State museum to host mock woolly mammoth hunt

The museum created a special one-day exhibit on Mata Ortiz pottery, prehistoric art from Chihuahua, Mexico that has undergone a popular revival among the artisans of the region, said Richard Lange, chairman of the museum's open house committee.

Some of the potters will be demonstrating their technique at the museum's March 20 open house, he said.

Where It's At The Arizona State Museum is located on the University of Arizona campus at 1013 E. University Blvd., just east of the main gate at North Park Avenue and East University Boulevard. The museum open house is from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, March 20.

The museum will open its doors to the public on the last Saturday of spring break and allow visitors to view archaeological collections and laboratories.

"People can see a lot more of the collections," Lange said. "Hopefully they'll get answers to questions that have been mystifying and bugging them forever."

Aside from the pottery display, craft demonstrations will be held on the museum's front lawn. The exhibitions will explain how Arizona's prehistoric people made their tools.

A Tucson flintknapper will make arrowheads out of flint and obsidian, and Apache basketmakers will demonstrate their traditional techniques, Lange said.

The most popular event for children, he said, will be the woolly mammoth hunt.

Museum workers have hammered together a reasonable approximation of the shaggy prehistoric beast out of plywood. Archaeologists will show children how to stalk and shoot the "mammoth" with an atlatl, an ancient spear-thrower.

The Arizona State Museum has been sponsoring an open house every year since 1970, said Darlene Lizarraga, administrative assistant for the museum's development and marketing office.