Archaeologist Dick Ryan will present “Ice Age Arizona: Plants, Animals and People” on Wednesday, March 11, at 4 p.m. at the Verde Valley Archaeology Center and Museum.
This talk will discuss Arizona during the most recent glacial period, which occurred roughly 12,000 to 16,000 years ago.
Ryan will break down this significant time period in three parts. First, he will present what the physical environment of Arizona looked like during the Ice Age from the vegetation, weather, to climate and how that differs from today. The second part will look at a sample of the Rancholabrean megafauna that roamed the state, like the Columbian mammoth.
“If you can picture the Serengeti of Africa — large gregarious herds of grazing animals followed by bunches of big cats — that’s exactly what we had here,” Ryan said.
He will then give a brief overview of the Paleoindian period, the human population in
Arizona and mammoth hunting from about 15,000 to 8,000 BCE. He will delve into three of the six mammoth kill sites located in Arizona all of which are in Cochise County.
Ryan became especially interested in the Ice Age because of how rare evidence from that time period is. During his 10 years working as an active archaeologist, he encountered several hundred projectile points, but only two were from this glacial period.
“Known human occupation in the Verde Valley is estimated to be roughly 15,000 years,” VVAC’s Executive Director Monica Buckle said. “We often talk about prehistoric and historic archeology, but what better than to talk about Ice Age archeology, geology and history to put into perspective just how long humans have occupied this region of Arizona — and why to this day, it’s still an ideal place to live.”
Ryan was a field archaeologist in the American Southwest for 10 years. He received a masters in archaeology from Northern Arizona University in 1983, at age 39. As an archaeologist, he worked for Desert Research Institute, the Museum of Northern Arizona, multiple contract archaeology companies and was a government archaeologist with Prescott National Forest in 1987 and 1988.
Ryan’s main area of interest is the Ice Age mammoth hunters of the Paleoindian period. Ryan has published in The Journal of the Southwest, The Nevada Archaeologist, Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology, and Current Research in the Pleistocene. More recently, he has become one of the major promoters of Mata Ortiz pottery in the U.S., while maintaining an active interest in archaeology.
“Dick Ryan is esteemed by archaeologists here in the American Southwest not only in archaeology, but also as an advisor of Mata Ortiz pottery,” Buckle said.
Following the talk, join VVAC for a complimentary reception with hors d’oeuvres, wine, and non-alcoholic beverages. This talk is free and open to the public. Seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis.
The museum is located at 460 W. Finnie Flat Road in Camp Verde. For more information, visit verdevalleyarchaeology.org.
