The public is invited to the next meeting of the San Juan Basin Archaeological Society at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Center of Southwest Studies at Fort Lewis College. There will be a social before the presentation at 6:30 p.m.
Connie Massingale will present a talk about creating color in the prehistoric art of the Southwest, including pigment procurement, processing and application in the pictographs and artifacts of Utah and beyond.
Red ochre, also known as hematite, has been revered for more than 200,000 years as found in the archaeological record. Its usage in funerary contexts, self-ornamentation, staining on jewelry and weaponry, and as a paint for creating images on stone has played a significant role in human evolution.
Massingale will touch on the uses of ochre through time and discuss the use of other mineral and organic pigments used in the incredible pictographs and artifacts of the Southwest.
Massingale is currently recording an extensive ceramics collection at the Edge of the Cedars Museum in Blanding, Utah.
For more information, visit www.sjbas.org.
