Humans have always been captivated by the night sky, incorporating the stars and planets they see into their beliefs and mythologies, and using them to measure time and important dates as evidenced in solar calendars, rock art, and traditions.

This summer, the Verde Valley Archaeology Center and Museum hosted a Community Conversation event presented by the Arizona Commission on the Arts in July and participated for our third year at the annual Pecos Conference near Blanding, Utah in August.   

In February 2024, the Verde Valley Archaeology Center and Museum welcomed John Rose, PhD, RPA, as VVAC’s Archaeologist following his retirement from Prescott National Forest.

The Verde Valley Archaeology Center and Museum’s Native American Heritage Garden is a vital community resource dedicated to research, learning, and stewardship.

The Verde Valley Archaeology Center and Museum showed their ongoing support for the Arizona Site Steward Program and hosted the social networking event for the 2025 SSP Statewide Conference this April in Camp Verde. 

The Verde Valley Archaeology Center and Museum’s newest exhibit, Indigenous Arts, is a comprehensive inter-tribal exhibit that highlights the talents of Native American artists both past and present, and from the American Southwest and beyond. 

The Verde Valley Archaeology Center and Museum welcomes Archaeologist Margaret Hangan as our new Director of Collections.

Throughout 2024, the Verde Valley Archaeology Center and Museum has pushed the boundaries of the physical museum space by inviting institutional collaborations, conducting research projects, and hosting engaging programming all while furthering our mission of preservation, conservation, and education. 

The Verde Valley Archaeology Center and Museum has launched a Virtual Educational Field Trip program designed to share the archaeology, culture and, history of Native Americans and the Southwest to students across the globe, starting with the fourth graders of one elementary school in Pennsylvania. 

The Verde Valley Archaeology Center’s Native American Heritage Garden has been transformed into a living laboratory and a place of collaboration, education and research, most recently through our corn study analysis and supply of agave pods to Desert Botanical Garden. 

The annual Pecos Conference brings together students, professional and avocational archaeologists alike, providing a community environment to share novel research and network with others in the field. The conference is unique for its outdoors setting, which takes place every August under Southwestern skies. 

The Verde Valley Archaeology Center and Museum’s Director of Archaeology, Kathryn Turney, provides the museum with a wealth of knowledge regarding archaeology, Indigenous Peoples Law, and Cultural Resource Management.

The Verde Valley Archaeology Center and Museum is involved in a comprehensive Smithsonian research project on the paleogenomics of agave with Desert Botanical Garden and the National Autonomous University of Mexico. 

The Verde Valley Archaeology Center and Museum’s volunteer archaeological survey crew performs important field research and data collection in partnership with Prescott National Forest, making discoveries that further the knowledge of the United States Forest Service and the archaeological community in the region. 

The Verde Valley Archaeology Center and Museum celebrated Arizona Archaeology and Heritage Awareness Month throughout March with a variety of programs and events that highlighted the local history, archaeology, and cultures of the Verde Valley region. 

The Verde Valley Archaeology Center hosted a lecture with Karen Armstrong who participated in the first excavation of the Dyck Cliff Dwelling in 1962.

The Verde Valley Archaeology Center and Museum would not be functioning without the dedicated efforts of our many volunteers.

The Verde Valley Archaeology Center and Museum has had an eventful year full of exhibits, programs, lectures, and events and looks forward to continuing this success for years to come through contributions to VVAC's end-of-year giving.

This November, the Verde Valley Archaeology Center is celebrating and reflecting on the idea of harvest, especially in the ways it ties into both our museum and our Native American Heritage Garden. 

The Verde Valley Archaeology Center & Museum has collaborated with Grand Canyon National Park to bring to life the exhibit One Canyon: Three Worlds - Inside the Grand Canyon National Park Collections.