On Saturday, Jan. 24 at 7 p.m., Jack Ives, CU-Boulder鈥檚 2014-2015 Department of Anthropology Distinguished Lecturer in Archaeology, will discuss his groundbreaking discoveries in a presentation听titled 鈥淭he Ninth Clan鈥擡xploring Apachean Origins in the Promontory Caves, Utah.鈥澨�
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Ives is the Landrex Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at the University of Alberta, and has traced the migration of ancient sub-arctic Canadian peoples all the way to the Southwestern United States, shedding new light on the origins of Navajo and Apache peoples. The event is free and open to the public, and will be hosted in Room 270 of the Hale Sciences Building.
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His unique findings center primarily on the Promontory Caves just outside Salt Lake City. There, he discovered thousands of well-preserved artifacts highly indicative of the presence of Navajo and Apache ancestors in the United States dating back to before well-known sites like Colorado鈥檚 Mesa Verde and New Mexico鈥檚 Chaco Canyon were abandoned, around the 13th century.
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These findings add credence to early Navajo oral traditions, previously assumed to be tall tales, which state that their ancestors interacted with the ancient inhabitants of these sites.
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The Promontory Caves in Utah were discovered in the 1930s, but Ives鈥� renewal of the excavations and study of the caves, beginning in 2011, shed light on fascinating aspects not considered significant by earlier excavators.
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