authentic, with no reproductions or fakes. In addition to the Watts collection, the auction will also feature investment-grade items from other advanced collections, to include cash registers, pharmaceutical show globes and holiday collectibles (for Halloween and Thanksgiving) and more.

Another highlight for collectors: The auction will be held at the same time as the 8th annual Indian Art & Frontier Antiques Show, which will be one day only – Saturday, September 30th, from 9-4 Eastern time – also at the Washtenaw Farm Council Grounds in Ann Arbor. For dealer table information regarding that event, interested parties may call Dick Lloyd at (248) 840-7070.

Hours for the auction are 9-5 Eastern Time all 3 days. To get a 280 page full color catalog for $40, call Showtime Auction Services at (313) 715-4486 (EST). You can order a full color fold-out flyer for free. The auction will be posted on the website around early September. Online bidding will start at that time. Online Bidding will be available through LiveAuctioneers and Invaluable. You can go to Showtime’s website at www.showtimeauctions.com and click the “Bid Now” button. As always, absentee and phone bidding will also be available.

The host hotel is Weber’s Inn located at 3050 Jackson Avenue in Ann Arbor. For reservations, call (734) 769-2500 and mention Showtime Auctions to get the discounted rate of $99 per night. The Washtenaw Farm Council Grounds are located at 5055 Ann Arbor/Saline Rd. in Ann Arbor. Just 4 miles from the Weber’s Inn.

Showtime Auction Services is always accepting quality items for future sales. To consign one item or an entire collection, you may call Michael Eckles at (951) 453-2415; or, you can e-mail him at mike@showtimeauctions.com . To learn more about Showtime Auction Services and the big upcoming September 29th through October 1st auction, please visit www.showtimeauctions.com.
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