This past week, we continued to wrap up our preliminary analysis, illustration, and coding activities that have resulted from the 2004 excavations of Terrace 335. At the same time, Linda and I prepared for one presentation that basically closed our week and another that lies ahead on the first of July. Throughout the last ten days, we have spent a great deal of time on various trips shuttling between our living quarters in Mitla and Matatlán, the town where El Palmillo (or 'Ta Guil rein' in the local Zapotec language) is situated. Early in the week, we met in Matatlán with the National Institute of Anthropology and History's Oaxaca state coordinator for community museums along with the committee representatives from Matatlán who are charged with getting the Museum off the ground. In these meetings, we began to select pieces from our six years of excavation at El Palmillo to use in the short-term showing planned for this weekend. These selected pieces are to be exhibited for the first time for the community over this weekend in the Municipal complex of Santiago Matatlán. On Friday, we returned to Matatlán to place the actual pieces in four glass vitrines that were borrowed from the state's major museum in Oaxaca City.

In between these trips, Linda and I worked on polishing the spoken talk and selecting/preparing Powerpoint images for the presentation that we were invited to give as part of this event in the Auditorium of Matatlán on Saturday night. Meanwhile, our collaborators from Matatlán were renting chairs for the event, arranging for the preparation of 550 tamales to be served, and arranging for a truck to pick up museum display cases from Oaxaca. In Oaxaca, Museum coordinator, Cuauhtémoc Camerena, was preparing an invitation and publicity, as well as working with Linda and I to make sure that his projector was compatible with our computer.

On Saturday, the event (to be culminated by the opening of the exhibition) was to begin at six PM. Linda and I were asked to arrive a bit after to four to make sure that everything was ready. Nevertheless, despite all the preparations, things looked a bit grim when six o'clock rolled by. There was no food in sight, and only about 30 people were in the auditorium audience. More serious, were the logistical issues posed by the auditorium, which doubles as a basketball court. The sun was shining through windows at the top of the building, making it impossible for the audience to see the images that we hoped to project on a makeshift screen, a sheet hung from the wall. The organizers opted to delay the start of the presentation. Yet as we waited for the sun to set, people continued to filter in (community meetings and events tend not to begin on time in Mexico). After the delay, a series of lengthy introductions that did not require slides, and Cuauhtémoc's presentation, I began our talk after 7:30 PM with enough darkness to show the slides and well over 200 people in the auditorium seats. In fact, in the rapidly darkening room, a small flashlight was brought to me on the podium so I was able to see my prepared Spanish text.

Our presentation was warmly received and was followed by a handful of thoughtful questions and supportive comments from the audience. Following the auditorium presentations, the crowds assembled outside the room (part of the Municipal complex) down the street where the pieces were to be exhibited. They patiently waited through a wonderful ribbon cutting ceremony that preceded the opening of the doors, during which 8 of the people instrumental in making this event possible were asked to cut a small piece of the ribbon. I felt honored to be passed the scissors to make the final cut.

When the doors opened, all the people who were in the auditorium entered in turn. For more than a hour after the initial rush, the crowds continued to stop and pass by the cases, viewing the pieces and a series of posters that we prepared for the walls. In total, well more than 300 people participated and more were able to view the pieces today (Sunday). The tamales (in two varieties, bean and herb) along with atole (a traditional drink of corn meal) were served outside the room where the pieces were mounted. By the time the town police detail closed the exhibition room doors well after 11 PM, just about all of the food was consumed.

I am sure that Linda and I will fondly remember this event for a long time, and it certainly was a marked change from the kinds of solitary studies and tasks that are so much part of the archaeological process. Today, we return to these other kinds of endeavors, for example, preparing images for our presentation at the forthcoming 4th Round Table of Monte Albán, a conference hosted by the Oaxaca Center of the National Institute of Anthropology and History, next week in Oaxaca City. There, we will have a chance to hear papers, swap stories, and compare recent findings with colleagues from the United States and Mexico. After several days at the conference, we will start the road trip back to Chicago. This will then be our last dispatch in this series and for this season. As in the past, I once again very much enjoyed the opportunity to bring all of you along to share the wonders, past and present, which make Oaxaca such a special place.