Archaeologist talks on colonial missions at ASU
Dr. Ruben Mendoza continues to win accolades for his work on missions in California and the Southwest.
An archaeologist and founding faculty member at CSU Monterey Bay, Dr. Mendoza has been invited to do a weeklong residency at Arizona State University in June. He will deliver two presentations as part of a program on research and digital preservation of colonial missions. His topics: “Canticle of the Sun: Archaeoastronomy and Solar Eucharistic Workshop in the Millennial New World,” and “The Cross and the Blade: Discovery of the Serra Chapel and the Archaeology of the Royal Presidio of Monterey.”
At the invitation of ASU’s Hispanic Research Center, he will meet with scholars with an eye to future collaboration. “This dovetails nicely with the work I am presently doing with the UNESCO World Heritage List scholars and the National Park Service in Texas, and my role as an advisory board member for the Monastery of San Jeronimo de la Murtra in Spain . . . where King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella first met Christopher Columbus upon his return from his charter voyage to the New World,” Dr. Mendoza said.
With a colleague, he has organized a symposium for the 2014 meeting of the Society for American Archaeology in Austin, Texas. The title: “Feast, Famine or Fighting: Multiple Pathways to Complexity.”
Read about a National Endowment for the Humanities grant Dr. Mendoza and two of his students secured for summer workshops for teachers on the missions and presidios of California.