The Journal

The public is invited to the next meeting of the San Juan Basin Archaeological Society on Wednesday, Jan. 8, at 7 p.m. at the Center of Southwest Studies at Fort Lewis College.

Connie Massingale will present: “Creating Color in Prehistoric Art of the Southwest: Pigment procurement, processing, and application in the pictographs and artifacts of Utah and beyond.” There will be a social at 6:30.

Red ochre, also known as hematite, has been revered for well over 200,000 years as evidenced in the archaeological record. Its usage in funerary contexts, self-ornamentation, staining on jewelry and weaponry, medicinally and as a paint for creating images on stone has played a significant role in human evolution.

Massingale will touch on ancient uses of ochre throughout time and discuss the use of other mineral and organic pigments used in the incredible pictographs and artifacts of the Southwest.

Massingale is recording a ceramics collection at the Edge of the Cedars Museum in Blanding, Utah. In the process of researching mortar and pestle use in pigment preparation, she has become fascinated with red ochre and our predecessors’ deep interactions with it throughout the history of man.

See sjbas.org for more information.