What is the importance of a site survey—aerial and ground?
Surveys are very important to archaeologists. They are a systematic way to find and identify sites. Most surveys are done on the ground, but sometimes aerial surveys can identify sites not seen in a ground survey.

In the Southwest where I work, we start every project by doing a thorough ground survey. Usually, several archaeologists walk over the survey area in a set pattern so that we don't miss any artifacts or evidence of buildings. We draw maps of what we see on the ground surface, assign site numbers, and record information on forms so we can enter the data into the computer. Sometimes we collect artifacts from the site. Pottery, for example, helps us date a site to a particular time period. From the survey maps we make, we learn how buildings are arranged on the landscape, how big a site might be, and how long it might have been lived in.

In an aerial survey, we take pictures from a small airplane. The photographs give us a view of a much larger ground area than we could cover on foot. From the photograph, we can identify possible locations of sites, and sometimes we can even pick out prehistoric roads.

What is the importance of research of background information like books and local stories?
This kind of research is also very important. Most of the archaeologists here at Crow Canyon have their M.A. or Ph.D. This means that they went to school for six, eight, or sometimes 10 years to become an archaeologist. Most of this time was spent learning about the area that they are interested in and reading a lot of background information. They also publish books and articles in archaeology journals to keep others up-to-date on what we are learning at Crow Canyon. You can see some of our reports at www.crowcanyon.org/Research/publications.asp.

Before an archaeologist at Crow Canyon begins a new excavation project, he or she will write a research design that includes a list of questions they hope to answer. To come up with the questions, the archaeologist will collect and read everything that has been written about the area of interest. They will find background information in archaeology books and reports, various professional journals, and any published local stories. Then the archaeologist can develop new questions so that we can learn more about the ancient Pueblo people who lived here centuries ago.

At Crow Canyon, we are interested in stories from early settlers and their families, as well as from the Pueblo people that live in New Mexico and Arizona today. Their stories add information that archaeologists would never learn from working at a particular site. In our Web report on Castle Rock Pueblo, you will find a chapter on oral history relating to Castle Rock Pueblo and another chapter written by a modern Pueblo Indian.

What is the importance of site artists-conservators?
Conservation is an essential part of archaeology. We need to make sure everything we find will be available for people to study in the future. So we take great care to protect the artifacts we find, from the time they come out of the ground until they are stored in a museum after we complete our studies. At Crow Canyon, we use cameras to record everything we find, and we make detailed maps of our excavations. All the maps, photographs, and other paper records are stored with the artifacts so that the complete project information can be found and used by other archaeologists in the future.

The archaeology staff at Mesa Verde National Park (which is just down the road from Crow Canyon) works hard to protect the hundreds of archaeological sites in the park. After several recent fires, the special skills of conservators were needed to determine if rock art damaged by fire could be repaired. Conservators also recommend how to preserve plastered walls and the designs painted on them so that they will be available for future study. There's also a team that draws the individual rocks that make up a wall. These drawings are used to guide the repair of walls that are in danger of collapsing, and they can be used in the future to study how the ancient Pueblo people built their houses.

What is the importance of evidence from coins, jewels, pottery, bones, etc.?
More than you think! We can get learn a lot from these items. Here in the Southwest, pottery is one of the most important types of artifacts. The designs on painted pottery changed over time. Archaeologists have been able to define the time period in which a particular design style was probably painted by examining the pottery from sites that have been dated by tree-ring analysis. So archaeologists can now estimate when a site was occupied by studying the pottery found there.

Coins can help date sites, but we didn't have coins in this area until the Spanish arrived in the 1550s. The ancient Pueblo people did not have precious jewels like diamonds or rubies, but they did make jewelry using turquosie, shells, animal bones, and pieces of colored rocks. We have learned that ancient trading networks were extensive. Some shells came from the Pacific Ocean; most of the tuquoise was mined in New Mexico.Bones give us information about the people, like how old they lived to be, what kind of food they ate, and what diseases they had. Out of respect for the ancient and modern Pueblo people, though, Crow Canyon does not excavate human remains.

These questions were answered by Sean Steele, Archaeology Educator.    •  Top of page

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