In celebration of Wyoming Archaeology Awareness Month (WAAM), the Wyoming State Historic Preservation Office is co-sponsoring two events this week. First, Dr. Calogero Santoro will present the 24th Annual George C. Frison Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology sponsored lecture, September 21 at 4:10 p.m. at the Business Auditorium on the University of Wyoming campus in Laramie.
The lecture is free and open to the public. The lecture will also be streamed via wyocast at https://wyocast.uwyo.edu/WyoCast/Play/26a58f6f04df4a20af230af3f322a8ac1d. A reception will follow the lecture in the Department of Anthropology foyer.
Dr. Calogero Santoro is a Professor at the Instituto de Alta Investigación at the Universidad de Tarapacá. Additionally, he is the Principle Investigator of the Laboratorio de Arquelogía y Paleoambiente at the university. His talk is titled “Is the Atacama Desert an Imperfect Human Artifact?”
Dr. Santoro has conducted several interdisciplinary archaeological studies in the Atacama Desert, focusing on late prehistoric farming societies and Inca state-related groups, as well as the long-term cultural process of hunting and gathering societies. At the Frison Institute Lecture, Dr. Santoro will discuss several historical milestones demonstrating how humans have adapted to the severe ecological constraints of the Atacama Desert and presents ideas of how archaeology can be used to examine current human-environment relationships.
The second event will be at the Wyoming State Museum in Cheyenne, titled “Nuestra Herencia: Hispanic Heritage in the Rocky Mountains,” on Friday, September 22nd at 4:30pm. This event celebrates both WAAM and Hispanic Heritage month with a folklórico performance by Las Angelitas Unidas y Los Rayos de Sol to be followed by a lecture by Dr. Alison Krögel on “The Aspen Archives: Sheepherder Testimonies (1925-present).” This event is also free and open to the public. Additionally, El Gran Pastor Taqueria will be on site at the State Museum from 3:30-6:30.
Alison Krögel is a professor of Andean Studies and Spanish Literary & Cultural Studies at the University of Denver where she teaches courses focused on Andean literature and culture, as well as Introductory Runasimi (Quechua) language classes. She is the editor of the Musuq Illa digital humanities collective and the curator of The Aspen Archives museum and digital exhibition and interactive website. Dr. Krögel’s lecture will contextualize the sociocultural, historical, and political references alluded to in some 300 aspen arborglyph carvings documented in the Routt National Forest and dating back to 1925.
