OCR Text |
Show Archeological Work Underway On BLM Ground in This Area Monticello Bureau of Land Management District Dis-trict Manager, Frank C. Shields has announced that there are several universities engaged in various archaeological operations on public lands within San Juan County at the present time. Brigham Young University Uni-versity resumed field work in Montezuma Canyon Can-yon this spring. Presently Present-ly under contract with the Bureau of Land Management, Man-agement, BYU plans to continue a general survey sur-vey of the low er portions of the canyon. Project Directors, Ray Matheny and Dale Berge state, "From archaeological archae-ological reconnaissance alone, a considerable amount about the ancient inhabitants can be discovered. dis-covered. We may be able to understand such problems prob-lems as subsistence patterns, pat-terns, population grow th, and distribution, and settlement set-tlement size and complexity. com-plexity. Explanantions of prehistoric culture change may emerge from the field work and relationships re-lationships to adjacent areas, such as Mesa Verde and Kayenta, or even Chaco Canyon may be demonstrated from the survey. In addition, more information may be derived which will help explain the abandonment of the Four Corners area about A.D. 1300." Besides a survey, information in-formation will be gained from those sites under threat of erosion and vandalism. In addition to BYU, the University of Utah arch-eaological arch-eaological team is currently cur-rently salvaging information infor-mation from those sites within the right-of-way route of highway U-95 presently under construction. con-struction. Also, the Museum of Northern Arizona is resuming re-suming work on Cedar Mesa. Richard Fike, BLM Archaeologist in Monti-cello, Monti-cello, points out that antiquities an-tiquities permits issued to the above institutions and others as well contain con-tain the clause that all artifacts are the property proper-ty of the BLM. Therefore, There-fore, in the future, these same artifacts can be made available for re search, interpretation and display in the same area from whence they came. |