The New Mexico Archaeology Fair is a production of the Historic Preservation Division, Department of Cultural Affairs, that is realized in concert with a local co-sponsor in a different town each year. The purpose of the Fair is to connect anyone with an interest in the past, however recent, with scientists and specialists who study and preserve that past. Our emphasis is on fun, but it is fun in the context of education and preservation.

Most of the exhibitors at the Archaeology Fair are professional archaeologists from all over New Mexico and represent private firms and tribal, state, and federal agencies. Other exhibitors volunteer their time as demonstrators in such diverse activities as making arrowheads from stone, spinning dog hair into yarn with ancient technology, dyeing yarn with dyes made from plants and sometimes squashed insects, chopping trees with stone axes, and throwing spears using an atlatl spear-thrower. Still other volunteers are avocational archaeologists or just people interested in helping visitors enjoy one aspect or another of the Fair.

Now 10 years old, the New Mexico Archaeology Fair has been produced in parks, vacant lots, and shopping malls over the past decade in Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Las Cruces, Bloomfield, Carlsbad, Silver City, and Tucumcari. The Fair steadily attracts about 1,000 visitors over a day-and-a-half thanks to color posters (courtesy of PNM), official proclamations by Governor Richardson and local dignitaries, and enthusiastic promotion through local TV, radio, and print media. Communities often use the momentum of the Fair as a springboard for renewed interest in local history and prehistory, such as oral history projects and "County/Community Days."

The "Tiptoe through Time Reading Adventure," conceived as an adjunct to the Archaeology Fair, invites readers of all ages to read a book about the past and write a letter about it to the New Mexico State Archaeologist. Certificates of Achievement, signed by the New Mexico State Historic Preservation Officer and the State Archaeologist, are given to Reading Adventure participants.

Anyone with an interest in participating in the New Mexico Archaeology Fair, or in sponsoring the Fair in a particular community, is encouraged to contact:

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