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Show archaeologists (Olpsei HBigjjGjjiinigjjs BLANDING - A team of twelve archaeologists from the antiquities section of the Utah State Historical Society arrived in Blanding, Utah, on - Monday, April 9, to begin archaeological excavations expected to take two to three years to complete. TEN TO twelve sites in the White Mesa area of San Juan County, five miles south of Blanding, will be excavated during the first year to salvage sal-vage data and artifacts that will be destroyed by planned construction, said project director, Dr. Laurel Casjens. Energy Fuels Nuclear, Inc., a uranium ore processing ; company based in Denver, is planning construction of a large uranium ore reduction plant south of Blanding. To store the radioactive waste (tailings) from the plant, the company will construct several tailing cells near the plant. This construction will destroy 20 to 30 known archaeological sites. OVER 115 separate Indian sites have been identified in the White Mesa area, but plans for the Energy Fuels Nuclear, Inc., plant will affect only about 30 of them. In compliance with federal regulations, the company is financing the archaeological excavations and research at White Mesa to preserve whatever what-ever resources can be salvaged sal-vaged before construction on the tailing cells proceeds. "Since each of these archaeological sites will be completely destroyed by the construction, only the raw data we collect and the interpretations in-terpretations we make will be available for future researchers," Casjens noted. In most excavations where construction will not destroy the site, an attempt is made to preserve portions of the site for more accurate future research. "IN THE most general terms, the purpose of the excavation ex-cavation and research is to reconstruct the behavior of the prehistoric White Mesa inhabitants how they used their surroundings, why they came to White Mesa, how and why the culture changed through time, and why they ultimately abandoned the area," said Casjens. "The uniqueness of the White Mesa project lies in the fact that we will excavate a large number of sites in a limited, homogenous area, rather than just a singlet isolated site," said Dr. David,' B. Madsen, state archaeologist. He also noted that this is the largest project ever undertaken by the antiquities an-tiquities section of the State Historical Society. THE RESEARCH team will test fifteen specific hypotheses about the White Mesa inhabitants thought to live in the area from 1450 to 600 years ago. The archaeologists will collect data da-ta and artifacts during summer fieldwork at White Mesa, and during the winter months will perform laboratory labora-tory tests and prepare reports at the Historical Society offices of-fices in Salt Lake City. Work at the sites will include preliminary set-up and survey operations for the first few weeks. Casjens projected that it would be several weeks before significant sig-nificant data and artifacts will be uncovered. CASJENS RECENTLY received her PhD in anthropology from Harvard University and has previously worked on archaeological projects in Utah and Nevada with the University of Utah, The Peabody Museum, and San Jose State University. Several of the archaeologists working on the White Mesa project will also carry out special interest research projects in the area. These projects widen the scope and interest of the archaeological research and allow for even greater practical prac-tical applications of the data collected. ALAN SPENCER, staff archaeologist for the Utah State Historical Society, will conduct a 6.5 square-mile intensive in-tensive survey of the White Mesa area for the purposes of a land exchange between the Bureau of Land Management and Energy Fuels Nuclear, Inc. Asa Nielson, staff archaeologist for the Utah State Historical Society, will study large private collections collec-tions of ceramics in the White Mesa area to establish ceramic typologies in the region over time. Greg Seward, staff archaeologist, will study current and ancient Native American techniques for firing ceramics, with the intent of assisting in the preservation of certain ancient an-cient ceramics. CURRENT AND ancient agricultural techniques of Native Americans in the White Mesa area will be studied by LaMar Lindsay, staff archaeologist. Lindsay's study will include growing experimental corn crops under controlled conditions and preparation of assistance information for subsistence farmers in the area. |